Policies & Procedures

Policies:

We have a strict policy of anti-harassment and anti-discrimination for all individuals who participate in this organization. This includes, but is not limited to, the board of directors, officers, volunteers, students, faculty, those seeking counseling services, and any community organization or academic institution that participates with The Collaborative Counseling Laboratory.

We pride ourselves on creating an environment that promotes and fosters inclusion, equity, diversity, and accessibility.

All our board of directors, officers, and volunteers do not accept any monetary compensation for their work. They all donate their time to serve the communities of Maine.

All volunteers are screened (through an informal interview) by the board members.

All volunteers can donate time to fundraise for the organization, conduct intakes, and hold on-call privileges.

All students who deliver counseling services must be actively enrolled in a counselor education or counseling psychology program. Students are not licensed clinical mental health counselors but are overseen administratively and clinically supervised by fully licensed, experienced, and trained counseling professionals.

The Collaborative Counseling Laboratory will not be rendering direct clinical supervision to students who deliver counseling. The assigned university faculty in counselor education or counseling psychology programs will be their primary clinical supervisor.

The Collaborative Counseling Laboratory clinician who is on-call will be available to provide guidance and consultation to the student if any mental health or medical emergency occurs during a scheduled counseling session. The student will automatically be referred to the primary clinical supervisor and university faculty after guidance and consultation are provided to ensure that they adhere to programmatic policies and procedures regarding the individual cases.

Counseling services will be delivered either through a telemental health platform (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) provided to the student by the university they are attending or in person at an office space where an organization has offered to donate the space and time to The Collaborative Counseling Laboratory for a student to deliver face-to-face counseling services. All counseling sessions (after disclosure statements are reviewed and signed) will be tape-recorded (audio or video - only pointed at student) for meta-analysis to work on developing foundation counseling skills.

Intakes are conducted by licensed and trained counseling professionals to ensure that an unlicensed neophyte counselor-in-training can address and meet the prospective client’s needs, situation, acuity, and treatment outcomes.

A majority of intakes will be conducted through a telemental health platform (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.). These platforms could or could not be HIPAA or FERPA encrypted, depending on which counseling professional conducts the intake assessment. Some intakes may be conducted at the practice, agency, or organization where the clinical works or at an office space where an organization has offered to donate the space and time to The Collaborative Counseling Laboratory.

If the licensed and trained counseling professional feels that the prospective client is not compatible with working with an unlicensed neophyte counselor-in-training, at the end of the intake, they will make recommendations about other resources that the client can contact.

Procedures:

Accessing Services

Within 1 week, someone will respond to your email to schedule an intake day and time.

After the intake is conducted (if you meet screening criteria), the intake form, along with your contact information, will be provided to a counseling student within one week.

The student will contact you to schedule an intake (gather additional biopsychosocial information) and arrange weekly counseling sessions.

The conclusion and ongoing referral management of clients will be overseen by the primary clinical supervisor and university faculty.

On-Call Procedures

If you are with a client and encounter any type of mental health or medical emergency, please contact us at 207-386-3469.

After consulting with our on-call clinician, you must contact your university faculty clinical supervisor within 2 hours of the event. You can always cc info@counselinglab.org in the email communication with your primary clinical supervisor and university faculty regarding the event.

Other essential numbers

ALL NUMBERS BELOW are FREE and available to all ages 24/7

1. Life-threatening emergency - dial or text 911

2. Mental health emergency - Statewide Crisis Hotline –1(888)-568-1112

3. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - text or call 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

4. Crisis Text option - Text home or hello to 741741

5. Teen Text Support Line -NAMI - (207) 515-8398

6. Sexual Assault Response Services - 1(800)-871-7741

7. Child Abuse Reporting - DHHS - 1(800)452-1999