Mental well-being
Your students days can be a challenging time so it’s natural that you might need a little help from time to time. Find out who you can turn to, how to boost your well-being, and how you can come into contact with other students. Also learn what to do if personal circumstances begin to affect your studies.
Urgent situations
- Life-threatening situations: Call 112
- Suicidal thoughts:
- from a Dutch phone: call 113
- from a non-Dutch phone: call your country's hotline
- or chat online via 113.nl (click on ‘Chatten’) or your country's online chat service
If you need urgent psychological help, contact your GP. Outside office hours, you can contact the ‘Out of hours doctor’s post’ in Leiden or The Hague.
Student well-being website
The student well-being website provides tips and tricks to help you successfully get through your time as a student. Find out how to work on your own well-being, learn about the support on offer, and discover how to come into contact with fellow students.
Student psychologists
If you are registered as a student of Leiden University, you can use the services of the student psychologists.
The student psychologists can help with both study-related and personal problems. During your first consultation, you will together look into the best course of action for your situation. In some cases, that might be a workshop or training course in study skills or personal development. In other cases, the psychologist might offer you short-term individual guidance.
Not for specialised or long-term help
The student psychologist will not make a diagnosis nor offer therapy for serious psychological or psychiatric problems. If you require specialised or long-term help, please contact your GP to arrange a referral.
Important: make one appointment only!
If you need subsequent appointments, the student psychologist will discuss this with you during your first consultation.
No appointments available?
- There are three types of appointment in the system: online, in-person in Leiden, and in-person in The Hague. Check them all for availability!
- If none of the dates are clickable, the psychologists are fully booked. Try again later. The system shows appointments for the coming three weeks so new slots are added every day. And sometimes there are cancellations.
Can't make an appointment? Let us know
We would like to know how often this happens. Please let us know via this form and help us to improve our services.
Does the appointment system not load or you can’t click to the next month? Open the appointment system in a new window.
Cancelling your appointment
Can't make it to your appointment? Please let us know right away by calling +31 (0)71-5278026. Your slot can then be booked by another student.
Self-help: workshops and courses
You can also follow a range of Leiden University workshops and courses that address study-related and personal problems.
Courses
- Change your mind (RET)
- Relax with mindfulness
- Grief and recovery
- Study support group
- Fear of failure
- Back on track
Workshops
Ask your question by email
Do you have a short question that isn’t in the Student psychologists FAQ? Send it to the student psychologists by email. Note that this is not intended as an alternative for a personal consultation. If you want to discuss something in more depth, make an appointment.
Affecting your studies? Notify someone!
Are mental well-being issues or personal circumstances having an impact on your studies? Let your study adviser or coordinator know right away! Together you can decide on the best way to prevent you falling further behind and risk being issued with negative binding study advice (BSA). If you follow the official procedures for reporting and minimising study delay, the board of examiners must take your circumstances into consideration when issuing binding study advice.
Learn more about binding study advice (BSA) and exceptional circumstances.
Personal Support for LUC students
The Student Life Officer, Resident Assistants and the Student Life Counsellors ensure that you are supported in all aspects during your time at LUC. The foremost concern is your well-being. They all come from different backgrounds and bring different values to LUC.
Student Life Counselors
The SLC’s are fully trained psychologists with years of experience. They are located in room 4.09. You can book an appointment with one of the SLC’s by e-mailing slc@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Whether you are struggling due to personal or studies-related issues (or both!), SLC’s can help you understand the origin of these struggles and find new resources to manage better in your own specific situation. After a first consultation where your case is assessed by the SLC, you and the SLC will set a number of goals appropriate for your situation and draft a plan together consisting of: more individual sessions with the SLC, a referral to another support service (such as the SLO or Study Advisors), a referral to one of the workshops provided by the SLC’s, or a referral to an external psychologist. The plan might also consist of a combination of these options.
Like in any other therapeutic setting, all the information shared with the SLC’s is confidential, unless there is a clear threat to you or the people around you. Note that individual sessions with SLC’s are limited and are not intended to be a deep psychotherapy process.
Student Life Officer and Resident Assistants
Throughout the year, the SLO and RAs will offer you support within the residential life system. This will include not only efforts to build a vibrant community (at times working in conjunction with Fortuna, LUC’s students’ association), but also give students opportunities to learn more about issues that undergraduates regularly face (e.g. coping with stress, time management, health issues).