Welcome!

Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) offer therapeutic services and programming for School of Medicine students. In your first appointment with a counselor, you'll meet to discuss what brings you into Counseling Services and then collaboratively create a plan tailored to your mental health needs.

List of Services:

  • 24/7 Crisis Support
  • Individual Therapy
  • Relationship/Couples Therapy
  • Group Therapy
  • Wellness Workshops
  • Referral to Community Providers
  • Referral to Psychiatric Services

Crisis Support

During business hours, students can call Counseling Services at 530-752-0871 or visit the Student Health and Counseling Service’s (SHCS) Acute Care Clinic on the first floor of the Student Health and Wellness Center for a crisis consultation. When SHCS is closed, Crisis Consultation Services can be accessed by calling the same number and following the after hours prompts. For more details about these services, including same-day crisis appointments, please visit the SHCS Crisis Care and Urgent Help webpage.

Scheduling

Click here to schedule a mental health counseling appointment.

  • School of Medicine students have exclusive access to embedded mental health counselors who have expertise in working with professional school students at UC Davis School of Medicine. To schedule with an embedded mental health counselor, select “Mental Health Intake”. Our embedded counselors offer in-person (FSSB, Suite 1400 | 4800 2nd Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95817; same building as Anatomy Lab and TAPS) and telehealth appointments.
  • Additionally, registered students have access all SHCS mental health counselors. You can book an appointment online with providers with the soonest availability, specialization, or identity-match. Simply select “Consultation Assessment and Resource Visit or “One Time Visit” to meet with any SHCS counselor. These appointments are available both in-person (Davis, CA) or via telehealth.

Psychiatric Care

Students hoping to schedule an appointment with one of our psychiatrists must first meet with any mental health clinicians or primary care at SHCS. Psychiatric appointments are available in person (Student Health and Wellness Center in Davis CA) and via telehealth.

  • $0 Copay for students with University of California Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP)
  • $30 Copay for students without SHIP

Embedded Counselors

Simonson
Stephen Simonson, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS)

Education
M.A. - California School of Professional Psychology - Alliant International University
Psy.D. - California School of Professional Psychology - Alliant International University

How I Work with Students
Together, with the student, I seek to foster a therapeutic environment grounded in genuine curiosity, empathy and authenticity. I come along-side students as they navigate their path to deeper fulfillment and learn to live fully, in ways that honor their unique needs. I work collaboratively with students to promote wellness in multiple intersections of their lives including academic/professional, physical, emotional, spiritual, interpersonal relationships and more. I take specific interest in the unique stressors and dynamics that impact medical students.

Professional Interests 
Professional Interests Professional and personal identity development, stress, depression and anxiety management, couples therapy/relationship concerns, gender and sexuality, LGBTQQIA topics, trauma informed treatment, trans-cultural psychology, psychodynamic psychotherapy and mindfulness.

Simonson
Pilar Gonzalez-Doupe, Ph.D.
Licensed Counseling Psychologist
Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS)

Education
M.Sc. – Marriage and Family Therapy - Purdue University, Indiana
M.Sc. – Ashridge Executive Coaching – Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted UK
Ph.D. – Counseling Psychology – University of Wisconsin-Madison

How I Work with Students
I offer a quiet, confidential place to explore new thoughts, actions and feelings in a safe therapeutic relationship. My focus is to help students find the words to define their experience, and to renew their confidence in their own sense of knowing. I encourage students to set the pace of their therapy, and identify what is most challenging and most meaningful to them in their lives. My role is to help clarify the issues, through use of questions, metaphor and active exercises. I am particularly interested in issues of professional identity, vulnerability and learning. I enjoy working with individuals, as well as with groups and couples. I provide therapy in both English and Spanish.

Professional Interests 
Professional Interests Family dynamics, couple’s communication, conflict resolution, resilience and compassion, grief work, gender expression and self-identity, work-life balance, cross-cultural interactions, relationship trauma and violence, feminist-informed practice, career and professional identity, leadership training and professional coaching.

Simonson
Vanessa Wu, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS)

Education
Ph.D. – California School of Professional Psychology - Alliant International University, San Diego


Languages:
English and Mandarin

How I Work with Students
I believe in collaborating with students in therapy work. I take a holistic approach when doing therapy and take care to meet people where they are at while also considering their backgrounds and other diversity factors. I like to help people to develop skills that tune into the present moment and work towards what matters most to them in life.

About me:
I am a psychologist who is a generalist by training but am also specialty trained in treating trauma and PTSD. I have experience in settings ranging from hospitals to outpatient clinics and have worked with a wide range of psychiatric concerns, communities, and backgrounds. Other identities I hold include being an immigrant, bicultural Asian American, and a proud dog mom. Providing therapy in someone’s preferred language when possible is important to me, and I can conduct sessions in either English, Mandarin, or “Chinglish,” if you will.

Professional Interests 
Trauma/PTSD, acceptance and mindfulness, acculturation and immigration, identity, multiculturalism, gender and sexuality, depression, anxiety, and stress management.

Additional Resource

Students can access additional support through campus Student Health Counseling Services Community Advising Network that provides a diverse group of professional staff who understand student issues.  CAN Counselors provide students with consultation and personal counseling https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/services/can