This paper looks at ways in which the university setting can influence the practice of psychotherapy. The culture of education has been to separate personal and intellectual development, and the challenge to the psychotherapist is to both work with and mend that split. Working with it means respecting and adapting to the institution's primary aim of intellectual achievement and the traditional organizational patterns. Attempts to mend the split are helped by understanding the real and symbolic place of the psychotherapy service within the setting and by developing collaborative relationships with students and staff based on an appreciation of the transferences.

Individual therapeutic work with the students inevitably has the double focus of personal maturation and completion of the academic task, but the balance will differ from case to case. By working with the complementarity of therapy and education, the psychotherapist can in turn make an impact on the institution.