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Mental Health Counseling

When your studies become a burden – the Mental Health Counseling Service of the University of Potsdam can help you.

Students can sometimes lose their mental equilibrium, too: pressure in Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs is increasing through frequent tests and exams, funding your studies independently can become more and more burdensome due to the limited time resources, and job prospects are often lacking.

That is why the Mental Health Counseling Service was created at the University of Potsdam. Here, you will find somebody to talk to about your concerns relating to your university studies, such as:

  • work- and learning difficulties,
  • motivation problems,
  • exam anxiety and fear of public speaking,
  • writer’s block,
  • or social anxiety

but also in case of difficulties and worries that have a more indirect effect on your performance and contentment in your studies, such as:

  • relationship problems,
  • conflicts in partnerships or with the family,
  • problems with your self-worth,
  • personal crises,
  • or various addiction problems (media, substances, gambling, etc.).

You can make appointments for counseling sessions via e-mail (psychologische-beratunguni-potsdamde) or telephone during the drop-in office hours.

You can find further helpful information as well as contact and advice offers in our Knowledge Base: Get Ready for Digital Studying.

Above all, the drop-in office hours are an opportunity to address your issues in a short conversation. After that, we can decide on the next steps to be taken together. As demand for counseling is often high, please allow for some waiting time in your schedule.

Individual counseling sessions (up to 45 minutes) will be arranged with you via e-mail or during the drop-in office hours and will be scheduled to take place outside drop-in office hours. In our initial first session, we will try to decide together how things will proceed. Further counseling appointments can follow or we might help you find a therapist or a suitable group to help you. Counseling is confidential and free of charge.

For urgent crises and emergencies, we would like to point out the existing contacts for crisis management (e.g. Berliner Krisendienst), the respective social-psychiatric services or the emergency departments of the local psychiatric hospitals.

Please note that during our drop-in office hours per telephone, we can only be reached via telephone and have to limit each individual session to a maximum of 20 minutes. Since we cannot put you on hold, please make sure to call several times if the line is busy. During our drop-in office hours in-peron, please note that we cannot be reached via telephone. Please take a seat in the waiting area. The consultations have a maximum duration of 20 minutes.

Drop-in Office Hours until March 31, 2023 (no appointment necessary)

Drop-in Office Hours from April 1, 2023 (no appointment necessary)

Hotline for First-Semester Students

If you feel uncomfortable after taking your first steps as a university student, if you feel overwhelmed by the online semester, if you feel homesick or if studying alone at home is a burden, we are always ready to listen.

Drop-in Office Hours (no appointment necessary)
Monday2 - 3 PMBirgit Klöhn
Phone: +49 331 977-1830

Mental Health Counseling for International Students

Studying abroad can be both a rewarding experience and an enormous challenge. Dealing with a new culture and everyday life in Germany without the support of your social network at home can, in some cases, lead to adjustment difficulties. Psychological and physical symptoms are often the result. If you feel overwhelmed, anxious, depressed or irritable, if you suffer from physical pain or insomnia our Mental Health Counseling Service might be able to help you.

You can make appointments via e-mail (psychologische-beratunguni-potsdamde) or in person during our drop-in office hours for international students. In one or more conversations, we will try to identify problems and find possible solutions. Counseling is confidential and free of charge and is available in German and English.

Drop-in Office Hours until March 31, 2023

Drop-in Office Hours from April 1, 2023

The Feely GroUP – a room to share

Who’s it for: You are an English speaking international student and find yourself in one or more of the following thoughts and feelings: “I feel overwhelmed, stressed, scared and/or lost”, “Who are these people around me and what do they want from me?”, “I wonder if there are others with feelings like mine…”

What to expect: An open, respectful and safe group environment with a maximum of 8 members that allows each one to explore ones inner and outer cognitions and feelings that concern being an international student at the UP with all that can bring (negative and positive).

Why would I want to join?: You will get the opportunity to meet other people with similar (or very different) experiences that are open to share their perceptions within a warm and safe surrounding. Meanwhile you can learn how to give and receive feedback on an emotional level, which is very rare in our always so functional and rational professional world.

You will be accompanied by the trained psychological counsellor Wega Herbstreit to allow a structured and yet open room for expression.

When: March 15; March 29, 2023 (Wednesdays) | 09:30 - 11:30 a.m. at the psychological counseling center at Neues Palais, Building 8 (room 0.83).
Future dates: April 12, 2023 | 09:00 - 10:45 a.m.; May 10 & May 24, 2023 |  09:30 to 11:30 a.m.

How to join: please contact Wega Herbstreit via E-Mail to schedule a short pre-appointment to check if this setting suits you or if you might need something else.

Contact

Psychologist M.A. Wega Herbstreit | Dipl.-Psych. Birgit Klöhn | Dipl. Psych. Tatjana Brand

Universität Potsdam | Central Student Advisory Service | Mental Health Counseling

 

Campus | Am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
House 08, Rooms 0.82-0.84
14469 Potsdam


Substance abuse counseling from the Workers Welfare Federal Association (AWO) at the University of Potsdam

The counseling takes place under the sole responsibility of the Workers Welfare Federal Association (AWO)!

Do you want to help a fellow student or roommate with consumption problems? Or do you need support yourself? Then come to our office hours!

Information about the counseling

Consultation hours after registration
Friday
(every last one of the month)
9 - 12 AMRoom 0.83

Tel.: +49 331-73040740
E-Mail: suchtberatungsstelleawo-potsdamde
Only after registration via E-Mail!