News
Changes to Counseling Center include hiring of a fifth psychologist
By Rylee Carrillo-Wagner ’19
April 28, 2016
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As conversations surrounding mental health on college campuses arise, so does the demand for the Counseling Center at Hamilton College. Since this time last year, there has been a 30 percent rise in demand for the Counseling Center and 113 percent more demand than four years ago. Psychiatrist Dr. Sascha Arbouet’s hours have been doubled to address this rise in demand and a part time clinician now works at the Center for 10 hours a week. To address this climb in demand, David Walden, director of the counseling center, announced even more changes to be enacted over the next year. This includes an additional staff psychologist, moving the Counseling Center to a different location and full use of the new peer-counseling program.
Dr. Hidetoshi Hama currently works for the University of Florida, but next year he will be joining Hamilton’s Counseling Center here on the Hill, providing the Center with five staff psychologists versus four. Walden spoke to his expertise, noting “Hama has extensive experience in counseling centers, is fluent in two languages, has experience as an international student and has deep skill sets in multicultural counseling, biofeedback and working with students diagnosed with learning disabilities.”
While Hama will be starting in the fall, the Center is also looking for a clinician for their rotating post-doctoral fellow role. This decision will be made close to the end of the semester. In regard to the new staff members, Walden stated, “we are deeply grateful to the administration for making that happen.” In addition, the Peer Counseling program will be in full swing next semester. With the help of Sarah Fishman ’16, the center has worked on developing the program this semester and now has an “amazing group of peer counselors who will be available to meet with students and who will help us continue to broaden our services to include wellness focused programming.”
To further account for the increase in demand, the Counseling Center will be moving down the Hill to 100 College Hill Road for the next two years. The new Health and Counseling Center building will be ready in 2018; however, the current situation is simply too small with current traffic. “The move is needed because we just don’t have the office space to house all of our staff in our current location. We recognize that 100 is further down the Hill, so we’re excited to move back up as quickly as possible to return to a central location,” stated Walden.
These changes are possible as result of administrative support and from this year’s senior class gift. Walden sees a positive future ahead for the Counseling Center: “We are excited about the future and to be able to continue serving students at Hamilton in creative and meaningful ways.”