This paper explores the experience of a psychotherapist working in a university counselling service, indicating the contribution I think a psychoanalytic orientation can make to this kind of work. The exposed ‘coalface’ nature of the work is illustrated, and some of the psychotherapeutic implications of working within a large organisation discussed. There is an exploration of institutional dynamics which bear directly upon the psychotherapist, in terms of what it is possible to provide, and of professional self-preservation and self-esteem. Analysis of the uses made of the counselling service is seen as a contribution towards enabling the service to represent properly itself and its concerns within the institution.