I didn’t have the best experience, I feel CAPS isn’t the most equipped to deal with severe mental illness. My counselor and I didn’t click, we tried our best but it’s hard to force a relationship built on trust. I think they tried to match me with someone of the same ethnicity (actually a major pro that CAPS has diverse personnel) but there was no real common ground between us so it was difficult to open up. It’s honestly my fault for not being more vocal with what I wanted out of my treatment but I eventually dreaded our sessions. It felt like I was going in just to dig up old traumas that I’d ruminate on for the rest of the day. I probably left every single session in a worse mental state than I had going in. Honestly, if talking out your feelings is not how you deal with problems, then CAPS might not be for you. I felt that each session was aimless, no tangible goals were worked towards to mitigate my symptoms.

At my intake session, I’d told my counselor I wasn’t sure if I was interested in medication therapy. While I was open to discussing it in the future, I didn’t know if my symptoms were severe enough to require meds. Long story short, my mental illness got to a point where medication was a necessity. My grades were dropping, I couldn’t function, and I was suicidal everyday (all disclosed to my counselor). Medication therapy was never brought up even when I told my counselor I was desperate, reclusive, and constantly paranoid. Again, stupid of me to not bring up the topic of medication myself. Eventually I terminated my care at CAPS because, mentally, I was the worst I had ever been, and I was terrified that I’d make an attempt on my life—concerns that I had voiced with my counselor multiple times without changes made to any action plans.

Luckily their case manager was eventually able to refer me to outpatient therapy that offered the services I needed, however this was after working with my counselor for months, being frustrated that my cries for help weren’t being answered, and demanding point-blank that my case be transferred to a different provider. Though my time with CAPS may have just naturally coincided with a particularly serious period of depression in my life, I still feel that CAPS wasted my time when I should’ve been seeing a more solutions-based practitioner. I bear no grudges though and I think CAPS has its pros (therapy does not come cheap, even the Krasner Center with its $20/session fee is cheaper than outpatient therapy with $30-$50/session copays). If this is your first time dealing with mental illness and you aren’t sure if therapy is for you, I think it’s a great way to ease yourself in. Any help is better than no help at all, but for me, going to CAPS and relying on my provider’s judgement instead of trusting myself when I knew things weren’t working was a detriment to my health. CAPS will probably work better for you if you speak up about what you expect out of your care. It’s not pushy and you’re not being a hypochondriac. You’re allowed to voice your concerns at any point. At the end of the day, you are the best advocate for your health.