Conflicts, Worries, Addictions and Social Issues

Conflicts can arise for many reasons in everyday working or study life, ranging from team misunderstandings to structural tensions. This page provides details of contact persons and support services to help you deal with stressful situations at an early stage.

We, the confidants of the University of Potsdam, offer our support to members of all status groups – whether students, staff and/or lecturers – in university-related conflict situations.

The aim is to provide an internal university authority that can be consulted at a low threshold. You have the opportunity to talk about your problem in a calm and friendly atmosphere and to reflect on the stressful situation together with the confidant and develop possible solutions. In addition, the confidants can provide information for further steps and, if necessary, refer you to other counselling services.

Potential conflict scenarios include:

• You feel down or burdened by worries.
• You have been feeling uncomfortable in your team for some time.
• You are experiencing a conflict you would like to speak about with a neutral person.

The commitment of the confidants is voluntary and honorary. The confidants are regularly trained and further qualified in their counselling skills.

The University of Potsdam takes responsibility for its employees. We support them in avoiding addiction and offer specific counselling services for those with existing addiction problems. As trained addiction counsellors, we are your point of contact at the University of Potsdam for all matters relating to the prevention of addiction in the workplace, supporting those with addiction issues, and dealing with addictive behaviour.

How we help:

We are available for acute and preventive concerns, regardless of location!

In a calm and friendly atmosphere, you can talk to us about your concerns. Together, we will reflect on your stressful situation and develop possible solutions.

We understand that dealing with such issues is often not easy, but we can provide information about further steps and refer you to other counselling services if necessary.

Our goal is to foster an environment that prioritises health and well-being.

We are happy to advise you, so please get in touch. As addiction counsellors, we are your contact persons for addiction and social issues (KASUS). A confidential conversation can take place in person, via Zoom or by telephone, by appointment only. You can contact one of us directly by telephone or email. Alternatively, you can contact us about any addiction or social issue using the contact form. One of us will get back to you as soon as possible.

Participants involved in University Sports have the right to seek advice if they experience a situation that they consider to be unfair, unpleasant or disrespectful. To enable us at University Sports to respond quickly and potentially defuse the situation, please provide us with information about the incident.

When studying becomes a burden, the University of Potsdam's psychological counselling service can help.

Students can sometimes lose their emotional balance: the pressure of bachelor's and master's degree programmes is increasing due to frequent performance assessments; financing your studies independently can be stressful due to limited time; and career prospects can be lacking.

That's why the Psychological Counselling Service for students at the University of Potsdam exists.

It's worth a call.
Your student listening service in Potsdam. No matter what it is, you can call us. You remain anonymous. You can reach us during term time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 9 p.m. to midnight on 0331 977 1834 or via chat. Your concern, whether big or small, is worth a call or a chat.
The listeners at Nightline Potsdam work according to these principles to make the conversation as pleasant as possible for you: Anonymous. Voluntary. Confidential. Independent. Non-judgmental. Non-advisory.