Downing Counseling Clinic Interim Co-director and licensed marriage and family therapist Jennifer Ross ’09 M.A.
Rachael Danielson (class of 2025)
By Rachael Danielson (class of 2025)
For nearly 30 years, hundreds of counselors have trained in the Downing Counseling Clinic, including the clinic’s new Interim Co-Director and teaching assistant professor of counseling Jennifer Ross ’09 M.A. (counseling & educational psychology). As part of the College of Education & Human Development’s Counseling Program, this in-house clinic provides a space for counselors-in-training to hone their skills while providing more than 5,000 hours of low-cost counseling services to University students and community members each year.
Looking ahead, the DCC is expanding its outreach to bridge the gap in mental health care in Nevada’s rural communities. Partnerships with Churchill and Humboldt County School Districts allow graduate studentinterns to provide much-needed services to youth in these areas.
“When our students can get a firsthand look at the needs and characteristics of the populations that make up our Nevada communities, they leave our program better prepared and more inspired to remain in our state and continue to provide quality mental health care right here where we need it,” Ross said.
Third-year mental health counseling intern Celia Wilson (class of 2024) chose to work out in Churchill County to help underserved children and adolescents. She said, “In many rural settings, school is the only opportunity for children to receive mental health services. Being able to provide these services for children who normally would not receive them is invaluable.”
With the addition of three new faculty members, the program now has the ability to train roughly 25 counselors per cohort, which makes it one of the largest programs in the state. First accredited in 1992, with the counseling clinic following just a few years later, the counseling program is guided by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs’ rigorous standards to develop highly skilled, ethical and culturally competent counselors who work in schools and across communities.
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