You should seek counseling if you feel overwhelmed, unable to handle your emotions, or simply that “things are getting out of hand.” You might be experiencing one or more of the following:

• Having test anxiety
• Experiencing difficulty sleeping
• Having low self esteem
• Alcohol or drug misuse
• Difficulty concentrating
• Difficulty in making decisions
• Experiencing frequent and unexplained change in mood
• Feeling hopeless or helpless
• Exposure to physical, sexual or emotional abuse
• Feeling anxious, scared or angry in a way that directly affects your daily life
• Experiencing appetite problems or disorders
• Having suicidal thoughts
• Feeling lonely or homesick
• Procrastinating
• Having relationship issues
• Losing a family member or a loved one
• Experiencing a decline in academic performance

• Short-term individual counseling
• General consultation
• Group counseling
• Guidance to develop academic skills
• Career and vocational counseling
• Crisis interventions
• On-and-Off-campus referrals. If the counselors believe that your concerns are beyond the scope of the services provided at LAU, they will provide you with a list of off-campus professionals (such as psychotherapists or psychiatrists).

Together with a counselor, you will go over the challenges that may be impacting your daily life and productivity. The counselor can help you better understand the situation you are going through and explore alternative and much healthier ways to manage the stressors.

In terms of process, the counselor will help you identify the main objectives for counseling, which will be evaluated on an ongoing basis. 

LAU Counseling guarantees that you can: 

• Disclose and discuss sensitive issues in a safe environment
• Confide in someone who can be trusted for their open-mindedness and professional help
• Receive support and helpful tools to overcome distress
• Ensure that information discussed during counseling sessions will not go on your university official records, nor on your transcripts. It will remain strictly confidential, unless the counselor identifies a potential for self-harm or harm to others.

If you are going through a difficult period of time, remember that you are not alone. 

The following tips and exercises are designed to walk you through process of self-discovery and bounce back from hardship:

• Seeking Social Support: A list of what promotes social support, and, alternatively, unhelpful behaviors that could hinder social support.
• Providing Social Support helps you understand why people do not seek support and offers tips on how to help them.
• Performing mindfulness exercises is designed to help you ground your emotions and reduce your anxiety.
• Strengthening your Emotional Resilience offers tips on how to bounce back when experiencing difficult circumstances.
• Thinking about six things the night before the exam that will help reduce exam-related stress.
• Doing six things on the morning of the exam that will bolster your readiness.