Psychological Counselling
Enquiries or requests for appointments
Personal consultations take place outside our office hours between Tuesday and Friday at the Campus Nord and on Tuesday and Friday at Campus Adlershof. All personal consultations require a prior appointment.
Humboldt University students (except those who study medicine) can contact us via e-mail or during our office hours (see next headline).
Medical students should contact the MediCoach, phone (030) 450 529 189 or e-mail: medicoach@charite.de, Dieter-Scheffner-Fachzentrum, Virchowweg 23.
Staff members of HU can contact our inhouse doctors at the medical center.
Office hours
The Service is available at the following address:
- Campus Nord: Humboldt-University of Berlin, Invalidenstr. 110, Room 326, phone: +49 30 2093 70272. For arranging appointments and making enquiries: Wednesday between 2 to 3 p.m.
- Campus Adlershof: Humboldt-University of Berlin, Emil Fischer-house, Brook-Taylor-Str. 2, entrance C, first floor, Room 1'302, phone: +49 30 2093 5585. For arranging appointments and making enquiries: Tuesday between 11 a.m. to twelve noon.
Enquiries or requests for appointments can be made outside office hours via e-mail: psychologische-beratung@hu-berlin.de
Other Counselling Services
Psychological Advice is also offered by two other Counselling Services: the Psychological and Psychotherapeutic Counselling of the Studierendenwerk Berlin or the University Outpatient Department of Psychotherapy and Psychodiagnosis at the Institute for Psychology. In case of need, psycho-therapeutic treatment is available there. Help is also offered in finding psychotherapists or other counselling personnel, therapeutic institutions and self-help groups.
Psychological counselling at university – why?
Learning is an extremely vulnerable process. Personal problems may have negative effects on motivation, concentration and performance. They can be linked directly to the academic work, e.g. fear of speaking in public when a presentation has to be made, or exam nerves. But they may as well be much more general and even more fundamental, relating to everyday difficulties and problems, e.g. with the partner or parents and, as a result, the successful completion of studies can be in danger. Psychological counselling addresses these problems appropriately, thus enabling the student to continue studies successfully. In previous years students approached the Psychological Counselling Service particularly with the following enquiries and the problems:
• What can I do against exam nerves?
• I’m not sure if I’m on the right course.
• Is psychotherapy suitable for me, and how can I find a place?
• I cannot concentrate; again and again I’m distracted from work.
• Which learning and working techniques do you recommend?
I don’t think I can cope with the piles of work.
• I have eating problems (e.g. anorexia). Can you help?
• I’m often sick, and I think it’s psychosomatic.
• My parents have high expectations of me. How can I cope?
In what way can psychological counselling help?
Our Service offers two options: a personal consultation, or participation in one of the groups. Both services are free of charge.
The personal consultation
In a personal consultation your current situation can be talked about freely in strict confidence. Together we can analyse the situation and try to find ideas that might finally lead to a solution of your problems. They could be first steps on the way to change, or to making a decision. We may give you a recommendation for other advisory services, or for self-help groups, or refer you to a psychotherapist.
Group training
There is a multitude of groups on study-related problems where participants learn how to cope with learning difficulties and how to change their attitude, for example, to examinations. A limited number of participants guarantees a fairly intimate environment and enables individuals to analyse and discuss their problems on a personal level. All groups are held in German.
Who does the counselling?
Two Psychologists are holding the personal consultations. Both are experienced psychotherapists and have been working for Humboldt-University for many years. They are also in charge of all of the group trainings and a number of relevant lectures and events.
How to arrange an appointment
How to arrange an appointment for a personal consultation
You want a personal consultation During office hours you can arrange an appointment for a personal consultation. The consultation itself will be held outside these hours and takes around one hour. The times at which consultations can be held at Campus Nord and at the Adlershof Campus are given above.
You want to join a group training? ( Please note: All groups are held in German)
If you have decided to join a group training, you need to register during office hours and find out if there are free places. The Service will send a registration form to your address, and on return of the form you will be registered for the particular group, which means you got one of the places for which there is usually a great demand. But since there is that great demand, it is very important for you to let us know immediately if you cannot, for any reason, take the place we offer you. We could then give it to somebody else on the waiting list. Please, note that you are expected to attend regularly. It is absolutely no use joining the group later or skipping one or two sessions.
The History of Psychological Counselling at Humboldt-Universität
On 1 March 1994 Humboldt-Universität started the Psychological Counselling Service, which was designed to enable students to have a place to go to whenever psychic problems become a strain on their studies. Since it was started, more than 6,000 personal consultations have been held on learning difficulties, problems of orientation, exam nerves, psychotherapeutic, motivational and partnership problems. About 8,000 participants in more than 300 training groups have been given effective help with their problems. More detailed information can be obtained from the Service’s Report (Jahresbericht; only available in German), giving a survey of its work from 1994 to 2004.