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BIRMA GAINOR
Counseling and Psychological Services is an integral
part of Clemson’s support for students. With a wide-
ranging continuum of specialty care and intensity of
services, Gainor leads a team responsible for aiding in
the resilience and success of students.
What are some of the current trends in caring for
the mental health needs of students?
“Students are presenting in crisis more than in
the past. We re-tooled our resources to provide
more crisis intervention. It’s less about longer term
therapy and more about guiding a student through an
evolving situation. Certain issues require long-term
intervention and we do more training around trauma
and higher-level diagnoses. We’re also seeing an
increase in intensity.”
How do you define your area’s role in the goal of
delivering the nation’s No. 1 student experience?
“This microgeneration of students is unique; they’re
able to navigate online learning and are adaptable.
They’re resilient because they had to change with
situations out of their control. On the downside, we
Birma Gainor (left) is the director of Counseling and Psychological Services, within Student Health Services.
see less soft skills in students—getting along with
people and forming interpersonal relationships.
We build bridges to connections. Students call and
want help, so we build a bridge toward getting them
connected. After that, we empower the student to
proactively engage in their own interventions. It’s
a community effort of working together, built on
relationship and based on empowerment.”
What are you most proud of in your short time as
director of CAPS?
“The way we’ve changed our service delivery has
allowed students to gain access to immediate crisis
support. We’re much more nimble in providing
intervention to students to meet needs up front.
We’re able to intervene quickly to work with the
population so they’re able to do the things they
need to do to be successful.”
3
,
099
Students visited Redfern Health Center for
9,152
counseling
and psychological appointments, an increase of
11.0
%
from FY22
Staff Spotlight
Question and Answer