What is the Staff Counselling Centre?

The University Staff Counselling Centre is a part of the University of Cambridge and provides short-term counselling to staff working at the university. 

Counselling consists of an initial consultation followed by a short wait and then eight to ten weekly sessions.

You can apply for counselling for support with a wide range of issues and difficulties including loss and bereavement, anxiety, depression and low mood, traumatic experience, relationship difficulties or difficulties in the work place, and may other issues not listed here.

NB: The University Staff Counselling Centre is not a crisis service. Please see information on Emergency Contacts for whom to contact in an emergency if you have immediate concerns about your wellbeing or mental health.

Who is the Staff Counselling Centre for?

We welcome referrals from all staff with a university contract.

Our counsellors are professionally qualified and experienced, and all of them have been trained in working in a culturally competent way.

The Centre offers equal access to counselling irrespective of difference; this includes but is not limited to age, job grade, colour, race, ethnicity, sex, sexuality, gender, religion, systems of belief, disability, background and the particular issue that each client brings.

We are committed to ensure that we maintain awareness of how specific issues might affect an individual’s mental health. Because each individual is unique, any number of people with “the same difference “will not necessarily experience it in the same way. We therefore approach each client with humility and openness and are interested to learn about your unique experience.

Who is eligible?

The Staff Counselling Centre is available free of charge to all staff who hold a University contract of employment: academic, academic-related, assistant, research and technical.

We regret that temporary workers on assignment through the Temporary Employment Service are not eligible to use this service.

Regrettably, staff at institutions such as UCLES, Cambridge Assessment & CUP cannot be seen for counselling, as these are separate employers.

College staff who are employed by the Colleges but who are not University employees may use the Staff Counselling Centre will need to obtain a referral from their HR advisor in order to apply for counselling.

How can counselling help?

Counselling provides the opportunity to talk about whatever is troubling you in a confidential and non-judgmental setting with a professional counsellor. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your situation and consider choices open to you, as well as have support in managing difficult and painful feelings that arise. It can help to disentangle your difficulties, and to be able to understand them from a new perspective. It might be helpful to identify possible areas for change, where change would be helpful and is possible. Counselling can help you to identify ways of coping with your difficulties and enable you to feel more empowered in the situation you are facing.

You can refer yourself online in confidence via our secure pre-counselling referral form. You will need your Raven password to use this facility.