That support is needed, said , vice president for student life. “Nationwide, 28 percent of students report higher than normal levels of stress, 19 percent report sleep difficulties, and 19 percent high levels of anxiety. We want the center to be a place that supports students in a variety of proactive ways so they can be successful here at EMU.”

A 2011 mental health survey at EMU, he said, indicated that 17 percent of the student body reported some level of depression or anxiety disorder, 14 percent reported some form of non-suicidal self-injury in the past year, and 43 percent reported body shape and weight among the most important things they think about.

The increased services mean that students in need or looking to receive some sort of support will receive prompt, skilled care. “If students need any support, whether it be for crisis or knowledge of resources, we want to make sure they have those immediately,” said Anderson. “If students need support for two or three sessions, the sooner they can get those sessions, the better. If students have ongoing struggles, it makes all the more sense that they get into counseling as soon as possible.”

The benefits are academic, as well. “Students who access counseling services return to school in subsequent terms — and graduate — at higher rates compared to the general student body,” said Smucker.

The increased services are the result of a new collaboration between the center and the (MAC) program, a vision of previous center director Pam Comer, who retired in June. Anderson, a graduate of the MAC program who has worked in multiple university counseling settings, will now help to carry out the plan.

The partnership expands services to the student body — and provides MAC practicum and internship students with a placement that offers “the opportunity for consistent skill development as a training site in a university context,” said MAC director Teresa Haase. “We are excited to partner with Tempest and see this all come to fruition.”

Four second-year master’s in counseling students who have completed 30 hours of graduate counseling coursework and a 100-hour clinical practicum, and who have been approved for internship by MAC faculty, are each offering 240 direct service hours — and 360 hours of indirect clinical work — this academic year.

“This is high quality, supervised care,” said MAC instructor . Each week, each intern receives one hour of individual face-to-face clinical supervision and two hours of group supervision, and attends counseling center meetings. Their supervisors are Haase, Dr. Nate Koser and Dr. Annmarie Early.

In addition to one-on-one sessions, the counseling center offers:

• Group counseling
• Depression and anxiety screenings
• Classroom presentations about topics such as suicide prevention or sexual assault awareness.
• 30-minute one-on-one mentoring sessions for any student through the , which is geared toward helping undergraduate students adjust to life away from home.

The award will be formally presented on Friday, Oct. 7, during the SACES annual conference in New Orleans. The southern region includes 14 states from Maryland to Texas.

Teresa Haase, program director and associate professor, and Cheree Hammond, assistant professor, will present at the conference along with student Katie Long. The trio will accept the award.

Haase says she thinks several aspects of the program helped EMU to stand out.

“We made a strong case regarding faculty involvement in mentoring, community service, our own clinical practice, training and presenting, and in furthering our students’ interest in the profession above and beyond the standards,” Haase says. “We also demonstrated that we have exceptional students who are making a difference in the community and receiving recognition for their clinical work and scholarship.”

In addition, she pointed to innovative, ongoing professional development that “demonstrates an intentional commitment to meaningful and cutting-edge training” as a factor.

The SACES Awards Committee says that the award “recognizes programs that demonstrate outstanding pre-service and in-service training in areas such as: professional identity, ethics, assessment, group work, counseling relationships and process, career development, counseling supervision, practicum and internship, evaluation and training methods, human growth and development and counseling socially and culturally diverse populations.”

MA in Counseling student Ryan Nolley says he believes the award is well deserved.

“Our program makes a concerted effort to teach from many different perspectives, interweaving humor and delight, while also furthering students’ ways of knowing and experiencing,” Nolley says. “I think of this award as an affirmation of walking the road less traveled. It’s an affirmation of a place where humility and excellence can co-exist.”

EMU Provost also lauded the recognition. “This is yet another indicator of the strength of our counseling program and the excellence of our faculty,” Kniss said. “It’s great to get this external validation for something we already believed about the quality of our program.”

It is the second major award for the program in a year’s time. Last November, program co-founder and professor David Glanzer received the from the Virginia Counselors Association. Glanzer retired at the end of the 2015-2016 academic year.

Other team members who were part of the SACES honor include professor Annmarie Early, assistant professor Nate Koser and administrative assistant Amanda Williams, as well as Kristy Koser, who served as the department’s professional development coordinator until June.

The foundation awarded five scholarships from a pool of approximately 30 applicants. Each recipient must commit to serving military personnel, veterans and their families in his or her future work.

“Michael is passionate about the needs of military families and veterans, and he is compassionate,” says , program director of EMU’s (CJP) and McAndrew’s advisor. “This scholarship could not have been given to a better person.”

McAndrew is a dual degree program at EMU, earning both a master’s in counseling and a master’s in conflict transformation.

Changing purpose

After graduating from East Carolina University, McAndrew spent four years in the Navy as a flight deck electrician. Though not in combat, he saw the trauma that military service often caused from being in battle, long periods spent away from home, ethical challenges and more.

“I saw a real need that wasn’t being addressed for service members and their mental health needs,” McAndrew says. “I could see how things affected people and how divorce, alcohol abuse, drug use and other things came out of that.”

McAndrew decided to leave the military and, with Docherty’s help, enrolled at EMU in 2013 to focus on veterans’ advocacy and trauma awareness through the STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) program and other CJP coursework.

[Read more about at EMU and Eastern Mennonite Seminary.]

Along the way he decided to expand his studies.

“Once I saw the need for better informed care for veterans and their families, I knew I had to stay and do a counseling program, as well,” McAndrew says. “It’s been great, because they mesh so well. They’re such similar things but also very different, as well. I really feel like I fit here.”

Tailored studies

Most recently he has been working with , assistant professor in the MA in Counseling program, in an independent study on psychoanalysis and its use as a therapy for veterans. The open-ended, free association approach can be more accessible for those typically averse to counseling.

“Michael’s experience in his military service, as well as his interaction with other veterans has been a great addition to this work,” Koser says. “He is a great student, and one who is not afraid to challenge the somewhat terrifying status quo of treatment services for veterans. I personally work as a psychoanalyst with veterans, and I can attest to the problematic nature and significant limitations of the treatment services they are typically offered.”

McAndrew praised EMU’s programs for being open to the expression of a variety of ideas while also opening him up to working with other populations, such as children, people with autism and senior citizens. Following his graduation next spring with dual MA degrees in counseling and conflict transformation, he hopes to stay in the Harrisonburg area. His wife, Mary Beth, is a behavioral analyst, so they have discussed doing counseling work together. Working with the Veterans Administration system, in higher education or with immigrant populations is also possible.

“I’m very comfortable with the ambiguity right now,” McAndrew says. “I’m kind of just ready for whatever the world sends me.”

Tija Krneta, Michael McAndrew, Lisa Reo and Rebecca Wright received the honor in the master’s division, competing against a nationwide field of teams. , assistant professor in EMU’s program, served as their faculty mentor.

Only four teams were recognized at the master’s level this year. First through third place honors went to Northeastern Illinois University, the College of William and Mary and Neumann University, respectively. Winners, along with links to each team’s project, will be published in the ACA magazine Counseling Today.

“To receive honorable mention is a great recognition, because many teams participate in this competition across the country,” Koser said. “Our team consisted entirely of students in their first year, so it is quite likely that next year we will have another strong team.”

The competition consists of a case study involving a specific ethical dilemma, often with multiple layers and facets.

“This year, the case involved a number of situations that related to issues faced by clinicians working in rural settings,” Koser said. “Our team worked through the dilemma utilizing the Code of Ethics of the American Counseling Association, as well as additional research into the ethical principles that undergird the codes.”

Specifically, the ethical dilemma focused on “dual relationships,” defined by the American Psychological Association as occurring when a therapist “is in a professional role with a person and at the same time is in another role with the same person” or “with a person closely associated with or related to” that person. Examples might include a friend, family member or student of the therapist, which the APA says could compromise objectivity or effectiveness.

Reo said this year’s dilemma was “complex,” but said the team came together quickly even during “an academically stressful part of the semester.”

The faculty mentor cannot assist the team in any way with its research or in writing the response of up to 15 pages. According to the ACA website, each team must clearly identify the perceived dilemma, the action they would take, justification for those actions, and a description of the model they used to arrive at their decision. ACA Ethics Committee members serve as judges.

“This competition was one of the biggest challenges of my semester, even more so than the class projects,” said McAndrew. He said the rural focus of this year’s study was particularly apt in the team’s Rockingham County context. “Our project was very collaborative, and I think the final product reflects the best of all our thinking about contemporary ethical issues in counseling.”

Students to present research

Three graduate students  will present at Virginia Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (VACES) Graduate Counseling Student Conference Feb. 27 at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Jordan Leahy, in “The Effects of Poverty and the Implications for Counselors,” will look at the effects that poverty can have on individuals who experience it, examining it as “an outside force that impairs the individual’s ability to function at their best and highest capabilities.” He recommends that poverty be added to the list of Adverse Childhood Experiences documented in earlier studies and looks at what this issue means for counselors.

Philip Schulte, in “Using Evolutionary Wisdom to Understand Mental Illness and Create Change,” will highlight the importance of the mind/body connection. “Specifically, diet, exercise, community and connection with nature provide excellent ways for individuals to both prevent and decrease struggles with mental health,” Schulte writes.

Alex Mitchell, in “The Relationship between Trans-Generational Trauma and Diagnosis Rates of Personality Disorders in Minority Populations,” will examine whether trans-generational trauma (trauma transferred from one generation to the next) is misdiagnosed as a personality disorder in some groups.

“People are having a really hard time not living in that fear, that panic, that terror,” Koser says, adding that the region is experiencing continual aftershocks and tremors. “They are no longer reporting anything below a 4 magnitude. People don’t sleep in their houses because they are afraid they could collapse. These events aren’t in the past.”

A long family connection to Nepal

Koser traveled with his father, Rick, and his brother, Josiah, who was born in Nepal when the family lived there from 1996 to 1998. A family friend who oversees missional work in Kathmandu arranged for the Kosers to provide relief labor such as “tunnelhouse” shelters for those who have lost their homes. Additionally, Rick, an anesthesiologist with considerable experience on medical missions around the world, provided general medical services. Josiah, studying to be an exercise specialist, talked about the benefits of exercise for trauma healing. And Nate, a licensed psychotherapist, addressed fear, stress and trauma management with school children in Kuwapani and Sunday School teachers in Kathmandu.

“I talked about how the arts and play can be very helpful, especially for children,” he said. “The arts allow people to take experiences that are chaotic and create something more accessible for discussion and expression.”

It’s not the first time members of the Koser family have returned to Nepal since their two-year mission (they first visited in 1996 before moving there permanently). They have traveled to different regions of the country in 2000, 2006 and 2011, engaging in relief work and volunteering each time.

The complexity of aid

This latest trip into a disaster zone, however, impressed upon Koser the complexities of what academics call the disaster management cycle.

The most obvious evidence, Koser says, is the piles of aid and supplies lining the runway of the Kathmandu airport that have become political commodities. “Long stretches of palettes were sitting there because the government was conflicted about who would get the supplies, who would distribute them, and which party would be in control.”

He pointed out that if individual donors and government-sponsored aid organizations took a greater interest in tracking where their donations were going, the politics associated with distribution could potentially be reduced. [Read more about .]

Reported death tolls are often used as a gauge to trigger relief efforts, yet Koser says he learned that the 8,019 dead reported by the country’s National Emergency Operations Center was actually an underestimation.

On the other hand, he says, Nepal’s economy depends on tourism and an accurate report of the devastation may discourage tourism.

“I was told to tell people when I got back to keep coming to Nepal. Go trekking. If people don’t get the message, then the livelihood of many people is exponentially worsened.” Koser says.

Media attention also helps generate relief, Koser said, but the media is always ready to move onto the next tragedy. The absence of media coverage may create the impression in the minds of donors that the disaster was resolved or the cause is hopeless.

Even weeks after his return, Koser is still grappling with the paradoxes of what he has seen.

Giving back and learning more

“I am making this trip for the people of Nepal,” Koser told before he left. “But it would be a lie to say that it is only for them. It is also for me. The Nepali people have given me an experience in life that has had such a profound effect, I am unable to articulate it in any adequate way. So, for this reason, I need to give back.”

This recent trip affirmed something he’s learned and practiced “over years of traveling, living in other places such as Nepal, and listening to people” in his local counseling practice. While the discipline of psychology tends to look for patterns and make generalizations based on the similarities between people, Koser says he strongly resists making generalizations about complex problems and jumping to a hasty answer before listening to each person. “Generalizations minimize people and reduce them to statistics. People are always the source of information, not matter what culture they come from.”

Produced by: Innerloupe Productions

Within ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř’s (EMU) professional counseling program, we strive to achieve the highest standards of excellence in providing psychologically and spiritually grounded training for counselors. We seek to create a community atmosphere within the program, a community bold with creative ideas and open with honesty, partnering in the inner work counselor training requires.

Find out more at: www.emu.edu/graduate-counseling/

Produced by: Innerloupe Productions
Audio: “Mending Wall” – Slow Dance

The new faculty, announced by provost Fred Kniss, are:

Amy Gillespie, EdD, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Gillespie earned a BS in nursing from Duke University and an MSN from the University of Virginia. She holds an EdD from the University of Phoenix and has over 30 years of floor and administrative nursing experience. Gillespie also brings collegiate adjunct faculty experience in teaching acute care medical-surgical nursing.

Jennifer Holsinger, PhD, associate professor of sociology

Holsinger earned a BA in sociology at Seattle Pacific University. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Washington. Holsinger has collegiate experience teaching as an associate professor at Whitworth University and served as interim director of the U.S. cultural studies minor in 2012-13. Her areas of scholarly interest are race and ethnic relations, urban sociology, environmental sociology, demography, applied sociology and African and Middle Eastern studies.

Daniel King, PhD, assistant professor of physics

King earned a BA in physics and music at Goshen College. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. King served as a teaching assistant providing laboratory instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include ultrasound, microbubble dynamics, acoustics, biomechanics and fluid mechanics.

Kristen Kirwan, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Kirwan earned a BS in nursing at the University of Virginia and an MSN from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Kirwan brings a variety of nursing experience both in hospitals and family nurse practitioner settings. Her most recent professional experience has been at James Madison University as a family nurse practitioner.

Nate Koser, PhD, assistant professor of counseling

Koser earned a BS in psychology and an MA in counseling from EMU. He completed his PhD at Saybrook University in summer 2013. Koser has collegiate experience as an instructor in the MA in counseling program at EMU. His interests are in assisting and accompanying individuals to move towards an authentic life.

Jessica Kraybill, PhD, assistant professor of psychology

Kraybill earned a BA in psychology at Earlham College. She holds an MS and PhD from Virginia Tech. Kraybill has collegiate teaching experience as an instructor at Virginia Tech. Her specialty is in developmental and biological psychology and shares that teaching is her passion.

Justin Poole, PhD, assistant professor of theater

Poole earned a BA in communications with a theater emphasis at Eastern University. He holds an MA from Villanova University and a PhD from the University of Maryland. Poole spent two years studying with the Austrian Academic Exchange Program, one year in Vienna and one year in Salzburg, Austria. His research interests are devised theater/ensemble play development, contemporary European experimental performance, and contemporary performances of classical texts.

Andrea Dalton Saner, assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language

Dalton Saner earned a BA in Bible at Messiah College and an MA at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She completed her PhD at Durham University in the United Kingdom in 2013. Dalton Saner’s faculty appointment will be a joint one with Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the undergraduate Bible and religion department. She has previous collegiate teaching experience at Goshen College. Her areas of interest include Old Testament theological interpretation.

Maria Esther Showalter, lecturer in the language and literature department

Showalter earned a BA in foreign languages from Gabriel R. Morena University in Bolivia and an MA from George Mason University. She has prior collegiate experience at EMU, having taught as an instructor in both the Intensive English Program and the language and literature department.

Debora Snarr, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Snarr earned a BS in nursing and an MSN at the University of Maryland. She is a certified adult nurse practitioner and brings years of nursing experience in a variety of settings. Her nursing experience has focused on diverse populations in different settings. Snarr is passionate about the voice of the nurse and evidence-based practice.

Jianghong (Esther) Tian, PhD, assistant professor of engineering

Tian earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a MS at Changsha Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD from the University of Virginia. Tian recently taught statistics and calculus at The Miller School of Albemarle in Charlottesville, Va. Her research interests include robotics.

Anne Waltner, DMA, assistant professor of music

Waltner earned a BA in piano performance and biology at Goshen College. She holds an MM from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and a DMA from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Waltner has collegiate teaching experience at West Virginia State University, where she directed keyboard studies. She maintains an active solo and collaborative performing schedule.

To be a candidate for the scholarship, Koser had to complete a 25-page essay on the relationship between his work and its connection to Rollo May, an existential psychologist and co-founder of Saybrook Graduate School.

“I drew from a number of different cases,” said Koser. “The essay wove together direct clinical work with qualifying essays and what happens in a relationship between a therapist and client.”

As a practicing psychoanalyst, Koser said, “Psychoanalysis has been historically categorized by most people as belonging only to the white, upper-class community. I want to subvert this presumption by bringing psychoanalysis to the underrepresented and reach people that it hasn’t in the past – not just in academics but also in clinical work. Psychoanalysis is a radical approach that applies to each unique subject.”

Koser, who earned his undergraduate in and graduate degree in from EMU, said his work as a student and faculty member “greatly influenced his doctoral work.”

“I did not grow up Mennonite, but what resonated with me is the focus on relationships and community that is found in the Mennonite faith.”

, director of the MA in counseling program at EMU, said the award “positions Nate to be a respected contributor to the field of Existential/Humanistic psychology and it also reflects the intention we have as a counselor training program to embrace the Existential/Humanistic way of working and being in the world.”

A student of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud, Koser said winning the award is a significant professional accomplishment, but its meaning has changed over time.

“Initially, I felt that receiving this award would provide me with some sort of authorization, as if winning it would provide a kind of credential,” said Koser, who also works for . “However, because I am unable to refuse analyzing such things, the award has provided me with yet another opportunity to learn something about myself, my motivations, and my desire. This seems much more important to me than any kind of credential.”

(Seated): Nate Koser, Genhi Whiter and (standing) Linda Leitch-Alford and Zachary Taylor review the counseling students’ award-winning essay. Photo by Jim Bishop

Nate Koser, Harrisonburg; Genhi Whitmer, Staunton; and Zachary Taylor, Harrisonburg were among 29 teams nationwide who submitted essays in the masters level competition. Each essay was reviewed by three separate reviewers from the ACA’s ethics committee and graded on a 100 point scale for a maximum score of 300 points.

The EMU students case study, which received a score of 288 points, related to a workplace issue based on the concept of dual relationships.

The case scenario involved an ethical situation that professional counselors commonly face. It involved a conflict – with implications for sound clinical practice – between a virtuous therapist, her supervisor and institutional policy.

The team prepared a 19-page paper identifying what they believed the dilemma to be, what they felt the most ethical actions should be, the justification for their proposed actions and a description of the decision-making model used in reaching that decision.

Linda Leitch-Alford, associate professor of counseling, teaches a course on professional applied ethics, which the students drew from in preparing their essay.

“I provided encouragement, otherwise the students were on their own,” Dr. Leitch-Alford said. “They did a stellar job. I’m proud of them.”

Teams from Youngstown (Ohio) State and College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va., took second and first place, respectively, in the competition. Only five points separated the top three teams.

The winners will receive letters of recognition and a mounted certificate and will be recognized at the ACA annual conference to be held in March in Charlotte, N.C. Winning essays will be published on the ACA web site at www.counseling.org.

EMU has 30 students currently enrolled in its MA in counseling program, which is accredited by The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The program offers a 60-semester hour, CACREP-approved track that prepares students for clinical practice as a licensed professional counselor and a dual degree that enables a student to earn both a master of divinity and an MA in counseling degree in less time than if both were pursued separately.