Helpful Resources & Links

The Be Well Line provides ongoing confidential culturally-sensitive emotional support to anybody in California with counselors and virtual support groups; they're expressly not a crisis line.

The Crisis Text Line offers 24/7 confidential support if you’re feeling any painful emotions in a moment (i.e., not just suicidal) with trained Crisis Counselor volunteers.

Find Substance Use & Mental Health Treatment Centers with a US Health & Human Services search engine. The California Department of Health Care and CalHope provide assistance finding mental health care, physical care, and more. The Open Path Collective helps people in financial need still find therapy and Inclusive Therapist helps people find mental health care with providers who share our identities.

CRISIS? The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (dial 988) helps with free confidential support 24/7 providing help to anybody in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you & your loved ones, and best practices for professionals. Teens in crisis might prefer talking with trained volunteer teens as counselors through the national Teen Line and the California Youth Crisis Line. LGBTQ+ persons might like talking with the LGBT National Talkline or the Trevor Project for queer youth. Veterans might choose talking with qualified caring professions of the Dept of Veterans Affairs Veterans Crisis Line. But any crisis line will help you regardless of who you are.

HELPING SOMEBODY ELSE? Are you worried about someone who is maybe having suicidal thoughts? Know the Signs because pain isn't always obvious, even though there are usually subtle signs. Please assume you're the only person reaching out. It's natural to be a bystander and your caring voice means more than you may ever know. It's okay to ask directly if somebody is considering suicide, but speak with them as privately as possible. Just listen to their experiences. Share how you care about them. Avoid debating the value of life and don't minimize their problems. Generally advice isn't helpful, but encourage them to get help (e.g., crisis line, therapist, doctor). Learn more ways you can help with Talk Away the Dark. Maybe even take a free Mental Health First Aid class; I have. And I have a semicolon pin on my school backpack; I'm grateful I chose to continue.

Learn more about mental illness with a focus on teens and young adults with Mental Health is Health and Reach Out. Address the stigma of mental illness California’s Each Mind Matters and Monterey County’s National Alliance on Mental Illness.

The American Psychological Association (APA) offers mental health primers to help teachers help their students with issues like stress, anxiety, depression, anxiety, bullying, trauma, and more.

You@CSUMB offers free, confidential tools to help with physical and mental health, including screeners and links to local resources. It can be really hard to notice we have mental health challenges. Because however we experience things, especially when we live with it, it just feels normal. Screening tools are especially useful ways to recognize we might need help. They're not a diagnosis, but they're stepping stones nudging us to notice. MentalHealth and PMHealthNP offer free screening tools.

SELF-HELP! I've gone to therapy and I personally highly recommend it. But it can be hard, emotionally (e.g., stigma) and practically (e.g., finding affordable options). You might start with self-help resources, and continue using them even if you do have a therapist. The Australian Centre for Clinical Interventions provides free Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) workbooks & handouts about depression, anxiety, assertiveness, procrastination, & body image. If you'd like a comprehensive readable book with practical self-help exercises, I recommend Matthew McKay’s Messages: The Communication Handbook (used copies of earlier editions are available online for about $4). If you'd like to find insight into why and how you're struggling, I personally recommend Brianna Wiest's The Mountain is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery (which is harder to buy used since it was published in 2020).

Please see the Monterey County's Services List for resources such as help with food insecurity, housing, domestic abuse, child care, homelessness, disability, financial counseling and immigration. CSUMB maintains a similar list of off-campus basic need resources and below are campus-specific resources.

Help is available for addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking locally through the YWCA-Monterey, Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, CSUMB Campus Advocate, and nationally through RAINN. A National Domestic Violence Hotline counselor will confidentially talk with you about figuring out if you're being abused, creating a safety plan, and getting support for yourself or someone you care about.

The US Department of Health & Human Services provides detailed guides to find help with substance abuse, mental health, veteran’s services, and distress following a natural or human-caused disaster.

We grow as people by helping others. Through my personal experience and psychological knowledge, I'd say volunteering broadens our understanding, reminds us everything we have to be grateful about, and promotes deeper personal happiness. Some places to begin exploring are becoming a Point of Light, Just Serve, Do Something, Volunteer Match, with California, & with the United States

What’s So Good about a College Education? College costs a lot of your money, time, and effort. Is it really worth it? A classmate of yours shared with me how she started college not taking it so seriously. Then she found this essay inspired her. Maybe you too? When students ask my advice about classes, I recommend every semester finding a class to learn a skill you wouldn't have otherwise and find another class where you'll think differently and enrich meaning you bring into your life.

The Holland Code (RIASEC) career personality test is a psychological valid free assessment helping you broaden your career search and identify careers you might like exploring further. You'll get a three letter code and a link to a list of careers fitting your personality, along with considerable government-provided information about each.

You’re studying Psychology in college, but then what? Read the APA Careers in Psychology and the Psi Chi Careers in Psychology guides. Maybe graduate school is for you? Read the APA Graduate Education and the Psi Chi Graduate School resource guides. If you'd like to explore in depth, try 172 Psychology & Psychology-Related careers.

Register to vote in California online, if eligible (or other states).