NC State added embedded counselors to all of its schools last year. This means that each college now has a counselor whose only job is to help students in their own program. Embedded tutors are still working to help students do well today.
The program’s goal is to make therapy easier to get to, especially for students who have trouble making appointments at the counseling center. To fix this, psychologists who are embedded are often on the same floor as a department, making it easy for students in that college to get in touch with them.
The program works well because people are used to seeing Laura Castro, who is in charge of therapy services at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Castro said, “They see our faces and know who we are. We try to go to a lot of the programs so that they feel comfortable approaching us.”
Embedded counselors have drop-in hours when students can talk to them without making an appointment. During the 2023–2024 school year, embedded counselors gave kids over 700 hours of drop-in time.
Jason Katte, who is the assistant head of embedded counseling, said that because they work in colleges, embedded counselors have different skills than general counselors.
“The unique things about the embedded counselors are linked to the unique things about the school with which they are connected,” Katte said. A counselor who is embedded in a program does a lot to lower the stigma around mental health and wellness knowledge by making it easier for people to get. …
The college staff and teachers can work closely with the embedded counselor to help them figure out the best ways to deal with mental health issues that come up in the course of their jobs.
NC State first put embedded counselors in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Athletics department. Last year, they were added to all of the schools. Since then, 581 students across NC State have met with embedded psychologists for appointments.
Castro said that the experiences of each embedded guide are different at each college.
Cruz said, “We all have our own culture.” “So I know what’s going on at my college and what kinds of people are coming here for help. I know what their specific needs are.”
Katte said that worries about mental health don’t change from college to college, but how they are presented and the number of students who are affected do.
She said, “It can really go both ways if there are a lot of students and not many.” “Having only a few students can make you feel more at ease reaching out, and the other way around can also work.” Now that there are fewer students, it seems like there is more attention on you.
Embedded counselors are hard to find, so sometimes one counselor is sent to more than one college, no matter how big the college is. Katte said that embedded counselors work hard to help as many kids as they can, no matter how many there are.
“Once a clinician has enough cases, they don’t add more students regularly,” Katte said. “But the outreach services, like the presentations and the “Let’s Talk” meetings, help them stay in touch with the students.” That’s why it’s so hard to meet all the needs of all the kids while also providing a safe space for them and seeing them regularly for therapy.
The number of embedded counselors has grown from eight to eleven since Katte began in October 2023. Katte said that the program will add three more jobs within the next year because mentors are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. Last year, embedded counselors spent more than 1,220 hours reaching out to kids on top of their regular caseloads.
Katte said that he thinks having counselors in schools is a good way to connect with kids.
“After something like [COVID-19], where everyone felt so alone and isolated, it seems like… one of the best ways to connect with students and help them feel seen again, because that distance was so isolating and made a lot of people feel more disconnected and in some cases, unable to communicate in the way they used to,” Katte said.
Castro said she thinks that therapy that is built in will keep growing.
Cruz said, “I believe that providing services that are more personalized and geared toward specific groups is a great way to meet the needs of students and help them get more from their counseling services.”