The Bridge Peer Counseling Center

We are currently closed. We plan to resume our regular operations on Monday, October 2nd at 9am.

We'll be in a new location in Munger for the 2023-24 school year! Details to come soon.

Call us at (650) 723-3392. We're available 24/7 for calls!

Walk in: 9am to Midnight

Closed university holidays and breaks

What We Do

The Bridge Peer Counseling Center is Stanford’s student run peer-counseling center. We offer anonymous 24/7 peer counseling to members of the greater Stanford community. Staffed by trained undergraduate and graduate Stanford students, we are here to listen and support.

It is our belief that people have the fundamental ability to help and support others through personal interaction. We offer this interaction through peer counseling and support in an effort to guide those in need to develop their own solutions to problems. We are here to listen, to explore feelings, to help sort out issues and uncertainties, or just to talk.

Get Involved

We’d love to have you join us and we think you’ll love it too! Our counselors credit their experience with the Bridge for helping them in their personal lives and as preparation for jobs in a wide variety of fields including medicine, research, teaching, and social services. We were awarded ASSU Volunteer Student Organization of the Year in 2012, and by joining the Bridge, you’re joining the effort to help members of the Stanford community keep doing the amazing things they do and be the amazing people they are!

Only Stanford undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to staff at the Bridge. If you are a student and would like to become a Bridge counselor, you must successfully complete the following:

Education 193A – Listen Up! Core Peer Counseling Skills (2 units)
Education 193P – Peer Counseling at the Bridge (1 unit)
An evaluation upon completion of Education 193A

The training courses are offered every quarter (plenty of opportunities to join our staff throughout the year). We encourage aspiring counselors to take 193A followed by 193P.

If you’ve completed another course in peer counseling elsewhere, we still require that you complete the specified courses prior to staffing at The Bridge in order to make sure that we’re all on the same page in terms of style and competency. We welcome students of all skill levels, however – no prior experience is required.

The Bridge is entirely student-run and staffed. Students fill a variety of positions. Staff members serve as volunteer counselors for a few hours each week after completing the 10-week training course. Coordinators directly administer publicity, finances, workshops, and dorm outreach programs in addition to other activities. The live-ins are the resident counselors at The Bridge, serving as the administrative and peer counseling leadership, and the backbone of our 24-hour peer counseling service.

How can I get involved if I’m not a Stanford student?

If you are not a student, but represent another organization or would like to get involved in some way, please contact us at thebridgepeercounseling@gmail.com with information about yourself and ideas for potential collaborations.

How can I make a donation?

The Bridge is a student-run, self-supported campus organization with the unique quality (and added expense) of managing and maintaining a residential building for our live-in counselors. If you would like to make a donation to the Bridge, please contact us at thebridgepeercounseling@gmail.com and someone will get back to you with additional information.

More Questions? Contact Us!

History

Founded by Dr. Vincent D’Andrea, the Bridge began in 1971 primarily as a student-run drug counseling center. Dr. D’Andrea also created and taught a set of courses for student counselors. Yale University President Peter Salovey BA ’80 MA ‘80, who served as a Bridge Peer Counselor between 1977-1980, co-wrote the textbook “Peer Counseling: Skills and Perspectives” with Dr. D’Andrea. This textbook is still used to instruct the Bridge peer counselors in EDUC 193A today.

Since then, the Bridge has evolved into a general peer counseling, workshop, and support center for Stanford University and the surrounding area. The Bridge now is a community of staffers, coordinators, and live-in counselors who receive ongoing training and evaluation. Dr. Alejandro Martinez, who worked with our founder D’Andrea for 24 years, has been advising the Bridge for more than two decades.