Brief Therapy

During your initial assessment, you and the therapist will work together to determine what treatment is the best fit for you. Often, this will include brief therapy.

CAPS offers brief individual therapy to students seeking support for issues that are relatively well defined and which can be adequately addressed or resolved in a brief time frame. CAPS does not maintain a specific session limit, nor are brief individual therapy sessions guaranteed to students. An assignment to brief individual therapy is made through clinical judgment of students’ needs during the initial assessment.

When the focus of concern is a relationship issue or decision and both partners are motivated to address this, couples therapy may be an efficient way to proceed.  CAPS can provide brief or time-limited couples therapy for issues that might reasonably be resolved in a short period of time. Referrals to community and campus resources for couples therapy can also be made by the CAPS providers. Couples counseling may be requested when both persons are eligible for care at CAPS. 

Referrals for open-ended therapy can offer longer-term and more specialized services. Referrals may be provided after the initial session, or as it is indicated after that. Referral Coordination Services are available to students who would like support connecting with community providers. If you already know you would like a community referral, or have been provided with referrals and have some questions, please see Referrals FAQ’s.  

Finding a Good Fit

The success of therapy is strongly related to the strength of the relationship you develop with your therapist. Factors that determine fit include personality, theoretical approach, and style of therapy.

Questions to ask yourself after speaking with a potential therapist include: Do I feel comfortable working with this person? Do I feel like they are able to understand me (or at least are working to understand me)? Do I believe they can be helpful to me?

We want all of our students at Carolina to be satisfied with the services provided at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). If your provider is not a good fit, please speak with your provider about exploring other options.

If communicating with your provider is too difficult, please contact Melissa Saunders (Assistant Director for Clinical Services) to discuss further. A transfer to another provider at CAPS or a community referral can be made at any time.