Services Offered
The Student Counseling Services team can help address problems such as adjustment and acculturative stress, depression, anxiety, identity issues, and relationship issues that interfere with living and working productively. We can also help with issues specific to the demands and expectations that go along with graduate student life, such as dissertation and thesis writing difficulties.
Our counselors seek to understand each person’s unique circumstances and needs, taking into account individual and cultural differences.
Make an appointment to speak to a counselor and determine which services will best suit your needs.
Explore our Services
- Individual and Couples Counseling
- Group Counseling and Academic Support Groups
- Individual Academic Consultations
- Workshops and Supportive Spaces, including virtual workshops on COVID-19-related issues
- Referrals

Individual Counseling
Typically 10-12 sessions of short-term counseling. Sessions are 45-50 minutes long.
Individual counseling (sometimes called “psychotherapy” or “therapy”) is a process through which you work with a counselor in a non-judgmental, supportive, and confidential environment to explore your feelings, beliefs, and behaviors, to work through challenging or influential memories, to create and work towards personal goals, to learn to engage with others in a more fulfilling way, etc.
Graduate student life is rife with changes, new challenges and stressors. Our counselors integrate various interventions derived from psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, family systems, and multicultural orientations of therapy.
Couples Counseling
*We have temporarily suspended couples counseling while operating remotely, but please contact us if you would like assistance locating a couples counseling referral in your area*
Typically 10-12 sessions of short-term couples counseling. Sessions are 50-60 minutes long.
Your partner does not have to be a student at The Graduate Center in order for you to request couples counseling here. Many couples experience difficulties in communication about a range of issues. The stresses and responsibilities of graduate school can sometimes trigger or exacerbate tensions in a relationship. Our counselors integrate various interventions derived from interpersonal, emotion focused, cognitive behavioral, family systems, Gottman method, gestalt, and multicultural couples therapy.
Individual Academic Consultations
Typically 3-4 sessions, focused on academic issues.
We offer academic consultation, which provides graduate students the opportunity to explore and determine what may be getting in the way of their academic work. Examples of issues commonly brought to academic consultation include procrastination; time management; balancing academic and life responsibilities; writer’s block; dissertation and thesis issues; and difficulties with advisers and/or cohort and committee members.
Virtual Self-Help Resources
Mental Well-Being Video Series
We encourage students to explore our Mental Well-Being Video Series for virtual workshops on a variety of mental health topics. "Self Care for Graduate Students" is a great place to start, as Eva Jo Meyers, M.A shares self-care themes, insights, and coping strategies. Watch here or click below to see the other videos in this series.
Browse mental health videosReferrals
We help our students with referrals to outside clinicians and agencies who may be able to address and treat issues that are beyond the scope of our center (e.g., medication management, long-term challenges or chronic mental illness, substance abuse, eating disorders, PTSD). We have an extensive network of vetted local providers that we update on a regular basis.
You can also check our list of local mental health centers if you would rather seek out help on your own. The majority of these centers accept the NYSHIP (Beacon Health Options) insurance.
Please note that you must present your student I.D. with a validation sticker for the current semester in order to be eligible for services.
If you are ineligible for our services (e.g., temporary students, visiting scholars, non-degree/non-matriculated students, faculty and staff who are not students, and students registered at other CUNY campuses), please visit our Resources page or our Crisis/Emergency Information which may assist you.