Counseling Center strengthens impact with more staff, restructure
The six-year dedication of $4.5 million in January 2023 for mental health services had nearly immediate effects on the UIC Counseling Center.
One goal of the funding was to increase staff at the center to reach the level recommended by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services: one counselor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students. The center, located inside the Student Services Building at Harrison Street and Racine Avenue, is open even during school breaks — except on major holidays — to accommodate students’ needs, and provides after-hour crisis services.
In the past at UIC, only clinical/counseling psychologists provided direct services to students. The new philosophy is to have a diversity of providers from a variety of backgrounds.
“We opened up our recruitment strategies to include folks who were licensed clinical professional counselors, licensed clinical social workers and licensed marriage and family therapists,” said Raphael Florestal-Kevelier, associate vice chancellor for student health and wellbeing. “The way we got there was shifting our staffing structure.”
In January 2025, the university hired Shenay Bridges-Carter as the new executive director of the Counseling Center. Among her goals is to focus on outreach and community engagement.
“We’re also looking at shifting the way that we provide services to students so that we’re able to be more responsive to what students are looking for from us,” Bridges-Carter said. “In the fall, we’re looking to enhance our in-person services and meet the needs of the students who want those in-person services.”
In addition, the center has added more crisis counselors to serve students with more urgent needs.
“We’re able to connect those students who need a higher level of care than what the Counseling Center might have been able to provide in the past,” Bridges-Carter said. “We have those clinicians that can connect them with services and connect them in ways that feel, I think, more welcoming and warm, that we’re not just giving folks a list of providers.”
The Counseling Center already offers virtual drop-in spaces, mind-body programs and single-session appointments that students can sign up for and attend online.
Bridges-Carter said that because the UIC student population lives on and off campus, the Counseling Center needs to adjust to cater to everyone and provide an array of hybrid services.
“We already have a range of services that we provide that are able to meet students’ needs,” she said.
