The Psychological Counseling Center has begun offering several workshops since full-time Associate Director Michael LaFarr was hired last fall, after the University announced several changes to the Golding Health Center and Psychological Counseling Center's structure following Hodgkins-Beckley Consulting's review of both centers.

According to Senior Director of the PCC Robert Berlin in a phone interview with the Justice, since the release of the Hodgkins-Beckley Consulting report on the Health and Psychological Counseling Centers, no definitive plans have been made to address several suggestions the report made, and changes will not be set in stone until an executive director is hired.
However, as an executive director to oversee health and wellness has not yet been hired since Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel announced the changes this past November, the PCC has been at a standstill and has been unable to make concrete plans to address Hodgkins-Beckley Consulting's suggestions in its report.

The report stressed the need for an executive director for health and wellness, who will oversee both the Health Center and the Counseling Center, due to the existence of "stakeholders who are highly resistant to change and must be educated to recognize and understand the deficiencies of current operations and the opportunities associated with new strategic options.

"In addition to raising the service level of campus health and wellness, a position with this level of experience will be critical to conducting a successful request for proposals (RFP) process, realizing potential savings of shifting organizational and practice structures, and for implementing an insurance billing system to create significant savings/revenue," the report stated.

According to a Nov. 5 Justice article, Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellness Sheryl Sousa '90 said that she had hoped to have an executive director in place before the end of the spring semester. The University is still in the process of searching for someone to fill the position.

Flagel said in an interview with the Justice that the search committee is in its initial stages. However, he said that there was no timeline set in place, although he hopes that an executive director will be hired "as soon as possible."

According to Flagel, several "structural questions" came up regarding the volume of visits to the PCC. Nonetheless, he said that the PCC features an "extraordinary team."

According to the report, approximately 20 percent of Brandeis students make use of PCC services each academic year. "They present a wide range of concerns, including academic problems, relationship and roommate problems, family problems, substance use/abuse, sexuality, depression, anxiety and psychosis," the report read.

Berlin said that the Counseling Center is used by a number "heading toward" 700 students. He said that many of these cases are "active," and that "very, very few students come just once."

At the time of the report's release, according to Hodgkins Beckley Consulting, the PCC was staffed by over 20 part-time psychologists and social workers, three half-time psychiatrists and six unpaid interns.

Berlin declined to comment on how many clinicians are currently employed at the PCC in relation to the volume of students who use the PCC's services, but said that regardless of the number of students, "my clinicians are dedicated."

Although greater changes at the PCC will not be addressed until an executive director is hired, Flagel said that LaFarr has put in a "tremendous amount of work in the meantime."

LaFarr wrote in an email to the Justice that the PCC is addressing student feedback with a series of workshops as well as a wellness week, which he wrote is still in the works and will be announced at a future date.

"When I was brought on to the staff this past fall, Vice Presidents Flagel and Sousa asked me to expand outreach efforts to the community," LaFarr wrote in an email to the Justice. "I have done that through one on one meetings, trainings with faculty, attending faculty meetings, sitting on University wide committees, meeting with student groups, and working with the PCC staff to develop workshops based on students' requests."

Along with several events for students that have already occurred, such as a grief workshop and a session discussing perfectionism that took place in March, the PCC is also holding mindfulness and meditation sessions "for relaxing and coping with your thoughts and emotions," according to the description, on Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the Usdan Student Center Peace Room. The center also currently hosts a social skills and social anxiety group on Fridays from 2 to 2:50 p.m. in the Mailman House and will hold a discussion on building constructive relationships on March 31 at 8 p.m. in Mailman House. Another workshop discussing the stresses and strategies of completing dissertations has also been added.

One of the report's suggestions involved outreach to campus, and providing more support groups to the Brandeis community. According to the report at the time it was released, "[t]here is minimal outreach programming provided to the Brandeis community by the PCC, and there is no involvement of the PCC with numerous student support groups. This was true prior to the economic downturn of 2008 so the current lack of emphasis on outreach programming appears to be a reflection of philosophy and mission rather than a cost savings measure."

The report states that only two part-time staff positions were dedicated to outreach responsibilities, "amounting to less than one half-time position devoted to outreach programming and external training."

In addition, the report expressed concerns about the lack of group counseling services provided. "Only an eating disorders group was mentioned during the facility tour and in staff interviews," the report read.

According to LaFarr, the meditation group was created because one of the doctoral interns "had expertise in the area" and "a number of students" requested the creation of such a group. "It has been well attended," he wrote in an email to the Justice.

Although LaFarr wrote that the PCC will continue this outreach, he wrote that "[i]t's always a combination of student request and expertise."

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-Kathryn Brody contributed reporting