Counseling Services

We provide free confidential counseling sessions for medical students. Students may schedule an appointment by calling 415-476-0468 or emailing Dr. Rebecca Watters or Dr. Vittorio Comelli. We can meet with you within a week, or sooner if necessary. We do our best to return phone calls and emails within 24 hours. We are available two evenings a week to accommodate students on clinical rotations.

Our services are confidential. All contact with the Well-Being Program is kept strictly separate from the UCSF School of Medicine. To help protect your privacy, we are located a short distance from campus at 735 Parnassus Avenue. On rare occasions, students request that we speak with faculty on their behalf. We will only do so after discussing this fully, concluding that this will be in the student’s best interest, and with a signed consent form.

Our services are free. We meet with students for one to three sessions to assess the issue. If it is useful, we may meet with students for up to ten free sessions per academic year.

We help make a plan that is right for you. We can provide short-term therapy, couples therapy, medication management, or supportive problem-solving. When appropriate, we make referrals to other therapists in the community who match the student’s needs and budget.

We encourage you to contact the Well-Being staff with any problem, big or small. Students come to see us for all sorts of matters. For example, students may come to discuss dealing with a family member’s illness, difficulty with a relationship, choosing a specialty, academic struggles, anxiety, or depression.