COUNSELING CENTER POLICIES AND CLIENT BEHAVIOR

In an effort to better serve the Lee University community and make explicit operating policies of the Counseling Center that directly relate to client behavior, we have provided the following:

• Only currently enrolled, Lee University students are eligible to receive services.
   
• Counselors and support staff of the Counseling Center are discouraged from using email to communicate with clients. Email is not a secure form of communication and can be easily read by a variety of individuals. Therefore, for your protection, please do not use email to communicate with Counseling Center staff regarding personal matters or scheduling. Also, please note that Counseling Center staff may not respond to email communication from clients because of the potential risk to confidentiality previously mentioned:
• For scheduling, please contact Sheila Russell by phone at 614-8415.
• For any other matter, please discuss your concerns with a counselor in person during your next scheduled appointment.
• In case of an emergency, you may call or come by the Counseling Center during regular business hours (M-F 8-12 and 1-5; closed T/Th 10:30-11:30 for chapel) or call 9-1-1.
   
• Counselors who teach classes are not to have the same person as both a counseling client and a student in class simultaneously. If you wish to take a class taught by your current counselor, you must transfer to a different counselor or discontinue counseling during that semester. Please take this policy into account when planning course schedules as taking a different class may be a more appropriate option than transferring counselors for some clients.
   
• Counselors are encouraged to refuse gifts from clients. If you wish to express appreciation to your counselor, please do so verbally, as this will be highly appreciated and valued by your counselor. Material gifts such as CDs, jewelry, books, etc. will most likely not be accepted due to the potential for exploitation of the client.
   
• Counselors and clients should seek to minimize external (outside of session) contact as much as possible. While all contact outside of therapy is virtually impossible in a campus environment, contact should be minimized when possible so as to establish and maintain appropriate/healthy boundaries for both parties, support confidentiality, protect against exploitive dual relationships, and create the most effective atmosphere possible in therapy.
   
• Counselors are discouraged from providing letters to professors, financial aid officers, or other university administrators that contain requests for accommodations, statements of therapeutic progress, possible reasons for academic or social difficulties, or any form of conjecture on the part of the counselor. Instead, a letter listing dates of treatment will be provided upon request and written authorization to release such information. Letters will contain factual data only and not the opinion(s) of the counselor.
   
• Psychiatric consultations are available to those clients who are actively engaged in ongoing counseling at the Counseling Center. Clients must make and keep their counseling appointments in order to avoid losing access to or having an existing appointment cancelled with the contract psychiatric provider(s). Clients must also abide by the provisions of the psychiatric services agreement.
   
• Clients missing three (3) scheduled appointments in any one semester and for any reason without contacting the office to cancel prior to the appointment will no longer be eligible to receive on-campus counseling services for the remainder of that semester. Clients may request assistance with securing an off-campus referral.
   
• Clients missing an appointment without contacting the office to cancel prior to the appointment will not be permitted to reschedule within a week (5 business days) of the missed appointment.