“At the start of my sophomore year, a friend and I both decided to go to Yale Health for therapy. During my intake appointment, one of the questions asked was if I wanted a therapist of color and I said yes. To me, as a Black student, this felt important. Read more…
It took a total of 7 months of self-advocacy to be able to see a therapist at Yale. I started in August, and wasn’t seen until February. It took me going to Yale Health in person to demand care in order to get an appointment, even though I was supposed Read more…
Being from a family of Middle Eastern refugees has always been a foundational part of my identity. But, when I sought out mental health services at the beginning of my first year and I was asked if I had any preferences, I didn’t ask to have a therapist who was Read more…
As a FroCo and Peer Liaison, I often felt conflicted recommending YMHC to my first years, knowing that they would likely encounter large wait times and potentially be placed with a professional who was dismissive or culturally uninformed. Although wait times can potentially be decreased through contact with the dean, Read more…
Yale’s insistence on maintaining the Student Income Contribution directly harms it’s low-income students of color. Being a Black womxn at Yale already comes with the burdens of existing as a minority at a predominantly white institution. On top of that, I must also grapple with the racial trauma that is Read more…
Recently, I was assigned a new psychiatrist. My former psychiatrist had asked if I would prefer my new one to be Asian or white; I said Asian. Even so, I ended up with a white woman who asked me to explain (read: prove) to her how race has affected my Read more…
During my sophomore year, I remember asking my therapist for weekly instead of biweekly meetings, and because her schedule was so full with other patients she couldn’t meet with me every week. I think if Yale Mental Health had more therapists of color, specifically women of color, like the one Read more…
I think it’s pretty clear that a return to campus will magnify the race and class divides that existed before the pandemic began. These divides will be structural and academic but they will also be interpersonal. Unless Black students have the means to grapple with the emotional and mental health Read more…
“First year pushed me to my mental and physical limits even as someone who didn’t have to work a job. The college transition is tough enough just taking classes, but with extra pressure created by the coronavirus and ongoing police violence, I know it must be even worse. I believe Read more…
Because I do not have to pay the student income contribution, I have been able to find time in my schedule for counseling appointments, and have had enough flexibility during business hours to get matched with a therapist much faster than some of my peers. However, when I asked to Read more…