What to Expect

Counseling Services now offers the choice of meeting in-person or over our HIPAA-compliant Zoom platform. When you schedule your appointment, please let us know which you'd prefer! Masks are required for in-person meetings.

Read about the different Services we offer.

Information about Teletherapy

Counseling Services offers counseling and crisis management via telephone or encrypted Zoom video, as well as in-person appointments. Here's what you need to know:

General information about teletherapy

• Teletherapy refers to counseling conducted via telephone or video.
• Initial appointments, called triage appointments, will generally last 20-30 minutes. During this meeting, you and the triage counselor will come up with a plan based on your needs.
• Prior to the triage appointment, you will need to fill out a brief demographic survey. If you are not living in Pasadena, California, then this survey will ask you some mandatory required questions to ensure adequate emergency coverage, including:
  • The name and phone number of your emergency contact;
  • The name, address, and phone number of the closest hospital with an emergency room; and
  • The telephone number (not 911) of the closest police or sheriff's department.
  • Please have this mandatory information available prior to your appointment.
• If you are located outside of the state of California, your triage clinician will talk with you about finding providers local to you.

Video appointments

• Counseling Services has an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant license for Zoom that adds additional security features. You will need to sign into Zoom using the "Sign in with SSO" option. Please reference the instructions if you are having trouble signing in.
• If you schedule a Zoom video appointment, your clinician will send you the link to join the meeting via a secure message through the Student Health Portal. The link will be generated and sent the same day of the appointment, usually a few minutes prior to the meeting.
• Once a video appointment is in place, your clinician will initiate Zoom video promptly at the time of your appointment. It is important that you are available at the agreed-upon time. If you do not join the meeting within 10 minutes of the agreed-upon start time, you will have missed the appointment and will need to contact the front desk at (626) 395-8331 to schedule another one.
• Please ensure that at the time of your appointment, you are someplace where you can talk privately.

Telephone appointments

• If your phone is set up to automatically reject calls from unknown or blocked telephone numbers, please temporarily disable this setting.
• Phone calls may come from an on-campus number, and in some situations, a blocked or unknown number. Please answer the call anyway, even if you do not immediately recognize the number.
• If you do not answer the phone, your clinician will try to call you again in 5 minutes, and then once more 5 minutes after that. If you do not answer any of those calls, you will have missed the appointment and will need to contact the front desk at (626) 395-8331 to schedule another one.
• Please ensure that your voicemail is not full, and is able to receive new messages.
• If the call is accidentally disconnected, your therapist will initiate the callback.
• Please ensure that at the time of your appointment, you are someplace where you can talk privately.

In-person appointments

• We are able to meet with students in person. All students and clinicians are required to wear masks at all times inside the Wellness Services building.
• If you are feeling unwell, please contact us by phone or secure message to reschedule your appointment.

Confidentiality

All of the clinicians at the counseling center are licensed professionals. We abide by California laws that protect client confidentiality, and we recognize that you need to feel confident that your information and treatment is treated with privacy and respect. Confidentiality applies to both in-person therapy and teletherapy. You can find more information about this and answers to other common questions in the FAQs.