Services
Eligibility
All students enrolled at ONU, full-time and part-time, are eligible for counseling services; wives and husbands of ONU students are eligible for counseling services if the problem is related to the martial relationship. There is no fee for our service.
Personal Counseling
The counseling staff provides a non-judgmental atmosphere of compassion and concern, where problems of any type can be examined and discussed. Here is a list of concerns students often discuss in personal counseling:
- Not feeling connected to other students
- Experiencing anxiety in the classroom and/or before tests
- Feeling unmotivated
- Inability to stay focused
- Decline in academic performance
- Feeling unusually sad
- Experiencing insomnia or excessive sleeping
- Loss of appetite or compulsive eating
- Loss of pleasure in life
- Feelings of unworthiness
- Feeling tired much of the time
- Feeling lonely
- Feeling inadequate
- Loss of friendships
- Anger outbursts and/or irritability
- Personal and/or academic problems related to drugs and alcohol
- Conflicts in romantic relationships
- Coping with illness or death of someone close
- Break-up in a relationship
- Homesickness
Online Screening for Mental Health
The Counseling Center participates in an online screening program developed and coordinated by Screening for Mental Health, Inc. Screening is available for depression, anxiety, alcohol, and eating disorders. This anonymous screening is free and available to every Ohio Northern student. Immediately after completing each screening test, the student will receive a printable report to take to a professional in either the Counseling Center or Student Health Services for further evaluation. A screening test is not a substitute for an evaluation by a professional at the Counseling Center,but it can help a student identify whether or not he or she might want to seek further assistance. Use the keyword ONUNIVERSITY.Career Counseling
Some students have difficulties choosing a college major or deciding on a career direction. Other students may have already chosen a major but are not as sure of their choice as they once were. Still others find that they are struggling academically in their major and decide that they need to choose another.Confidentiality
Counseling requires mutual trust and freedom to discuss sensitive issues without worry. For the vast majority of clients no exceptions to confidentiality are made. Counseling records are kept separate from academic, disciplinary and medical records to ensure privacy of confidentiality. Exceptions to confidentiality include when students give written permission to disclose specific information, when students are assessed to be a danger to themselves or others, when records are subpoenaed or when reporting (for example, abuse or neglect of a minor) is required by law. Even in these cases, students would be informed if possible and no more information than is necessary would be released.