In an effort to make mental health resources more accessible to full time students on campus, Washington University’s Student Health Services is launching a new, free, casual counseling service titled Let’s Talk on March 9.

Let’s Talk counselors will be available in two locations on campus—the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), located on the second floor of Olin Library, and the Hall of Champions in the Athletic Complex. Students can visit on a first-come, first-served basis, without having to experience long waiting periods, as each person is given only 15 minutes of counseling at a time.

Unlike ongoing counseling offered at Mental Health Services, which consists of regular 50-minute appointments, Let’s Talk facilitates brief conversations about specific concerns, and allows students to remain anonymous. The program provides an opportunity for students to talk about their concerns and get professional support and guidance about resources available to them.

Staff counselor Brad Kinnear said that the goal of Let’s Talk is to reach out to students who might otherwise hesitate to seek support or who are unsure about whether they are ready for counseling.

“Some students aren’t interested in ongoing counseling. They don’t have the need for the initial interview and the process of getting set up with somebody…Everybody’s really busy—and so making a trip to the South 40 to sit down with a counselor—it can be a lot,” Kinnear said. “This is about sitting down with somebody for 15 minutes and getting a little consultation time without the added commitment of ongoing counseling.”

Because of the brief session times and easy accessibility of Let’s Talk, students are free to make of the experience what they see fit, Kinnear said.

“If I see you a second time, we are going to talk about what brings you back, what changed in your situation, whether the fact that you came back is an indication that you would like some ongoing support, and if so, how you would you access that,” Kinnear said.

The most common concerns among Washington University students are anxiety, depression and the chronic case of self-doubt known as “Impostor Syndrome,” Kinnear said. While it would be expected for students using Let’s Talk to mostly report such issues, students can also use the service to express concern about those close to them and to get perspective on the kind of resources they should be looking into.

Let’s Talk hopes to become visible among students by word of mouth and from peer-to-peer reassurance that counseling is not such an intimidating experience. Students can also maintain their anonymity, Kinnear added.

“You don’t have to give me your name; you can give me a false name. It can just be, ‘Hi, I want to talk,’ and I don’t really need any other information from you,” Kinnear added.

President of Active Minds, a student-run organization involved with providing safe spaces to discuss mental health issues, and senior Chelsea Birchmier said that the idea of Let’s Talk had been in progress since last semester, and a lot of research went into finding the best locations and format for this service.

“SHS is in the South 40, whereas many students live off campus who obviously go to the library, and so having one in the CDI will be really useful. And I know an athlete who has had to miss classes to go to SHS therapy. Having a location in the AC where athletes, or anyone, can drop in informally without planning in advance would be very useful,” Birchmier said.

The concept of informal appointments makes it easier for people who are wary of SHS, or anxious about making a commitment to see a doctor regularly and make calls for appointments, especially with the geographical separation from SHS, even though it is staffed by SHS counselors.

Birchmier, however, believes that students may be exposed to various types of non-academic stress that SHS counselors might not be equipped to handle. Events of discrimination and oppression can produce collective stress, and hence it may be important to have other support communities.

“It is great that they have so many accessible locations, but what if therapists aren’t culturally sensitive? If they do something or say something that draws a person farther away from seeking help, and you don’t have a community to go to, that can be very lonely and can definitely add stress,” Birchmier said.

Kinnear noted that the service is meant to specifically help these groups.

“It’s about reaching some of the students we feel may be underrepresented in our population that we treat—we don’t see as many graduate students as we would expect, students of color, students who are over on the campus and not coming over. It’s more making ourselves accessible to them than anything else,” Kinnear said.

As for how the launch of Let’s Talk could impact similar student-run organizations such as Uncle Joe’s, Kinnear believes there will be no significant, negative impact since they are not competing organizations. Senior Jason Tinero and junior Michael Seitanakis, co-directors of Uncle Joe’s, echoed similar views on the initiative.

“I think [Uncle Joe’s and Let’s Talk] really complement each other. Our role on campus is to be student counselors, and we serve that niche in the community for students who really feel the need to talk to someone. And there aren’t a lot of other services available, especially from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. when our office is open for walk-in hours,” Tinero said.

Seitanakis added that eliminating barriers is a key issue in mental health outreach and is addressed differently by both Uncle Joe’s and Let’s Talk.

“We are peers, which may eliminate the barrier of someone not wanting to see a professional. Having a counselor available during a certain time would lower the barrier of having to wait [a] couple weeks to see a professional counselor,” he said.

With students looking for new ways to approach mental health, the main focus remains to get them to utilize the various resources and trust that confidentiality will be maintained with good care.

“We know these issues are going on on campus, and we’re happy with any way they can be addressed and hope that continues,” Tinero said.

“Wash. U. actually does a really great job with mental health compared to other schools. They do have their own scheduling problems, but they really do make a big effort to continue to make new programs to be better and more accessible,” Seitanakis added.

The Let’s Talk program has a Facebook page, as well as an official page on the SHS website which gives an overview of the service as well as answering frequently asked questions.

Students already consulting counselors at Mental Health Services can also participate in Let’s Talk.

“They may come in and talk with me, and I may encourage them to talk to their counselor. But it’s not really intended to replace counseling. It’s not counseling,” Kinnear said.