For Family and Friends

Welcome to our family and friends section. Our goal is to provide you with information that might assist you in supporting your family member or friend who may need mental health services while they are a student at Green River Community College. We also encourage you to peruse the entire website.

The Green River Community College Counseling office has a diverse staff with regard to race/ethnicity, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, age, professional discipline, theoretical orientations and intervention approaches. We have a clinical social worker, psychologist, and mental health counselor on staff, all contributing to providing excellent mental health services for students.

Your friend or family member is eligible for individual or couples counseling. We offer up to 7 sessions to any currently enrolled Green River student for the total time they are attending. We also offer drop-in hours every day at noon-1:00pm (except Wednesdays) where a student can come and talk to a counselor without an appointment. Counseling sessions are free and confidential. (Drop in hours are not available in the Summer).

Confidentiality

As a parent, it is completely understandable that you would want to know specifics about the therapeutic content and/or services that your child might be receiving. However, confidentiality in the mental health arena is a professionally and legally complex issue.

Treating information confidentially means not releasing any information to parents or friends, including whether a student has made an appointment or attended sessions at Green River, without their signed written consent. Our staff keenly recognizes that this may be difficult, however, we are legally and ethically required to maintain these standards of confidentiality.

What may be helpful to know is that in most instances, students are more than willing to sign a release of information that would allow the therapist to discuss their situation or concerns with their parent(s) or loved one(s).

However, for any number of personal reasons, there are students who are not willing to sign a release of information. In these situations, we uphold privacy concerns consistent with professional guidelines and mental health laws. If you have questions about this don't hesitate to contact us.