Office of Counseling and Guidance

About OCG

Services

Staff

The Office of Counseling and Guidance (OCG) is a support service to the academic programs of the University. It is one of the offices of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA). OCG’s two main professional services are counseling and psychological assessment. OCG was created by the Board of Regents on April 6, 1956 (Section 3, Article 151 of the 1984 Revised University of the Philippines Code).

History

The earliest incarnation of the OCG, and the first office responsible for guidance functions, was the Guidance Services Office (GSO), within the College of Education, with Professor Esperanza R. Limcaco as head. Later, in 1953, the Student Personnel Services (SPS) office under the then Dean of Women paved the way for systematized guidance and counseling.

In 1956, the Office of Guidance and Counseling Services (OGCS) was established. This paved the way for further milestones, such as the administering of the first entrance test (1957). In 1959, the Office, then renamed the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC), was placed under the newly-created Office of Student Affairs, the predecessor of the current Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Student Affirs. In 1969, the Division of Counseling and Guidance (DCG) superseded the Counseling and Testing Center. Testing of international students also became the responsibility of the new DCG as well as the old CTC — in 1969, the Foreign Student Section (later renamed International Students Program in 1972 and transferred to the Dean of Students) was added to the DCG to faciliate international students testing.

In 1974, the DCG was transferred to the Office of the Vice-President for Student Affairs. It had to be noted that the office was under the Vice-President for Student Affairs, as Diliman was not yet autonomous at the time. By the creation of UP Diliman as an autonomous constituent university of the UP System in 1983, The DCG was returned to the Office of Student Affairs and renamed to its current name.

Counseling Services

OCG’s counseling services are available to help students adjust to the University life, make important life choices, and embark on the task of defining and pursuing their life goals. Students either come voluntarily for individual counseling or are referred by their teachers and/or college. College referrals for intake interviews as well as processes for readmission and applications for non-major and shifting can also lead to counseling. Counseling can be done either individually or by group to address students’ academic, career, personal, interpersonal, and family concerns toward overall improvement of their health, wellbeing, and outlook.

Psychological Assessment and Evaluation

Psychological assessments, particularly on the dimensions of personality, emotional stability, career interest, study orientation, mental ability and aptitude are available in OCG. The Psychological Assessment Services of OCG aims to:

provide information that aids in career exploration and counseling;
make the students become more aware of their emotional stability and understand one’s personality;
provide requesting academic units with information regarding fitness of students for their targeted study program for admission/ shifting or field of work/ internship
assist academic and non-academic units of UPD in addressing their personnel assessment concerns; and
Provide psychological tests for pre-employment and qualifying exam purposes of non-UP service users from the government sectors whenever time allows for it

Referral Service

Students who need more specialized support are referred to appropriate professional/ offices. OCG works closely with UPD PsycServ and the University Health Service. Referrals are also made outside UP if necessary.

Celebrate Life (or Flourish-Oriented) Workshops

In developing and preparing these seminar-workshops, OCG keeps in mind sustainability, or continuous relevance to the needs of academic units for continued support; growth and resiliency, to allow students to survive and thrive, or “flourish,” in the university; the personal and experiential, to surface insights and hone life skills through various activities; representation, or the participation of diverse students from different colleges in the campus; and gender-sensitivity, to be responsive to concerns and sensibilities of gendered student populations.

Celebrate Life creates opportunities for OCG to connect with more students, targeting those who do not usually visit the office. It hopes to introduce new students to the UP culture with practical tips on how to survive and flourish in the campus; and to offer learning opportunities to continuing students to enhance their competencies on key issues confronting them.

Celebrate Life, the annual event

In solidarity with the World Suicide Prevention Day and in response to the increase in the number of reported cases of students having depression, suicidal ideations and suicide attempts, OCG saw the need to organize activities that will communicate to students that life in UP is an ongoing invitation to experience flourish, joy, and meaning. Instead of the themes of illness, vulnerability, and risk, Celebrate Life, through its activities every September since 2015, highlights resilience, growth, and thriving. It is celebratory in nature with activities involving the participation of the whole person: mind, body, emotions and spirit.

Peer Psychosocial Support: The Buddy System

The Office of Counseling and Guidance also seeks to capacitate different sectors of the UP Diliman community to provide psychosocial support to students in the campus. The Buddy System aims to connect UP students who need psychosocial support with volunteer students who will be trained in helping orient students to UP life. A Buddy is a volunteer undergraduate or graduate student who wishes to help other students by (1) getting them oriented to life at UP; (2) helping them access important information that is available in the campus; (3) creating opportunities for them to find and keep friends; (4) providing them a listening ear; (5) offering them basic psychosocial support, and (6) referring them to other helpers, to professionals, for concerns that are beyond their capacity to address.

The program has yet to be reactivated for a remote setup.

University Job Fair

UJF fulfills the purpose of exposing students to a diverse range of jobs to suit their equally diverse fields of specialization. The UJF is a project of the OCG in coordination with the UP Diliman University Student Council and various student organizations. It aims

to provide career preparations and opportunities primarily to graduating students as well as those in the internship phase of their study programs;
to introduce to students a framework on career pathing that can guide their employment search;
to develop in the students wholesome employment/ career search and decision making processes;
to create opportunities for student leaders and organizations working hand in hand with OCG in helping support the graduating students’ transition from being students to becoming part of the country’s work force; and
to establish linkages and enhance working relationships in support of better employment opportunities for graduating students.

The Job Fair is also open to students in earlier batches, graduate students, and other members of the UP community who may be scouting for jobs.