Director's Welcome

Welcome to the Student Health and Counseling Services website! 

As part of the Cougar family, Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) welcomes you and hopes that you will be thriving as a student while pursuing your academic dream here at California State University – San Marcos (CSUSM). What I can tell you based on my two decades of experiences of working with college students is that your success not only depends on your academic endeavors, but also your self-care efforts, which is also proven by research studies.

I often hear from many students that utilize our services, that they wished they could have known about SHCS earlier because they felt that our services were very helpful, and it might have been much better for them to utilize the service before their issue became worse. It is true, tackling health and mental health issues as soon as possible is a lot better option than waiting until you cannot resolve them by yourself anymore. I am not saying that you need to see a medical doctor or a mental health counselor whenever you have a problem because not every issue requires the same type of treatment. Sometimes you may just need a caring person’s attention and support, or sometimes you may just need some tips of improving health, mental health, or relationships. Whatever you are dealing with, I hope that you don’t have to wait too long, like your semester in your study, to find out that our campus provides so much support.

I hope that you can take an advantage of accessing so many helpful campus resources including our services at SHCS, which are designed to help you become successful as a student by taking care of your mind, body, and spirit. Our medical doctors, nurses, mental health counselors, health educators, and sexual violence prevention advocates are competent professional and compassionate human beings who truly care about our students. So, when you call or visit SHCS for your wellness care, you will be in good hands.

Currently our services are provided through in-person or telehealth (i.e. virtual sessions over Zoom), and we are taking measures to keep us all safe while you are getting the services you need. If you have COVID symptoms, please stay home and take care of yourself. When you come to the SHCS building, which is right next to the parking structure, you will have to wear a face covering. If you forgot to bring one, we will provide one. These safety measures will continue to change depending on the campus, local, state, and national COVID conditions.

If you would like to make an appointment, please call us at (760) 750-4915. If this is an emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest hospital. If you need to speak to a counselor immediately you can contact a phone crisis counselor 24 hours/7 days a week by calling 760-750-4915 (and press 9). We have so many other services we offer to you. Please check out the rest of contents of our website. If you have a compliment, suggestion or complaint regarding our staff or services that were provided, please complete the Patient Compliment/Suggestion/Complaint form in the Patient Feedback section of our website.

Thank you for visiting the SHCS website.

I wish you all the best.

Go Cougars!

Bongjoo J. Hwang, Ph.D.
Executive Director of SHCS

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