Mandatory Counseling of University Students:

Abstract

Counseling or mental health centers are often asked to provide mandatory psychotherapy to students as part of disciplinary sanctions and/or as a condition of students' continued enrollment at the university. Typically, these students are competent adults and pose no imminent danger to self or others. The institutional psychodynamics behind such mandatory referally reflect both the university's wishes for and ambivalence about psychotherapy. Legal, ethical, clinical, disciplinary and administrative contraindications to mandatory outpatient psychotherapy of university students are reviewed.