Counseling at The Boston Conservatory
At the Boston Conservatory, Counseling Services are available to help you achieve a greater sense of wellness through counseling, education, and connection with community resources. The Director of Counseling is there to support students as they define goals, develop strategies for change, realize a greater understanding of self and others, and expand personal potential. The counselor is also available to assist students who may be experiencing distress and seek to receive support and treatment. Any concern a student has is regarded as important and treated with respect.

Counseling services are sensitive to issues of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, physical capacities, and learning differences.

Services are free to all Boston Conservatory students.

• Services Offered
• Confidentiality
• Emergency Policy
• Mental Health Screenings
• Mental Health Services at Fenway Community Health Center
• To Speak with the Counselor
• To Refer a Student
• Office Location and Hours

Services Offered:

• Individual Counseling is an opportunity for students to meet one-on-one with a counselor to discuss any personal concerns. Students work with the counselor to determine the appropriate number of sessions. In certain cases a referral will be made to Fenway Community Health Center or an appropriate community provider.
• Referrals are available for students seeking off-campus care, specialized treatment, or community supports and resources.
• Education Materials on a wide variety of mental health and personal growth topics are available free of charge to students. Books, pamphlets, and self-help tools are often used by students to get more information about an issue they or someone in their life is challenged by.

Confidentiality
A counseling relationship requires an atmosphere of trust and confidence between student and counselor. All counseling sessions will be kept confidential. Under ordinary circumstances, no information about you will be revealed to any person or agency without your written consent. However, if a student is judged to be a danger to self and/or others, we reserve the right to inform parents, next-of-kin, emergency providers, or appropriate college personnel. A detailed notice of privacy practices and other limits to confidentiality is available at the counseling center.

Emergency Policy
Any student who needs immediate emergency assistance should contact teh Deaprtment of Public Safety at (617) 912-9111. The counselor will be available for crisis intervention and assessment whenever possible.

Mental Health Screenings are available throughout the year, either in individual consultation with the Director of Counseling or online at www.mentalhealthscreening.org/screening (keyword: BostonConservatory). Students may be screened for anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, or alcohol abuse. Following your screening, you will be given recommendations for follow-up and information on where to seek further diagnostic evaluation or treatment, if necessary.

Mental Health Services at Fenway Community Health Center
Students at The Boston Conservatory may also receive mental health, addiction and psychopharmacology (medication) services at Fenway Community Health. You can work with the counselor to set up an intake appointment, or call the center directly at 617-927-6202 or 617-927-6204.

If the counselor is unavailable, emergency psychological services are available at local hospital emergency rooms, such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center , or by calling the Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) at 1-800-981-HELP. If you are already a patient of Fenway Community Health Mental Health and Addictions Services, and you are experiencing a non-life-threatening psychiatric emergency, you may call their after-hours emergency line at (617) 927-6100 (select 1 and ask the on-call physician to be paged).

To Speak with the Counselor
You may schedule an appointment to meet with the counselor by calling (617) 912-9160. If you reach voice mail, please leave a message. The counselor will respond promptly. You can also stop by the office in thelower level of 26 The Fenway or send an email (mduarte@bostonconservatory.edu) to request an appointment. Please be advised that email is not a secure form of communication and should not be used to discuss a confidential or urgent concern. If you need an immediate response and the counselor is unavailable, please contact appropriate residence life staff, student affairs personnel, or public safety officer.

Feel free to stop by at any time to ask questions, get information, or determine if the counselor is available to meet with you at that time. If the counselor is not available to meet, every effort will be made to schedule an appointment as soon as possible. Appointments for counseling may also be scheduled through the Wellness Coordinator.

Tips on Making Referrals

• Reassurance helps. It can be helpful for students to know that you have had a positive experience in previously referring students to the Counseling Center . Please call if you would like to have a personal introduction to our services.
• Make the contact. If the student agrees, telephone for an appointment in the student's presence.
• Confidentiality. Please remember to assure the student that our services are strictly confidential. Without the student's written consent, the law prohibits us from even saying we have seen a person, including you.
• Offer to Come Along. It is sometimes reassuring to a student to have someone they know and trust come with them for their first meeting. Sometimes this also helps to insure that the first contact takes place. Typically faculty or friends leave shortly after introducing the student, or after the first several minutes of the meeting.

Office Location
Lower Level, 26 The Fenway
Phone: (617) 912-9160
Email: MDuarte@bostonconservatory.edu

Office Hours will be posted outside the office in the lower level of 26 The Fenway.