Therapy is one of the resources provided by Skyline College to help people suffering from mental health issues.

According to Perry Chen, a personal counselor working in the Health and Wellness Department, students are offered free confidential short-term therapy for all currently enrolled students.

“Whether you are enrolled in online classes or in-person classes, we offer services for both,” Chen said. “In addition to mental health, we also offer physical health things, so if you’re sick or have a boo-boo, of course, come by to the health center and we can help you with that as well.” 

He also mentioned that students of Skyline, CSM and Cañada have access to an app called Timely Care, where you can get free mental health support all day any day. 

“You register using your school email address, that way it’s free,” Chen said. “Anytime you are in the app, anytime you need support, you can press the little blue ‘get care’ button and within five to seven minutes, you’re either on a Zoom call or a telephone with an actual real-live person.” 

If what Skyline provides is not quite enough, the Skyline health center can connect you to their outside agencies that are free or of low cost.

“One [other] resource that’s important for everyone to know about in this ‘crisis situation,’  you all heard of 911, but there is also 988. It’s a phone number you can call or text whenever you or somebody you know is in crisis,” Chen said.

Chen said that the best way to access the health center is through the email on the Skyline website at https://www.skylinecollege.edu/healthandwellness/personalcounseling.php or Google ‘Skyline College Personal Counseling.’ An alternative way is to directly email him at [email protected], or just walk into the health center office in Building 19, room 110.

“Therapists and medical professionals have some sort of higher confidentiality, but even we have exceptions as well,” Chen admitted. “If there are certain things around physical threats, imminent risk of suicide, then we have to break confidentiality.”

Skyline students discussed that they are familiar with the services and offered additional interventions that would better support them during their time in school.

Xochitl Espinoza, a Skyline student, said, “Making sure that the students know of the resources… more posters around, maybe more announcements. In the emails that they send out… [they could put in something like] ‘here’s what you can do to gain mental health resources’.”

Nathalie Aguliar Guerrero, a psychology major at Skyline, said, “I know that sometimes there’s therapy dogs that they bring into the library. I think that’s cool.”

Guerrero mentioned that Skyline does a good job of trying to help students with de-stressing.

“But maybe… [we should have] more opportunities to get credit done faster without having to take a bunch of classes all at the same time,” Guerrero said. “I feel like that would be helpful.”