Making an Appointment with CMHS
1. Choose a Counselor
Read our bios if you want to request a counselor with a particular expertise or a specific racial, ethnic, or gender identity. Our front desk staff will match your request with your schedule. Please be aware that you may need to wait for an opening with a specific counselor; in that situation, our front desk staff may be able to offer you an earlier appointment with a different counselor. To increase counselor availability—both in terms of scheduling and diversity of counselors' identities and specialties—Mantra Health counselors are available for telemental health appointments with Tufts students. Just as at CMHS, they offer short-term counseling free of charge to eligible students. When you contact CMHS at 617-627-3360 to schedule an appointment with a counselor, our office staff can help connect you to a Mantra counselor.
If the counselor you see doesn’t feel like a good fit, you can either let your counselor know or call our front desk and request a different counselor.
2. Make An Appointment
Online: You can schedule a virtual or in-person individual counseling appointment, a 15-minute "Ask a Counselor" telephone consultation, a required pre-group meeting, or a virtual appointment with our Care Manager for Help with a Referral. During the academic year, these appointments can be made online.
Phone: You can call us at 617-627-3360 any weekday during business hours.
In-person: You can also stop by 120 Curtis Street (Sawyer House, masks required in common areas) during business hours Monday though Friday to schedule an appointment.
SMFA: Students who want to meet in-person with a counselor at the SMFA can make an appointment by:
- Calling 617-627-3360 and specifying that they want to meet in-person at the SMFA
- Emailing SMFA-CMHS@tufts.edu to request an appointment
- Walking in (no appointment needed) on Mondays from 1-2pm and Thursdays from 10-11am
Same-Day Scheduling: To provide rapid access for students who are not inclined to schedule in advance, we offer a limited number of same-day sessions each day. Call us at 617-627-3360 to request a same-day appointment; same-day appointments cannot be scheduled online.
Please note that because these appointments are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, flexibility in scheduling a convenient time will likely be limited. It is also possible that the day’s appointments will already be booked by the time you call. In that case, you can schedule an appointment for another day or call back on a different day to try again with same-day scheduling.
Through Mantra Care: Tufts University Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS) is collaborating with Mantra Care to offer students access to expanded hours and additional confidential clinicians for talk therapy. All students that have paid the Student Health & Wellness fee can use Mantra Care.
By logging in to the Mantra Care Hub, you can virtually connect with licensed therapists during daytime, evenings, or weekend hours.
Please note that telehealth sessions are a convenient and effective option for a wide variety of mental health needs, but sometimes not the most appropriate method for addressing one’s concerns. For individuals dealing with bipolar disorder, disordered eating, substance use problems, or active thoughts of self-harm or harm to others, we recommend starting the process of mental health treatment with an in-person assessment at CMHS to determine whether telehealth is the best option.
Follow this step-by-step guide to sign up:
- Visit mantrahealth.com/tufts
- Create your account by clicking on "Sign Up" using your @tufts.edu email address.
- Complete the onboarding tasks in the Care Hub, which take only 10 minutes, and schedule your initial appointment. Ensure that onboarding is completed before your first appointment.
- Log in to the Mantra Care Hub to meet with your therapist at the scheduled time.
3. Prepare For Your First Appointment
Please log into the Tufts University Health and Wellness Patient Portal to read and fill out all forms before you meet with your counselor. These forms discuss our confidentiality policy and ask for basic information about your emergency contacts, background, and goals, among other questions. If you have any questions or concerns about the content of these forms, your counselor will be happy to discuss them with you when you meet.
Whereas some forms are available ahead of time and can be filled out online after you schedule your appointment, one form (the CCAPS) needs to be completed shortly before your appointment starts. Please check in to your appointment—either virtually or at CMHS—at least 15 minutes early to complete any remaining forms, including the CCAPS.
4. Meet With Your Counselor
Counseling is an individually tailored process designed to help you cope with your concerns and come to a greater understanding of yourself. Counseling usually involves sharing personal information that may at times be sensitive or even distressing. Therefore, it is not uncommon during the course of counseling to feel more anxious or upset for a time. If you feel this way, it is important to share this information with your counselor so that your counselor can help you manage it.
Unless otherwise stated, appointments are 45 minutes.
At your first appointment, you and your counselor will review:
- The concerns you came in to discuss, considering these in light of your personal history and life experiences
- The goals for your counseling sessions and possible plans for achieving your goals
- Your treatment options, which may include brief individual counseling at CMHS, referral to a provider in the community, referral to a group, and/or referral to other on or off-campus resources
We will make treatment recommendations and will explain our recommendations as clearly as possible in the first appointment. You can then decide if and how you’d like to proceed.