Confidentiality

We strive to honor and respect your privacy to the full extent allowed by the law.

We strive to honor and respect your privacy to the full extent allowed by the law. All information discussed in your sessions is strictly confidential. While your case may be discussed among Counseling Center staff in the interest of providing you the best service possible, no one else will have access to your counseling records without your written permission. This includes your friends, your partner or spouse, your parents, your professors or any other University staff.

Exceptions to Confidentiality

  • In some cases of emergency, where there is, in the counselors or psychiatrists best judgment, an imminent danger of harm to a client or another person, it is MANDATED BY LAW that action necessary to prevent such harm be taken. This may require breaking confidentiality.
  • State law requires that any knowledge of the physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect of a child or another vulnerable person (an elderly person, for example) be reported to authorities.
  • On rare occasions courts of law have successfully used subpoenas to get information from mental health professionals

Mandated Counseling

We are occasionally required to provide alcohol & other drug (AOD) assessments for the ETSU Office of the Dean of Students (subset of Student Life and Enrollment). This may occur as part the ETSU judicial process, as the result of an ETSU CARE report, or anytime the health and/or safety of a student becomes a concern.

In such cases, students necessarily lose some confidentiality, as results of these assessments must be reported to the Office of the Dean of Students.

Please note that we do NOT provide mandated counseling (including anger management or alcohol and drug education) for any other source outside the University, such as the state or federal court system.

Email Communication

Because email communication can be accessed by unauthorized people, your privacy and confidentiality cannot be guaranteed when email is used.  Further, we cannot guarantee that email messages will be read within a given period of time, and so they are not appropriate in a crisis situation.  However, if you do choose to email us, we recommend that you include the word "encrypt" in the subject line to further protect your privacy.

If you do not wish to use email, please contact us either in person (D.P. Culp Center, 3rd Floor - Room 326) or by phone, (423) 439-3333, during normal business hours.  Normal business hours for The Counseling Center are:  Monday - Friday, 8AM - 4:30PM (except during University holidays or other schedule/unscheduled closures.)

If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please contact ETSU Public Safety at (423) 439-4480 or call 911.

If you are experiencing a NON-life threatening emotional crisis and wish to speak to a licensed counselor, you may choose to access BucsPress2, our 24-hour Mental Health Helpline by calling (423) 439-4841 and "pressing 2" when prompted.

Social Media

Social media direct messages are not checked regularly. We cannot guarantee any message sent on that platform will be read within a given period of time, and so they are not appropriate in a crisis situation. 

If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please contact ETSU Public Safety at (423)439-4480 or call 911.

If you are experiencing a NON-life threatening emotional crisis and wish to speak to a licensed counselor, you may choose to access BucsPress2, our 24-hour Mental Health Helpline by calling (423)439-4841 and "pressing 2" when prompted.