Are you feeling distressed?

Our psychosocial counselling service is free of charge and confidential

Whether you have worries during your studies or private problems - we support you in difficult life situations. Our consultants are there for you and also inform you about the possibilities of therapeutic support.

Personal on-site appointments can be made during office hours. Current office hours in the Studentenwerk Potsdam are Tuesday 9 am - 12 p.m. and 1 pm - 4 pm and Thursday 1 pm - 4 pm. Alternatively, there is the option of a telephone consultation as well as a video call consultation via the certified provider Red Medical.

To make an appointment, you can reach us by e-mail or telephone. Please indicate which way you would like to be advised (on-site at the Studentenwerk, by phone or video call).

In which cases do we offer help?

  • Difficulties associated with studying (fear of speaking in public or exam anxiety, writer’s block, procrastination, withdrawal from studies etc.)
  • States of anxiety, depressive moods, problems caused by low self-esteem
  • Partnership conflicts, difficult family situations
  • Psychosomatic complaints, eating disorders
  • Contact and relationship problems (social isolation, problems with friends and fellow students)
  • Addictions (drugs, alcohol, media)
  • Financial worries

FAQ

The offer is aimed at all students of the following universities:   

  •   Universität Potsdam
  •   Fachhochschule Potsdam
  •   Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
  •   Technische Hochschule Brandenburg
  •   Technische Hochschule Wildau
  •   Fachhochschule Clara Hoffbauer Potsdam
  •   University of Europe Potsdam

Our psychosocial counselling services are here to support students, who struggle with study-related difficulties as well as personal problems.

You may be wondering whether your problem is "big enough" to get counselling at all. Don't worry about that. You can come to us with all the problems that concern you.

No, bringing your student ID is not necessary.

Nobody. The conversations are strictly confidential and subject to the obligation of secrecy.

Yes, we offer consultation in German and in English.

We usually reserve 45 minutes for a personal consultation.

At the Psychosocial Counseling Service, personal appointments can currently be made again on site during office hours. Current office hours in the Studentwerk are Tuesday 9 am - 12 am and 1 pm - 4 pm  and Thursday 1 pm - 4 pm.

Counseling is also available by phone or video call, primarily Monday through Friday between 10 am and 2 pm. Other appointments are possible by appointment. Please arrange a consultation appointment with us, gladly by e-mail.

In some cases, even the first meeting can be helpful to clarify the situation and find solutions. If necessary, follow-up meetings can be arranged with us. We also inform you about options such as psychotherapy.

No, we can only offer counselling. If psychotherapy is an option for you, we can inform you about the conditions and possibilities.

We have compiled contact points for emergencies and crises for you here on our website:

Contact points in emergencies and crises

If you are a student at the University of Potsdam, you can also contact the Psychological Counselling Centre at the University of Potsdam

Privacy Policy Psychosocial Counselling

We take the protection of your private data very seriously, i.e. we treat the data entrusted to us in strict confidence in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations and handle it responsibly. Therefore, we would like to inform you here about how we implement data protection regulations at the Studentenwerk Potsdam and which personal data we process for the services in the social counselling.

1. Name and contact details of the data controller and the company data protection officer

The Studentenwerk Potsdam, Babelsberger Straße 02, 14473 Potsdam (referred to as “we” in the text), is the controller in the sense of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our company data protection officer can be contacted at the above address or can be reached at datenschutz[at]studentenwerk-potsdam.de.

2. Collection and storage of personal data and the nature, purpose and use thereof

We process personal data related to our social counselling services. This may be general data about you (such as name, address, contact details, family status), information about your biography or professional qualifications, or other information that you provide to us in connection with your request for services and advice.

We only process your personal data for the fulfilment of the public tasks assigned to us in accordance with § 81 Para. 3 of the Brandenburg Higher Education Act (BbgHG) for preventive health care, care or treatment in the health or social sector and for general advice and information. The processing is based on the following legal grounds:

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit e) GDPR. According to this provision, the processing of personal data by public bodies is permissible if it is necessary for the performance of the task covered by the competence of the controller or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. Furthermore, data processing is carried out on the basis of your consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 a) GDPR) in the context of preventive health care or care or treatment in the health and social sector (§ 22 Para. 1 No. 1 b) Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG)) or to fulfil a legal obligation (Art. 6 Para. 1 c) GDPR).

Should the data be required for any legal action after the conclusion of the procedures, data processing may be carried out on the basis of the requirements of Art. 6 GDPR, in particular to safeguard legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our interest then consists of asserting or defending claims.

According to Art. 6 Para. 1 P. 1 lit. c GDPR, we may store your data for up to 10 years due to tax and commercial law retention and documentation obligations as well as professional retention periods.

To conduct social counseling and psychosocial counseling via video telephony, we use the tool "Red Connect". This tool is a service of RED Medical Systems GmbH for online meetings. In addition to that we use the tool "DFNsync" to contduct webinars and online-events. This tool is hosted by Deutsches Forschungsnetz e.V. (DNF). During video counseling, in addition to the above-mentioned personal data (name, e-mail), the IP address and metadata of the meeting (appointments, resources (device information), access code) are processed. Image and telephone data are optional. Audio and video content are only processed during the respective online meeting. Date, time and duration of the video consultation are not stored by us but only locally at your site. Recordings do not take place unless you were actively informed of this before the start of the video consultation and have agreed to this in writing.

3.  Passing on data

Your personal data will not be transferred to third parties. Internal bodies shall only be granted access to data for which they are responsible for processing or within the scope of their tasks. Furthermore, personal data is processed on our behalf on the basis of contracts pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR, which ensure that the data processing is carried out in a permissible manner. A transfer to a third country does not take place and is not intended.

4. Your rights

You have the right

  • Pursuant to Art. 7 (3) DSGVO, to revoke your consent once given to us at any time. This has the consequence that we may no longer continue the data processing, which was based on this consent, for the future;
     
  • in accordance with Art. 15 DSGVO, to request information about your personal data processed by us;
     
  •  pursuant to Art. 16 DSGVO, to request without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data held by us;
     
  • pursuant to Art. 17 DSGVO, to request the erasure of your personal data stored by us, unless the processing is necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest, or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
     
  • pursuant to Art. 18 DSGVO, to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data, insofar as the accuracy of the data is disputed by you, the processing is unlawful, but you object to its erasure and we no longer require the data, but you need it for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims or you have objected to the processing pursuant to Art. 21 DSGVO;
     
  • pursuant to Art. 20 DSGVO, to receive your personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, common and machine-readable format or to request the transfer to another controller; and
     
  • complain to a supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 DSGVO. As a rule, you can contact the supervisory authority of your usual place of residence or workplace or our company headquarters for this purpose
     
  • object to the processing of your personal data in accordance with 21 DSGVO, provided that your personal data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests in accordance with Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. f DSGVO and there are grounds for your objection that arise from your particular situation.

5. Necessity of providing personal data.

The provision of personal data is neither mandatory nor are you obliged to provide it. However, the provision of your data is necessary for comprehensive psychosocial counseling tailored to you. This means that unless you provide us with personal data for counseling, your service request cannot be properly processed.

6. No automated decision making

There is no automated decision-making in individual cases within the meaning of Art. 22 DSGVO.

 

Contact

Christine Decker
Psychosocial Counselling Service
room: 4.20
+49 331 3706-252
Babelsberger Straße 2
14473
Potsdam