Counseling as a supportive space
During your university journey, as in other phases of life, you may find yourself facing difficulties, doubts, changes, or situations that cause distress. CounselingA short-term process with a specialist designed to help you better understand yourself and navigate difficult times. offers a space for listening, dialogue, and guidance, designed to help you better understand what you are experiencing and to identify resources and possible strategies to cope with it.
The intervention does not focus exclusively on a single problem, but considers the individual as a whole: how they experience their studies, relationships, emotions, choices, and their own life path.
Difficulties can involve different areas and needs, including:
- dealing with exams and/or thesis preparation
- adjusting to university life
- navigating the university environment
- managing one’s emotions
- fear of the future
- a desire to understand oneself
- family and/or relationship problems
- Gender-based violenceAny form of physical, psychological, or sexual violence linked to gender, whether real or perceived.
The voices of those who took the first step
Behind every service in this project lies a concrete need, born from listening closely to the experiences and voices of our students. Each area is the result of real requests and shared challenges-journeys that all began with a simple, yet vital, first step. Different stories, united by one common thread: the decision not to face it alone.
Because what is shared weighs less, and together, new paths can be found.
Read the story
When I decided to turn to the university’s psychological CounselingA short-term process with a specialist designed to help you better understand yourself and navigate difficult times. service, I wanted someone to help me better understand the vague feeling of unease I was experiencing. I was encouraged to ask for help by my best friend and classmate, who felt like I was “fading away.” I had started my bachelor’s degree in a course I chose with great enthusiasm; it felt like it could fuel my high school passion for philosophy and put me on the path toward what I had always dreamed of doing: teaching.
In high school, I had always achieved excellent results, though with a lot of effort, and I believed it would be the same at university. In the beginning, however, I had a lot of trouble adapting to the study methods required by the university, and especially to the unexpected challenges I found myself facing. Whenever we were asked to express a personal opinion or perhaps a critical thought about a certain author or theory, I found myself paralyzed by the feeling of absolutely not knowing what I thought, what I believed was right, or what convinced me most.
This led me to ask myself many questions and made me realize that I didn’t really know who I was or what I truly wanted. I started feeling very anxious quite often because I felt like the world was demanding a much more solid and structured IdentityThe sense of who you are, what you want, and what matters to you; it is built over time, also through experiences and relationships. than the one I felt I had.
I probably started asking myself questions that I had never faced before. I had carefully avoided questioning myself by choosing the safer path of continuing to be the good student I had been in high school—someone who always diligently completed every assignment without ever truly putting herself into what she did.
CounselingA short-term process with a specialist designed to help you better understand yourself and navigate difficult times. helped me focus on this awareness: the realization that it is right and normal to ask myself questions at this point in my life, and that I don’t need to rush to find the answers. I felt very welcomed and understood by the counselor I met with, and I had the feeling that we were working together for me and for my psychophysical well-being. I know I am only at the beginning of a journey that might be difficult, but I also believe that I now have more tools to face my challenges.
