During the Intake session after your Brief Assessment, the therapist will ask you why you are seeking therapy or what specific issue is bringing you in for help. The therapist will want to know how this is impacting your life (i.e. I can’t make friends, I can’t focus, I feel confused etc.). They will likely ask your personal history and current situation, who is in your support system and have questions related to medication, substance and alcohol use.  You and the therapist my focus on some goals for therapy. Therapy enables people to understand their feelings, what contributes to them feeling a certain way, and explore ways to more effectively manage and reach their goals. 

Although we work in a brief therapy framework, there are no session limits at CAPS. The majority of students who come to CAPS see a therapist between 1-4 sessions. Brief therapy is to help students with specific problems or goals so they can get back on track as quickly as possible.  You and your therapist will continue to assess your needs together. Sometimes in brief therapy, it may be determined that more sessions are needed to help reach your goals or come to a decision about a specific matter. Other times, deeper long term therapy would be more beneficial. In these cases we usually refer to a community clinician who can see you long-term and on a regular basis.

We carefully consider each individual’s needs and options that are available to them. Many factors are involved when determining the needs of a student and the length of therapy at CAPS. Some considerations may be the severity of current issues that a student has, their access to insurance or transportation, changing circumstances or unexpected events that occur in a student’s life. 

Sometimes students want short term therapy, but after evaluation longer term recommended or is more beneficial.

CAPS is a confidential service meaning mental health clinicians protect your privacy by not revealing what is talked about in sessions.  All information disclosed within counseling sessions is confidential and may not be released to anyone other than health care providers at CAPS and Student Health Services (SHS)  without your written permission except in certain situations described below. If UCSB Student Health is collaborating with your care, we may communicate about you with SHS staff (including sharing of medical/mental health records and information). 

We are mandated to protect information from your parents, family members, professors, departments, employers, immigration, friends or anyone inquiring about you. We don’t disclose any information related to substance use, legal issues, involvement in sex work, past criminal activity, sexual assault, physical assault, what we talk about in session, or if you attend CAPS. 

This means that a mental health professional that is seeing someone as a client in therapy, can only break confidentiality under the following extreme circumstances: 

  1. Where there is a reasonable suspicion that you are likely to harm yourself unless protective measures are taken;
  2. Where there is a reasonable suspicion that you may present a danger of violence to others or their personal property and that the disclosure of the communication is necessary to prevent the threatened danger;
  3. Where there is reasonable suspicion of abuse of children, including if someone has downloaded, streamed or accessed any of the following media that depicts a child engaged in obscene sexual conduct: films, photographs, videotapes or video recordings, negatives or slides;
  4. Where there is a reasonable suspicion of physical abuse of an elder (an adult over 65) or a dependent adult who is being physically, emotionally or financially harmed;
  5. Where you cannot physically take care of yourself, (provide yourself with shelter, clothing, feeding)  because you are gravely impaired;
  6. Where a judge orders a therapist to discuss some aspect that you have discussed in therapy;
  7. When a release of records is court mandated; or if a student cites his/her client record in a lawsuit, as required by state or federal law.

In all of the above cases, the therapist is either allowed or required by law to break confidentiality in order to protect you, or someone you might endanger from harm. 

CAPS follows professional, legal, and ethical guidelines established for psychologists by the American Psychological Association and by the State of California. An electronic record is kept of your protected health information which is subject to confidentiality laws. Written or electronic records of contact with CAPS do not go on academic records. Files may be reviewed in the process of agency accreditation visits by professional review teams; all materials are handled confidentially and no materials with identifying information will leave the agency without written permission.We share our records with SHS.

Additionally, If you want someone in your life to talk to your therapist and be a part of your care, you may sign a “Release of Information” allowing the therapist to speak to them about your care.

When people are struggling with issues in their life, most try to resolve it themselves.  If you have tried everything you can think of to feel better, and it’s still not working, a therapist may be able to help you break through the roadblocks that are keeping you from finding resolution and feeling better.

Often problems or symptoms impact our ability to complete our academic work, social life or general functioning. If you find that you aren’t able to tend to your daily tasks, therapy may be helpful to help you uncover what is at the core of your struggle.

Many times people delay getting help because they feel as though their problems aren’t “bad enough” to come to therapy.  Research shows that the sooner people get help, the faster they get better and the longer they remain improved.

Everyone feels sad sometimes. When you’re sadder than usual, you might say you feel “depressed.” But how do you know when extreme sadness crosses over into clinical depression?

Depression can include feeling sad, but it’s more than that. Depression involves symptoms like feeling exhausted all the time, losing interest in activities you normally enjoy, appetite and sleep changes, feeling worthless or helpless, or thoughts of death and suicide. Episodes of depression last 2 weeks or more. They can be triggered by a sad event or they can seemingly come from nowhere.

If you’re sad because you didn’t do well in a class, are going through a breakup, or lost someone in your life, sadness or extreme sadness is a natural reaction to events like these.  If the feelings don’t get better over time, or if your mood starts to get in the way of your daily life, your sadness can turn into depression.

Not all depression includes feeling sad.  Sometimes for no reason they can identify, people can feel “blah,” have low motivation, experience feelings of guilt (“I shouldn’t feel this way. I have everything going for me.”), feel irritable, have poor concentration or feel like you are physically dragging.  It can be hard to identify as often people feel they need a “reason” to be depressed. Sometimes, this isn’t the case. Body chemistry, genetics or seasons can impact a person’s mood.

Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).

These feelings of anxiety and panic interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger and can last a long time. You may avoid places or situations to prevent these feelings.  You may notice that you feel nervous or tense, have an increased heart rate, breath rapidly, feel restless, have trouble sleeping or have trouble controlling worry. These troubling experiences can be treated very effectively with therapy and, in some cases, medication.

Student Mental Health Coordination Services (SMHCS) is an office on campus for anybody who is worried about another student in distress. The coordinators will consult with you about the person you are worried about, provide referrals to campus departments, develop action plans, and follow up with students, staff, and faculty when it is appropriate to do so. SMHCS can provide a coordinated university response  and reach out to a student in distress.

WHEN TO CONTACT THE SMHCS COORDINATORS

Please contact Student Mental Health Coordination Services if you are worried about another student and you:

  • Do not know where to refer the student

  • Would like to consult about possible responses to a student’s behavior

  • Notice a student’s behavior is making others feel uncomfortable

  • Believe there may be safety concerns in the future (e.g. the student indicated potential harm to themselves, thoughts of suicide or potentially hurting others)

  • You have called 911 because of a safety concern

THE MENTAL HEALTH COORDINATORS WILL:

  • Provide consultation and suggest response options

  • As needed, mobilize the Student Behavioral Intervention Team (may include Social Work Services, Counseling & Psychological Services, Student Health Service, Judicial Affairs, Residential Life, and UC Police Department)

  • Provide follow up with concerned parties if appropriate

You can contact the SMHCS at 805-893-3030. You can also submit an online concern at www.sa.ucsb.edu/REFERaGAUCHO.  They are located in the Student Resource Building. 

If you are unsure what to do about a student in distress, you can also consult with a clinician at CAPS for guidance. You can call CAPS at 805-893-4411 or come to the front desk and tell them you would like to discuss your concern about another student with a clinician.

In order for a CAPS therapist to provide you with a letter for an emotional support animal, you must have a current treatment relationship with a CAPS therapist and not be seeking services solely for a letter. The emotional support animal should be a part of the treatment plan with your current therapist. Often, an emotional support animal is recommended only after a person has first tried established treatments for mental illness (e.g., psychotherapy, psychiatric medication).It is also required that you have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder that meets federal criteria for a disability.

Name and Gender Data Update FAQs

As of February 26th, 2025 Student Health Services (SHS) and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) are collecting and storing students’ lived first names, pronouns, gender, and sexual orientation independently of the rest of campus. This will allow students to use a name and pronouns with their healthcare providers that they may not be comfortable using with the rest of the university. An initial update questionnaire will be assigned to students upon their first appointment after February 26th, 2025.

 

SOGI stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. For our purposes, this also includes lived name and pronouns. SOGI data is commonly collected as a part of demographic tracking by institutions that provide services to the public. SOGI data helps inform institutions of what groups are/aren’t being served so they can make adjustments to their practices and increase the effectiveness and accessibility of their programs. It also helps inform healthcare providers on what questions they should ask in the course of care.

 

Lived name is a chosen name, other than one’s legal name, that they use in day-to-day life. There are many reasons someone may use a lived name, such as to reflect their gender identity, as a nickname, or to go by an Americanized name. At UCSB, all campus systems are required to offer the option to display a lived name. This name is to be used in all cases where legal name is not required. Legal name is required for situations involving legal documentation, billing, government organizations, federal funding, and identity confirmation. To see a list of which systems require lived vs. legal name, please navigate to The Registrar’s Lived and Legal Name Page.

 

UCSB collects Lived Name, Pronouns, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation via Identity Manager. This information was previously utilized across campus in a variety of contexts that extend beyond academics (billing, housing, healthcare, etc.), which made it difficult for students to choose when and where they would like to identify a certain way. Healthcare can be incredibly personal and exists in a different context than the rest of the university. While this change requires updating information in more than one system, allowing students the autonomy to choose how they wish to identify in an academic context and medical context separately will help us provide more personalized and attentive healthcare. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) data collected by SHS/CAPS is used exclusively for medical purposes and is securely protected by both HIPAA and FERPA laws.

This change in how we store data begins on February 26th, 2025. The pre-appointment questionnaire is automatically assigned when you schedule your first appointment (at CAPS or SHS) after the launch date. This applies to all new and existing patients at SHS/CAPS.

We want every patient to have the opportunity to update this information in their chart. The best way to ensure that all students have that opportunity is to make it a required assignment. Submitting the questionnaire is mandatory, but some questions have the option to decline answering.

Once you submit the initial questionnaire, your answers will be populated in your student health profile. This information can be updated through your UCSB MyHealth portal by logging in using your UCSB Net ID, going to your profile, selecting edit profile, and editing the individual boxes. Press save to lock in your changes. The changes should sync throughout Student Health/CAPS immediately, though some systems may need to be refreshed for the changes to appear.

No, your care provider is not able to make changes to your profile on your behalf. The only ways to update your information are by making edits to your profile through your UCSB MyHealth portal or by asking your provider to reassign the name and gender update questionnaire.

If you would like to use the same lived first name, pronouns, gender identity, or sexual orientation at SHS/CAPS that you use across campus, please log in to Identity Manager and your UCSB MyHealth portal separately and input the same information in both places.

If you don’t feel that it would be useful for your medical providers to have access to your Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity information, you are welcome to select the “Prefer not to answer” option on those questions and press submit. Your provider may still ask you for this information if it is relevant to your treatment. Lived name is optional and only needs to be filled out if you would like for SHS/CAPS to refer to you as something other than your legal name. Pronouns are a mandatory category at this time so that our healthcare providers can know how to respectfully refer to you. If you change your mind or assume a different label at any point, you can update your answers via the profile editing feature in your portal.

Due to the limitations of our portal/charting software, we are not able to collect lived last name separately from the rest of campus. Until this discrepancy is resolved, SHS/CAPS will continue to source last name from Identity Manager. If a lived last name is not indicated in Identity Manager, legal last name will be used in SHS/CAPS systems. If a lived last name is indicated in Identity Manager, your healthcare provider will see that name paired with any lived first name indicated in your MyHealth portal. The MyHealth portal is not capable of displaying a lived last name and will always default to a legal last name. If you would like to confirm that your lived last name appears in the SHS/CAPS charting system, please view your profile information in Identity Manager. If you change your lived last name in Identity Manager, it should update in SHS/CAPS’ charting system after 24 hours.

If you were a student prior to February 2025, SHS/CAPS systems will maintain the information provided through Identity Manager before that date until you make updates in your MyHealth portal. If you started at UCSB after February 2025 SHS/CAPS systems will default to the information from your original UCSB application until you make updates in your MyHealth portal. If you make any changes or updates to your lived first name, pronouns, gender identity, or sexual orientation in Identity Manager after February 2025, they will not be reflected in SHS/CAPS’ systems.

You can view your personal information, including lived first name, pronouns, gender identity, and sexual orientation, by signing into your UCSB MyHealth portal and navigating to “Profile”. Your MyHealth profile will display your legal last name, but if a lived last name is indicated in Identity Manager, it will be visible to your healthcare provider(s).

SHS/CAPS receives a gender value from the registrar’s office, acquired by converting the gender identity disclosed via GOLD into an M, F, X, or U value. Besides this gender marker, no other gender/sexuality information collected by the University is accessible to SHS/CAPS. All information pertaining to sexual or gender identity, including lived first name, pronouns, gender identity, and sexuality can only be seen by SHS/CAPS if the student has responded to the Name and Gender Data Update Questionnaire and/or updated their profile on the UCSB MyHealth portal.

No. The information you indicate in your MyHealth portal will only be used to identify you at SHS/CAPS. It does not need to match Identity Manager.

Your lived first name, pronouns, and gender identity are displayed at the top of your chart note and can be seen by the healthcare providers involved in your care. Your sexual orientation is stored further down in your chart along with other demographic information like race, year, etc. All lived name and gender data is kept confidential by UCSB Student Health Services (SHS) and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and will only be used by healthcare providers when relevant to your treatment. This information will not be shared with other entities on or off campus unless you request and sign a medical release form*.
*or if a referral is made to an off-campus provider including forwarded chart notes

This information will be part of your patient information chart in Point and Click, the system used by UCSB Student Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services to store patient information and coordinate care. Care providers at SHS/CAPS who have access to your chart will be able to see this information. If you sign a medical release form to have all of your medical records from UCSB SHS/CAPS shared with an outside medical entity, your lived name and identity data might be accessible in those records.

No. Due to FERPA and HIPAA laws, only the student/patient has access to their own medical records unless they sign a medical release form giving explicit consent. The only way your parent/guardian could access this information is if you give them your login to your UCSB MyHealth Portal. This is true even for students under the age of 18.

If you are referred from UCSB to a medical entity outside of Student Health and/or request that your medical records be shared with an entity outside of Student Health, your lived first name, pronouns, gender identity, and sexual orientation may appear on those documents. If you have concerns about this possibility, please talk to your healthcare provider before pursuing the transfer of medical information to entities outside of UCSB. If you are referred to an off-campus behavioral health provider by CAPS, only legal name will appear on your insurance referral form.

Student Health and CAPS do not share lived first names with UC SHIP or any other insurance. Your legal name will be used for all insurance purposes. If you would like to see what name is on file with your insurance, you should log in to your insurance portal (UC SHIP portal here). The gender marker on file with the registrar (from GOLD) may be used in cases where insurance requires a gender marker.

If you have recently undergone a legal name change, please make sure your legal name is updated with your insurance AND the UCSB Registrar before processing claims.

Yes, legal name is still collected and stored by SHS/CAPS for insurance and billing purposes. Legal name is also the default for students who don’t have a separate lived first name listed in our system. The only way to change your legal name in our system is to get a court-approved legal name change and update it with the Registrar’s Office.

SHS and CAPS pull legal names directly from the UCSB Registrar’s Office. If you have recently changed your legal name, you must update this information with the UCSB Registrar’s Office. Instructions for updating your legal name after a legal name change can be found on the Registrar’s Lived and Legal Name page.

Our current system does not allow for multiple values (in this case, pronouns) to be displayed in the same category. We have added “she/they”, “he/they”, and “all pronouns” options that can be used until our system is able to accommodate this action.

For unique situations or questions, please reach out to equity@sa.ucsb.edu.

If you have questions related to the integration of our Electronic Health Record system, please click here.