“When I went to Yale Mental Health and Counseling, it took them over a year to assign me to a therapist. “
“My sophomore year, I began to deal with severe depression and anxiety. When I went to Yale Mental Health and Counseling, it took them over a year to assign me to a therapist. Spending the rest of sophomore year without much needed counseling impacted my relationships with my friends, peers, Read more…
“Everyone deserves to be comfortable at Yale. Everyone deserves to get the most out of Yale like I have been able to.”
With Yale’s coronavirus response, I got lucky–which is not something that every student can say. I was allowed to stay on campus, which was good for me. But I know that being allowed on campus was the exception, not the rule. I know that lots of other students didn’t get Read more…
“After facing a four-month waiting period and inconsistent communication with YMHC, the institutional care that was supposed to support me ended up compounded the anxiety I originally had.”
I’ll never forget how nervous I felt during my first YMHC intake appointments. Walking through those doors as a first year student seemed like an admittance of failure, but I knew I needed the care. After facing a four-month waiting period and inconsistent communication with YMHC, the institutional care that Read more…
“I had just come back from study abroad, there was a death in my family, and it was just a really tough time. During the time that I had to wait to get paired with someone, my mental health deteriorated a lot.”
If I had 500 fewer hours in the school year, the first things to go would be taking care of myself and a lot of unpaid extracurriculars. For example, I am one of the student coordinators of FOOT, which is an unpaid job. I put in a lot of time Read more…
“Every person I spoke with regarding my mental health was white, whether at the front desk, during my intake, or my therapist.”
Walking out of my first YMHC appointment, a wave of emptiness overtook me. Every person I spoke with regarding my mental health was white, whether at the front desk, during my intake, or my therapist. Growing up, my extended family was very involved in my life — constant interaction with Read more…
“The fact that I had to explain my literal identity told me that YHMC was not a space for me.”
The first and only time I went to YMHC, I met with a counselor who had to stop me and ask what the term “POC” meant. The fact that I had to explain my literal identity told me that YHMC was not a space for me. As an Asian American Read more…
“How can Yale profess to care about our mental health when it continues to allow the SIC to burden its student body, particularly its BIPOC and working class students?”
Since classes were moved online, I’ve continued holding biweekly sessions with the therapist I was seeing at the start of the semester. This experience has made me question what mental health therapy at Yale should truly entail. During this time, I went through some of the worst depression and anxiety Read more…
“The most obvious way COVID has affected me is that my sister and I had it– my sister for over 100 days, and myself for around six weeks– the whole part of the semester that was online.”
The most obvious way COVID has affected me is that my sister and I had it– my sister for over 100 days, and myself for around six weeks– the whole part of the semester that was online. For the most part, it was fine. I still did all my work Read more…
“I eventually stopped seeking help because of internalized feelings that I was not deserving of effective care, feelings that were exacerbated by being overlooked in the intake process and by a therapist who wasn’t right for me.”
It took months of mustering up the courage to ask for help my first year at Yale. After over five weeks of waiting to hear back following my intake appointment, I thought YMHC had forgotten about me. When I called to follow up, I was told that I hadn’t been Read more…