Students often overlook the counseling center at California Baptist Uni-versity. However, there are many benefits to utilizing CBU’s counseling center.
The counseling center is located on Adams Street on the southwest corner of Lancer Plaza, in the same building as the Wellness Center. The center is free for CBU students and staff. It is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
To make an appointment to meet with a therapist, students can go to calbaptist.edu/counseling and click “Request an Appointment,” or they can call the Counseling Center at 951-689-1120.
The Counseling Center’s website also offers online screenings for alcohol abuse, depression, bipolar disorder, eating concerns, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder by clicking “Self Assessment.”
Cianna R. Holloway, in her last year of the graduate program in counseling psychology and a marriage and family therapy trainee, said the benefits of counseling on campus are helping students be open to the idea of counseling with a variety of situations.
The Counseling Center is fully staffed with interns and trainees and is under the supervision of licensed therapists. All trainees are CBU students.
One student, a junior psychology major, was encouraged by her resident assistant her freshman year to pursue counseling at the center. She went for five to six months and found it helpful.
“Sometimes it’s nice to be able to tell someone that’s a stranger everything … It’s really good to just look forward to that hour a week, that 50 minute session, where you just get to get everything off your chest,” she said.
Holloway said the things stud-ents can talk to a counselor about are not limited, and there is always noticeable improvement through counseling.
Holloway said often students are worried about judgment, but she said that no counselor is there to judge, rather always willing to help.
Offerman said the great thing about counseling on campus is that “it goes further than you.” CBU students or staff can let their immediate family use their counseling sessions and refer friends so they can get counseling for a low cost.
“Maybe they just want to go in to talk about school,” Offerman said. “You don’t always have to be struggling to want to talk to someone or want to seek out advice.”
