The Bridge Peer Counseling Center

The Bridge Peer Counseling Center (usually referred to as simply The Bridge) is a student-run 24-hour peer-counseling center at Stanford University that offers free confidential counseling and a comprehensive information and referral service. It primarily serves the undergraduate and graduate student communities of Stanford, but is also open to the general public. The drop-in service is available from 9am to midnight every day, but people can call 24 hours a day, 7 days week.

History[]

The Bridge was founded in 1971, under the supervision of Dr. Vincent D'Andrea,^[1] a staff psychiatrist at the Cowell Student Health Services, and was originally intended as a confidential drug-counseling center. Over the years, it evolved into a general peer-counseling center.

The name was inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which had topped the Billboard charts the year before.

Operation[]

The Bridge is staffed entirely by undergraduate and graduate student volunteers. The service is anchored by four live-in counselors, who cover the night shifts and take on administrative and mentoring roles.

All counselors take two ten-week courses that cover basic counseling methods and surveys a wide variety of campus health issues. This class is taught by a full-time staff psychologist at , with the assistance of Bridge counselors.

Every year from 1971 to 2008, The Bridge organized the , a three-day-long fine arts and crafts fair, to fund itself. Since 2009, the Bridge has received funding through ASSU Special Fees as a registered student group.

Notable alumni[]

• Cory Booker, U.S. Senator from New Jersey, 2013-present; Mayor of Newark, 2006-2013
• Peter Salovey, President, Yale University, 2013- ; Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology, Yale University, 1986- ;

References[]

External links[]

• The Bridge Peer Counseling Center Website