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Student Psychological and Counselling Services

We're dedicated to helping UCL students with personal, emotional and psychological concerns. Our service is free to undergraduate and postgraduate students registered at UCL.

Our service is intended to provide free short-term counselling, single session therapy, psychiatric support and group workshops to help you manage a range of personal, emotional and psychological concerns. We are unable to provide support for long-term conditions or in the event of a crisis situation. We aim to support as many students as we can and, as such, this means that you will only be able to access the service once in an academic year to allow for others to be able to access SPCS support.

Waiting times for counselling

As we are in the final term of the 2021-22 academic year and approaching the summer, we are now offering Single Sessions Therapy to all of those in the final stages of their studies. This is to ensure that support can be offered to as many students who are in this category as possible before they finish their time at UCL. Click here for more information on Single Session Therapy.

Our waiting time for an initial appointment after registering is two to three weeks. This can sometimes rise in times of high demand. If we feel you are at higher risk, you will be prioritised.

All students are triaged within 24 hours of registering with SPCS. During triaging, if we feel you may be at higher risk, we will contact you by phone, email and/or text.

Accessing counselling

Types of support provided by Student Psychological Services

We offer a range of free support options, including counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychiatric consultation and group workshops.

After you've registered

Understand our service

Find out more about our process, including registration, consultation, ongoing sessions and waiting times. 

Re-scheduling and late arrivals

Rescheduling your appointment

It's important that you attend all your sessions. If you can't make your appointment find out how to re-schedule. 

Self-help and other resources

Find out more about self-help resources

Borrow one of our self-help books free of charge or find out which organisations offer external support. 

Contact us

Contact Student Psychological Services

Find out how to get in touch with us if you need to ask a question or provide us with feedback. 

Crisis support

Talking with a counsellor

Before talking to a counsellor you may have some questions. This is a general guide of things to consider when talking to us. 

Give us your feedback

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We want to hear from you and how you've found our service. Please fill in the short feedback form to help us ensure we're providing the best possible service.

SPCS privacy notice

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Find out more about how SPCS processes your personal data.

Contact Student Support and Wellbeing

Follow Student Support and Wellbeing

Meet the team

Find out more about who we are and what we do. 

Crisis support

Student Support and Wellbeing does not offer emergency support.

If you're in immediate danger of hurting yourself or others:

If you're feeling distressed and need urgent support:

  • Contact your GP surgery to request an emergency appointment
  • If your GP surgery isn't open, call the free NHS out-of-hours medical line on 111 for help accessing the right services
  • You can call the Samaritans on 116 123 to talk to someone at any time, day or night
  • Nightline are a listening service for students, by students - they're available overnight via live web chat 6pm - 2am

Important links