Stigma Toward Seeking Mental Health Services Among Graduate Counseling Students

Stigma surrounding mental illness creates many barriers that may impede individuals, including mental health professionals themselves, from seeking mental health services. Due to such pervasiveness of mental health stigma and the subsequent implications for professional counseling efficacy, the present study sought to examine stigmatic attitudes among graduate counseling students in training. Results showed that among counseling student participants, self- stigma was more prevalent than public-stigma, suggesting that students were more affected by their internal perceptions of what it means to seek mental health services as opposed to negative societal perceptions about mental health.