The Staff Counselling Centre

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 many 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.

Staff Counselling Centre provides 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.

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 workers on assignment through the Temporary Employment Service or Cambridge Casual Worker System (CCWS) and staff from Cambridge University Press and Assessment are not eligible to use this service.  Please see our Other Sources of Support page for details of services available outside the University. 

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.

If your college is not listed you may access our service directly, without going through your College, and you will pay for the sessions yourself, at a cost of £75 per session. 

We can accept referrals from Human Resources and Occupational Health, pleas click here for more information.

How can counselling help?

Counselling provides the opportunity to talk about whatever is troubling you in a confidential and non-judgmental setting. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your situation and you will be supported in managing any difficult or painful feelings that you are experiencing. It can be helpful to talk with someone not directly involved in your situation, and to be able to think about this from a new perspective. You might identify areas in which you would like to make changes, or be supported in developing new ways of responding and reacting to the difficulties that you are experiencing.

You can refer yourself online in confidence here: Online registration form