Student Counselling
Medicine Hat College offers its students free confidential one-on-one appointments with professional counsellors. There are both in-person and remote (telephone/video) appointments available. See below to learn more.
Appointments
As an MHC student, you are eligible for up to six counselling sessions per semester. Each session is 50 minutes long and are located in the counselling office, located on the second floor of Centre Core.
Booking your first appointment?
If you have not seen an MHC counsellor before, please schedule an initial screening appointment by visiting or calling the advising desk at 403.529.3819 or contacting counselling@mhc.ab.ca.
The initial screening appointment will be a 45-minute session and will determine your individual support needs.
Already have an MHC counsellor?
Students who have seen an MHC counsellor before can book an appointment by contacting their counsellor directly
If you are unable to attend a scheduled session for any reason, please advise Student Services at 403.529.3819 or directly contact your counsellor as this will enable another student to schedule an appointment. There is also a voice mail system where you may leave a confidential message. If you fail to inform student services or your counsellor before a missed session that you will be unable to attend, it will be classed as one of your six allocated sessions.
Drop-in counselling sessions are offered on Walk-In Wednesdays from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Sessions are first come first served.
- The last available booking is 4 p.m. and appointments are taken over the lunch hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Depending on the nature of the difficulties addressed the potential benefits of counselling include:
- Facilitating coping and wellness
- Changes in problematic behaviour
- Removal or reduction of symptoms
- Problem resolution
- Improvements in confidence, self- esteem or overall mood
- Improvements in ability to perform academically
- Positive change in personal relationships
It is important to note that counselling is meant to be a helpful experience but this cannot be guaranteed – either with regard to the process itself or the eventual outcome. It is not uncommon for clients to experience an increase in symptoms or emotional discomfort prior to any potential improvement or to realize that there are other concerns to be addressed.
No one will know that you are attending counselling unless you choose to tell others. For example, if a relative called to enquire or an Instructor wanted to find out if you were attending sessions we would not disclose that information. Unfortunately we are not able to control for other students you may meet whilst in the waiting room! There are however, some limits to our confidentiality where we may have to break confidentiality. These include:
- Serious harm to self (suicide) or others Threat to campus security (Violence threat risk assessment)
- Abuse or neglect to a child under the age of 17
- Subpoena by court If you have questions regarding these potential breaks of confidentiality, please inform your counsellor.
Counselling offers no magical solutions to the concerns you bring with you. Clients may find that as they begin to work on their problem, things can get worse before they get better. To a great extent, the progress you make in counselling depends on your genuine, honest and active participation in the process. There are several things you can do to help make the counselling process work for you:
- Keep all scheduled appointments. If you can’t attend and don’t let your counsellor know 24 hrs prior it will count as one of your allocated 6 sessions.
- Be honest and open about the issues you present in sessions and be willing to explore the role you play in a given problematic situation.
- Since you are responsible for most of the work, be thoughtful between sessions about issues explored and try out new ideas and strategies.
- Follow through on homework
- Be willing to consider replacing current, unhelpful ways of doing things with more positive, new and uncertain ones.
- This is your process, if something isn’t working for you let your counsellor know – feedback any concerns you may have.