The University of St Andrews provides Wellbeing, Counselling and Mental Health appointments for its undergraduate and postgraduate students. These can be single or ongoing appointments to support students manage their mental health difficulties.

Wellbeing & Coaching

The Wellbeing team also has qualified coaches to help and support students. Our Wellbeing & Coaching team comprises of eight practitioners. Aileen, Katherine, Cindy and Sarah are Wellbeing Advisers & Coaches. Meha, along with Sarah, are Postgraduate Advisers. Lorraine, John and Rosanne are Wellbeing Advisers.

Coaching

Coaches work collaboratively with you to help with personal development, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles. They offer support and accountability by helping you identify your strengths and what’s important to you in order to empower change. If any students are motivated for change, the coaches are here to help you get there!

Wellbeing

The Wellbeing Advisers can help students if they need advice about their wellbeing, work or study. They use positive psychology tools to help students overcome and manage their difficulties. Students don’t have to have a mental health concern to meet with the Wellbeing Advisers, they are here to help.

Counselling

Our Counselling Team comprises of ten counsellors. They are all trained in different types of counselling including cognitive behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy & pluralistic counselling. 

The counselling team works to support student wellbeing and mental health in both one-to-one and group workshop formats. Our counsellors offer both one-at-a-time therapy sessions or a collaboratively agreed period of ongoing work, whether to support students in overcoming challenges impacting on studies or student life. They also support students with managing mental health difficulties or dealing with challenging experiences such as loss or periods of transition. Many counsellors also facilitate groups in the areas of anxiety management, low mood and perfectionism.

Mental Health Team

The Mental Health team comprises six staff members from a variety of professional backgrounds including a mental health nurse, occupational therapists, cognitive behavioural therapists and trainee cognitive behavioural therapists.

The team are responsible for supporting students experiencing a variety of long-standing mental health difficulties. They help to manage complex risk factors and provide some interventions and strategies that are effective in improving mental health. An important part of the work they do is to liaise with outside services, such as the NHS. They provide motivational support to help you fulfil your potential at St Andrews.

Some students struggle to reach out for support from their mental health. We offer appointments in many different formats, such as email, IM, phone and video. Due to the ongoing COVID restrictions, we are unable to do in-person appointments but are working on re-introducing them in the coming months.