Center for Counseling and Psychological Well-being at Beaconhouse National University aims to provide students with services that can help them gain and maintain mental well-being. It also aims to facilitate students in managing stressors that may interfere with their academic progress and performance.

Students who seek our services might present with a wide variety of personal, social, and educational concerns. It is the center’s goal to assist such students in identifying problems, developing alternatives, and making decisions, either by using the services offered at the center or those provided by other professionals off campus.

All students who wish to seek an appointment for counseling are required to put in a request via email. They will have to fill in the Pre Counseling Form (available at the website) and attach it along with their request for appointment. 

The counselor is available from 09:30am - 12:00 pm and 01:30 - 03:30pm (Monday - Friday).

• Aims and Objectives

  The aims of Center for Counseling and Psychological Well-Being are:

  • To help students understand and use their individual capacities better
  • To suggest strategies that can enhance personal, academic, and social growth of students
  • To enhance problem solving and decision making capabilities of students
  • To make students more resilient so they can proactively face various life challenges proficiently

   

• Why Counseling might be suggested to a student?

  Here are some of the common instances when counseling might be recommended to a student:

  • Traumatic changes in personal relationships:
    - death of a family member or friend
    - divorce or separation in the family etc
  
  
  • Significant changes in mood or behavior:
    - withdrawal from others
    - antisocial activity (e.g., lying, stealing)
    - frequent spells of unexplained crying
    - frequent outbursts of anger
    - unusual agitation
  
  
  • Thoughts or behaviors about self harm
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Psychosomatic complaints and concerns:
    - tension headaches
    - loss of appetite or excessive eating
    - insomnia or excessive sleeping
    - chronic stomach distress
  
  
  • Alcohol and drug abuse
  • Concern about academics:
    - contemplating dropping out of university
    - worrying about possible academic failure, exam anxiety, time management
    - Adjustment problems

  
  

   

  The center does not deal with issues related to career advising. For Career Advising, students can visit Student Affairs Office.

   

• Access to the Services

  The BNU Center for Counseling and Psychological Well-being is easily accessible for the students. Teacher may also make a referral if he/she feels the student needs help. The center is open from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday, and is handled by experienced clinical psychologists. The service is available for all the students and staff at BNU.

  We remain close on Saturday, Sunday & Public holidays.

• Will I have to pay for the counseling sessions?

  There is no fee for counseling services. If you are referred off campus to a health care professional, you are responsible for fee charges.

• How do I make an appointment?

  The counselor is available from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM on all week days except Tuesday. All students who wish to seek an appointment for counseling are required to put in a request via email. You will have to fill in the Pre Counseling Form (available at the website) and attach it along with your request for appointment. You will receive an email as a response and will be informed regarding your appointment. 
  
  Please note that the Pre Counseling form will be filled by the faculty/department if students is referred by academic staff. 

  Download pre-counseling form

• Will confidentiality be maintained?

  Counseling sessions at the Center are confidential, and information about those sessions is not released except upon the student’s written request. However, the counselor will be obligated to report to the relevant authorities if she feels that
  
  1. The student may harm himself or
  2. The student may harm someone else

  Please note that in case of referral by the teacher/department, some information might be shared with the department after discussing with the student. Written permission to release information will also be taken from the student.

• What would be the duration of the counseling session?

  A session typically lasts between 30-45 minutes, but there are times when shorter or longer sessions are arranged depending on the nature of the concern. Number and frequency of sessions will be decided after assessing nature of the presented problem.

• Staff at Center for Counseling and Psychological Well-Being

  Dr. Ruhi Khalid
  Director, Center for Counseling and Psychological Well-Being
  
  Kinza Qaiser
  Student Counselor 
  E-mail: campuscounselor@bnu.edu.pk
  Office Ext: 713
  Room No: 202, Sirtaj Aziz Block