Center FAQ

Any undergraduate or graduate/law/medical student who is currently enrolled at the University of Miami and has paid the Health Center and Counseling Center fee is eligible for a brief assessment at the Counseling Center. During the assessment students meet with a therapist to discuss current concerns, gather information about the student’s history and review recommendations for treatment. The recommended treatment may include individual or group therapy at the Counseling Center or a referral to off campus providers.

The Counseling Center generally offers limited short-term counseling. If you need or prefer long-term or weekly counseling, then an off-campus counselor may be a better fit for you. The Counseling Center does not offer long-term, intensive, or specialized treatment generally required for substance abuse, eating disorders, or severe emotional difficulties.

The Counseling Center maintains an online referral database, which you can search here. You can contact the Counseling Center for a list of counselors and/or psychiatrists in the Coral Gables and Miami areas. You can also contact your insurance to identify providers on your plan by calling the phone number or accessing the website listed on the back of your insurance card. 

Other resources where you can find names of local counselors include advertising databases such as the Psychology Today Therapist Finder or professional associations of counselors, such as Florida Psychological Association, Florida Mental Health Counselors Association, or National Association of Social Workers.

Please refer to How To Make An Appointment.

We provide limited short-term counseling. Students generally attend counseling appointments every 2-3 weeks during the academic year.

There is no fee to be seen for individual or group counseling for currently enrolled students. 

Psychiatric visits are billed to your UM Student Health insurance. If you do not have the UM Student Health Insurance, the fees are $135 for the initial psychiatric evaluation and $110 for follow-up psychiatry visits.

Counseling and psychiatry services are offered virtually and in-person at the Coral Gables Campus. Limited counseling services are available for Medical and Graduate Medical students at the medical campus. Please click here for more information about medical campus services. The Counseling Center is located in the Long and Smith Student Services Building on the Gables Campus.

The Counseling Center offers couples counseling if both partners are currently enrolled UM students. Both students will need to complete an individual initial session before they can be seen for couples counseling.

Please call us to find out about your options.

The Counseling Center only serves currently enrolled UM students who are seeking counseling voluntarily. We do not offer mandated or required counseling and cannot provide documentation to substantiate that you attended counseling. If you are required to be in counseling by an outside entity, we can help you find an off-campus counselor who can help you.

The Counseling Center does not offer psychoeducational testing to determine disability or accommodations.  For assistance with academic accommodations and referrals for diagnostic testing, please contact the Camner Center for Academic Resources.

People seek counseling for a variety of reasons. In general, you should consider coming in for a brief assessment if you’re having difficulty that is interfering with school, work, important relationships, or personal functioning, or if you have been feeling distressed and you’re not able to feel better by doing the things that typically help you.

When you arrive at the Counseling Center for a brief assessment, you will be asked to complete personal information forms on an iPad. You will then be greeted by  a therapist, who will bring you back to their office. You will meet with the therapist for approximately 25 minutes and will discuss the main concern that brings you in to the Counseling Center. The therapist will make a recommendation for a next step in treatment that addresses your needs.

Although we believe that counseling can be most helpful if you communicate freely with your counselor, we respect students’ rights to keep information private. A counselor will not force you to discuss any topics that you would prefer not to discuss.

The Counseling Center does not disclose any information about your participation in our services unless you provide us with written permission. UM faculty and staff outside of the Counseling Center do not have access to your Counseling Center record. Our staff is legally and ethically required to keep confidential what you shared with them, including the fact that you were seen here. The only exceptions to confidentiality involve threats to life or safety or possible harm to a vulnerable person (e.g., a child, an elderly adult, an adult with a developmental disability).

If you are 18 years old or older, your Counseling Center record is confidential. That means that, unless there is a life-or-death emergency, we are not able to share anything in your record with your parents without your written permission. 

If you are under 18, your parents or guardians have rights to see your record, but we can discuss with you what we will share with them and what we will keep private. 

For students who are covered through the UM student health insurance plan, psychiatry appointments with a Counseling Center psychiatrist DO appear on the insurance’s Explanation of Benefits (EOB) claim detail. Counseling appointments do not appear on any EOBs.

The purpose of the Counseling Center is to serve the mental health needs of the students. What you share with your counselor at UM is confidential. Exceptions to confidentiality mainly involve threats to life or safety or possible harm to a vulnerable person (e.g., a child, an elderly adult, an adult with a developmental disability).

Please refer to Emergency Services for further information.

What constitutes a crisis will vary for each individual; however, in a crisis, individuals usually experience acute distress that is impairing their ability to function. Examples of a mental health crisis include thinking of ending your life or hurting someone else, being a recent victim of a physical or sexual assault, distress over the recent death of a loved one, or experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event.

Possibly. In some cases, we recommend a course of therapy in addition to taking medication. If you are primarily interested in a psychiatric evaluation, we recommend that you come in for a brief assessment (these can be scheduled 1-2 days in advance, or you can walk in Monday-Friday between 9 a.m.-4 p.m.). The therapist conducting the brief assessment can advise whether the Counseling Center or an off-campus psychiatrist would be a better fit for your needs.

Psychiatrists at the Counseling Center do not prescribe stimulant medication. To find off campus psychiatric providers, you can call us, search our online referral database, or contact your insurance company for names of providers in your plan.

Medication decisions are made based on several criteria, including particular symptoms you are experiencing, other medications you are taking, medical problems you may have, and even information on how your family members have responded to medications. Your psychiatrist will discuss medication options with you and answer any questions you may have.

Response to medication is highly individualized. All medication should be monitored by a medical provider and stopped only under their direction.

The first-line treatment for anxiety is psychotherapy. Under certain circumstances, psychiatrists at the Counseling Center may prescribe short-term courses of anxiolytic medication. The Counseling Center does not prescribe benzodiazepines on an ongoing basis.

You can encourage your friend to come to the Counseling Center and you may offer to accompany them to their appointment, to ease any discomfort that they may feel. In addition, we are happy to talk to students who would like to help their friends and offer suggestions to assist with your specific concern. 

You can also make an online report via Canes Care for Canes and a UM administrator will reach out to the student of concern. Reports may be made anonymously.

You can call the Director of the Counseling Center, Dr. René Monteagudo, at 305-284-5511 during office hours. We are always happy to listen to your concerns and to provide you with general information. If your child is over 18 years old, however, your child must sign a release of information in order for us to discuss information specific to his or her care. As a matter of policy, we do not send email responses about students.

Your child’s development of independence is more likely to foster positive college adjustment. However, if the student would like to allow the parent to join a session, most therapists will abide by the student’s wishes.

For students who reside on campus, you can contact the resident coordinator of your child’s residential college. The resident coordinator can check on your child’s current welfare. 

In case you believe the situation is serious to the point of endangering your child’s safety, you should contact the Dean of Students Office. You can also request that the University of Miami Police Department (305-284-6666) conduct a wellness check on the student. 

It is always advisable to consider following up with a visit to your child to see for yourself how they are doing and to facilitate help.

No, counseling is confidential except in unusual circumstances involving imminent danger to life or disclosures required by law. Other university officials ordinarily have no information about what goes on in counseling or who visits the Counseling Center.

We are generally able to see students every 2-3 weeks for a limited number of individual therapy sessions. Therapy groups meet weekly and unlimited attendance is available to students. We are happy to provide referrals for off-campus practitioners who offer more extensive or specialized care.

Possibly. In some cases, we recommend a course of therapy in addition to taking medication. Students interested in a psychiatric evaluation or to continue with psychiatric care at the Counseling Center can attend a brief assessment (scheduled 1-2 days in advance or by walking in Monday-Friday between 9am-4pm) to find out about their options.

Every student is unique; however, looking forward to visits during the long first semester away from home may help some students cope with feelings of homesickness. Some good opportunities for visits include Family Weekend and Fall Break.

You can have prior treatment records or a treatment summary mailed to the Director of the Counseling Center, René Monteagudo, Ph.D., Long and Smith Student Services Building 1307 Stanford Drive, Suite 305, Coral Gables, FL 33146, so that we have that information when your child arrives at the Counseling Center.

Yes, for any session beyond initial crisis counseling, we will need a parent or guardian’s written authorization. We have forms for that purpose which we can give to your child.