Studentenwerk Leipzig

To make use of the counseling service, you need to make an appointment by phone or by e-mail. Such a counseling session usually takes about 50 minutes. To make an appointment by phone, call 0341-9718848 during the following hours:

Monday and Tuesday 8.00 a.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday 8.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.
Friday 8.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.

As the registration by phone is done at the front desk of the Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinic, it may happen that the assistant is talking on the phone when you call. Try again later or write an e-mail to studierendenberatung {{ätt}} studentenwerk-leipzig {{punkt}} de. We kindly ask you to provide potential time periods when asking for an appointment via e-mail.

Please note that there may be waiting times of up to four weeks at certain times due to high demand. However, this is usually not the case and we try to give you an appointment for a first consultation as soon as possible.

The open office hours usually take place two days a week at both locations (Center for Social Services, Gutenbergplatz 4, and Center for Mental Health, Semmelweisstraße 10). As the name implies, you do not need an appointment beforehand. Simply come by during the office hours, take a seat in the waiting area and one of the counsellors will approach you.

In contrast to individual counselling by appointment, such an open counselling meeting takes only up to 20 minutes. During that time, we want to find out what your problem is and which of our offers may be appropriate for you (e.g. group or individual counselling).

Open counselling is thus intended to establish the initial contact to the counselling office, meet the consultant and to discuss the further proceeding. You can visit the open office hours on the following days:

Tuesday 1.30-2.30 p.m.
Thursday 9.00-11.00 a.m.

Changes of location or time of the open office hours will be published on this website.

To be allowed to use the counselling service, you need to be a student of one of the following universities in Leipzig:

• Leipzig University
• Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK)
• University of Music and Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig
• Academy of Visual Arts (HGB)
• Leipzig Graduate Schools of Management (HHL)
• University of Applied Sciences for Telecommunication
• University of Cooperative Education Saxony
• International University of Cooperative Education Leipzig (IBA)

If you are enrolled at one of these universities, you can make an appointment or come by during our open office hours. Do not forget your student card. Usually, up to ten individual counselling sessions are possible.

The counselling service is not about your problem being "bad enough" to be allowed to receive counselling. If you consider counselling helpful, that is reason enough to make an appointment for counselling or to visit the open office hours. It makes usually more sense to seek help in time and prevent greater stress than to wait until you feel very bad about everything.

Your visit at the counselling office and, of course, the content of the counselling sessions are subject to medical confidentiality. That means neither other Studentenwerk employees nor the universities nor other authorities (like e.g. health insurances) will know about your visit. Only in special cases, when the student explicitly requests that information is passed on to other authorities, such information may be disclosed to the respective authority – but only after the written release of our counsellors from the duty of confidentiality by the student.

We make notes for internal use during the sessions, which we treat according to the data protection regulations. They serve to prepare further meetings and as the basis for a certificate requested by the student for another authority.

You certainly can bring another person to the counselling session – e.g. if it is too hard for you to seek help on your own or if the other person is involved in the problem. Usually – and if that is okay for you – we will ask that you come to the office alone at first and then send for the other person later.

The counselling process sometimes reveals that it is required or reasonable to involve another person in counselling. In that case, too, you could bring another person to the scheduled appointment. We will discuss this in detail with you beforehand to prepare clearly what the concern of this meeting is.

We have created a video guide on this topic, which you can find on YouTube (German only).

Of course, you are also welcome to arrange a personal consultation with us in order to discuss which treatment option seems most suitable for you.

Crisis means the absolutely acute case, where you see no way out. If you are thinking about suicide, you should go to the next clinic or make use of another service (e.g. talking to the community mental health services). May be it helps if you call someone to accompany you.

A list of different offers, the emergency services of the clinics and emergency telephone numbers can be found on the website of the City of Leipzig.

Likewise, you can always call the arescue coordination centre (Tel. 112) or the police (Tel. 110) in case of emergency.

It is of course possible to consult us in this regard. We would discuss your personal goals and look for appropriate solutions.

The City of Leipzig has furthermore compiled a guideline listing various support services for people with alcohol and drug issues. You can download this "addiction assistance guideline" in the download section of the homepage of the City of Leipzig.

In this regard, you can either consult us or, if you are a student of Leipzig University, the Student Advisory Service Office (Studienberatung) of Leipzig University (SSZ Goethestraße 6). The Career Service of Leipzig University (Burgstraße 21, 1st floor) may provide you with information as well.

At the psychosocial student counselling office, we will consider together, what your interests are and how you imagine your future. Thus, we can of course develop the basis for you to arrive at a decision. We are unfortunately not able to provide you with specific details concerning the available fields of study.

The psychosocial counselling service offers public and private groups on various subjects. For further information on these groups, please read on the top of this page.

To participate in the private groups, it is required for you to attend an individual counselling session with one of our consultants beforehand. When you chose a group, you want to attend or are interested in our group offers, just schedule an appointment for counselling. Then we can provide you with further information and find out together, which one of the groups is appropriate for you.

You can attend the Writing Lab spontaneously and without prior notice. You will find more detailed information on the individual dates at the top of this page.

Yes. We offer counselling services in German and in English. International students can attend up to ten counselling sessions as well. We also offer a workshop in English (see 'group offers' at the top of this page).

You can make appointments for counselling in different ways. Refer to the first question above (“How can I get an appointment for counselling?”) for the detailed procedure.

If you cannot attend an appointment, you can cancel the appointment by phone or, even better, via e-mail. We read our e-mails regularly, so that your cancellation reaches the consultant directly. If you want to make another appointment, mention this in your e-mail. We will suggest a new appointment.

Of course, we give advice in that case too. Either you make an appointment or you visit the open office hours. Then we can consider together, how you can handle the situation best and maybe also, how to help the person concerned or if it is better to do nothing.

Either it may be helpful sometimes to bring the person concerned directly or we agree or discuss a joint appointment (see the question “Can I bring my boyfriend/girlfriend, brother/sister/parents/flat mate to the counselling session?”).

In the counselling sessions, we try to assess the need for support right from the beginning. As the case may be, we make use of the counselling sessions by means of different key aspects, depending on whether brief counselling of a few sessions appears sufficient or it seems that long-term support by an outpatient psychotherapist is required. We may use the counselling sessions to help you finding a therapist or try to reach a short-term solution of your problem in order to bridge the time until you start an external therapy.

This proceeding usually provides us with a sufficient number of counselling sessions to approach your difficulties or to ensure the transition into a further treatment program.

You can get initial advice from us, which clinics and which offers may be appropriate for you. In general, you have to wait until you are admitted to a clinic. That waiting time depends on various factors. When you suffer a crisis, you can get treatment directly at any time; see here for a list of the services offered by the City including the crisis call centers (see question “Where can I go in a crisis?”).

In general, you can say that psychosocial counselling deals with issues concerning the handling of stress and difficult situations in studies and everyday life, while social counselling deals with issues of financing options, studying with children, studying with chronic diseases etc.

Many issues are in general relevant to social counselling and psychosocial counselling. The question, for instance, whether a leave of absence is reasonable due to a disease or great stress, does not only involve the aspect of how to benefit from that time to feel better and be able to study again (psychosocial counselling), but often also the problem of how to finance this period (social counselling). That is why psychosocial counselling and social counselling collaborate closely in many aspects – provided the respective student gives his or her consent.

If you are not sure which of the two counselling services to contact (first), you can describe your problem and ask for our evaluation in anstudierendenberatung {{ätt}} studentenwerk-leipzig {{punkt}} de ( e-mail).