Services
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services (CAPS)
Clinical Services
Undergraduate and graduate students experience a great many stresses in their lives - sorting out one's identity, establishing and maintaining important relationships, coping with anxiety and depression, working on changing relationships with parents and other family members, dealing with losses, handling new academic demands, and dealing with reactions to one's differentness. To help with these tasks, Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services provides a variety of psychological counseling services for all students of Rutgers University in New Brunswick/Piscataway, undergraduate and graduate. Services are free, and confidentiality is guaranteed within legal and ethical guidelines.
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services was created in September, 2006, by joining the major mental health services on campus into one organization, as part of the Rutgers Health Service. CAPS now includes Counseling Services, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and Psychiatric Services. The CAPS main office is located on College Avenue at 17 Senior Street. We also maintain a counseling office on the Cook/Douglass Campus at 61 Nichol Avenue.
CAPS provides a broad spectrum of services which includes providing time limited individual therapy, assessment and treatment of students with substance use problems and psychiatric medication management. Longer term care is provided based on clinical need. The appropriate level of immediate care is determined via an initial telephone triage appointment through the main CaPS location on Senior Street. Following triage, assignments for treatment within CaPS are based on the presenting or major problem(s) and are primarily made when short term and/or group work are the therapeutic modalities of choice (with or without adjunctive psychiatric or ADAPS services) or when students need immediate assistance in order to stabilize. Referral to outside providers is more often considered if the patient is stable and longer term individual work is needed or, conversely, when a higher level of care than CaPS staff can provide is necessary in order for a student to stabilize (e.g. psychiatric hospitalization or intensive outpatient program).
Who can use Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services?
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services provides a wide variety of mental health services for all students at Rutgers in New Brunswick/Piscataway. For couples counseling, both members of the couple must be Rutgers University students. If one of the members of the couple is not a Rutgers University student, they will be offered off-campus referrals for the couples counseling or for their own individual work. We do not provide counseling or other services by e-mail or other electronic media. People not affiliated with Rutgers should seek help from a local university or community service.
Why do students come for counseling?
Most people come to CAPS when their usual ways of handling problems aren't working well for some reason. They may have found, for instance, that talking to friends or family about their problem is impossible or unsatisfying. Many students who come feel upset in some way - depressed, angry, scared, or confused. These upsetting feelings may have been set off by a number of situations:
• Trying to begin or maintain a relationship
• Feeling the loss of someone close
• Concentration problems while studying
• Anxiety about tests or speaking in class
• Questions about "coming out" or other identity issues
• Procrastinating too much
• Wondering why one is in college
• Becoming aware one may have a problem with alcohol or drugs
• Struggling to become independent from parents, or not to lose touch with one's family
• Concern about family members or friends who are struggling with issues such as a drinking problem, divorce, serious illness, or death
• Reacting to an unwanted pregnancy or a traumatic experience such as rape.
There are many other reasons people come for counseling. Personal counseling is a chance to learn how to resolve personal problems or issues that are puzzling or upsetting, talk with someone not personally involved with a situation who can give feedback from a different perspective, and learn new skills and ways of looking at situations to become more capable at solving problems in the future.
What if I still have reservations about starting counseling?
Many people have a variety of concerns (some valid, some based on misperceptions) about the counseling process.
Check out this short video which addresses some of these concerns: CLICK HERE