The Counselling service (Spazio di ascolto) is a service for the student community and staff of the Politecnico, directed at people experiencing psychological distress.
For the student community, it can be about issues in dealing with certain situations in their university experience, such as anxiety, lack of motivation, relational discomfort, difficulties in concentrating or organising time and study.
As far as TAB, teaching, research and fellowship staff are concerned, it can be a matter of becoming aware of and understanding their own emotional experiences regarding to the execution of their work and the inconveniences that may arise from it, and see possible solutions.
Listening, counselling and support are offered in complete confidentiality by staff with an extensive experience in psychology, thanks to the availability of the Department of Psychology of the University of Turin, which collaborates with the Politecnico in providing such a service.
Remote sessions are also possible: in this case, you will need to be equipped with a microphone and web cam for the sessions.
Requests will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
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What it is |
A psychological consultation session in a non-clinical context, encouraging - in many cases for the first time - to seek help even on non-academic issues. |
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What it can do |
An initial interview in order to analyse the request, further investigate the reasons for the counselling request and direct towards the most appropriate form of treatment relating to the request. The offer includes up to five individual sessions geared towards the support, the development of resources and the identification of difficulties and critical issues related to adapting to university life. |
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What it cannot do |
It does not deal with issues relating to university orientation, emergency situations (112) or those requiring psychiatric treatment (Health Service). |
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Main situations for which one can request a session |
All those situations that can be addressed through the activation of psychological resources and appropriate coping strategies such as:
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Who is it for? |
The entire Politecnico community |
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Process and professional figures |
The sessions made available (usually 5 at fortnight intervals) are held by psychologists who are qualified psychotherapy specialists from the Department of Psychology of the University of Turin. To access the counselling service, you must fill in the form at this link, indicating your mobile phone number and your institutional university email. In the following days - based on requests, waiting times may be longer, but normally after a few days - applicants will receive a message on their mobile phone indicating the time and day of their first telephone interview session with a psychologist. Following this first interview, the person will be assigned to a psychologist on the basis of their availability and the matters highlighted during the telephone interview. The cycle of 5 sessions is held online on Webex or Skype Other platforms may be used in agreement with the contacted psychologist. If you have any doubts and/or want to monitor the waiting times, you can write to: spazioascolto@unito.it. It is always necessary to check that the data entered in the form are correct and to check messages and e-mails regularly: due to the large number of requests, it is not possible to call back several times and the scheduled appointment lapses 48 hours after sending the e-mail. |
In this document (in italian), you can read the data, updated to May 2023, which tell the story of the service and its progress in terms of the number of requests for the Counselling Service by type of applicant and by gender, the tool for the evaluation of outcomes and the actual evaluation of the service.