Counseling Center gets new home

Dedicated waiting area, group counseling space among upgrades in Rivendell building

By California State University, Bakersfield

February 7^th, 2024

Students seeking counseling services on campus can now take advantage of a new space aimed at better meeting their needs.

California State University, Bakersfield’s Counseling Center has moved from its longtime location in Student Health Services to a space all its own in Student Housing West’s Rivendell building. The move allows the center to expand its programming and services as well as provide a quieter, more private space for students.

“We are excited about the renovations and opening of the Counseling Center in Rivendell, which means that students have a comfortable space to wait for their counselors, study or relax, utilize a private space for crisis conversations, participate in group counseling in a dedicated space and enjoy counselor’s offices that are conducive to the critical work of mental health counseling,” said Dean of Students Emily Poole Callahan.

The university has spent the last few years working toward establishing a new space for the Counseling Center after receiving state funding in 2021 for increasing mental health resources. That funding was partially used to hire two counselors.

That growth was essential, Callahan said, as the need for counseling services has risen over the years. But with that growth came challenges with space.

The Counseling Center started getting more cramped being housed within Student Health Services, which itself has been growing over the past few years. There was no dedicated waiting area or group counseling space and counselors had much smaller offices to meet with clients than they do now.

“It was not conducive to a clinical setting. For us to have the ability to serve our students in the capacity that they deserve, we really needed to be in a larger space,” Callahan said. “This new location allows for a comfortable place for our students to meet with their counselor.”

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Ghazal Abbas, who has been with the center for nearly two years, said she appreciates having the new location and a larger office.

“It’s really exciting for me to have a bigger space where I can meet with students and they can have a little privacy away from everything,” she said. “I feel really thankful as a counselor to be in a space where we have this dedicated area for students to come to for counseling and mental health support. I’m excited and grateful to be able to be part of the beginning of this new Counseling Center.”

Looking to the future

The counselors in the center are anticipating the new opportunities for services and programming that its new home can provide. They hope to provide more group counseling opportunities as well as workshops and other programming.

“I’m really excited about the future. We can think about programs for students we didn’t have the flexibility to do before,” said Licensed Clinical Psychologist Michael Harville.

One new program is already underway. Licensed Clinical Social Worker Jose Medina is leading a support group titled “FirstGen Latinx: Navigating College Juntos” that is focused on helping first-generation Latinx students.

The group will meet four times this spring, starting this Wednesday at 11 a.m. Visit the Counseling Center’s Instagram page for more information.

“My hope is that it provides a platform for students to talk and share their stories,” said Medina, a CSUB alumnus. “Sometimes we might forget that students are not just students — they are a child, a sibling, first-year college student, a parent, a transfer student, etc., and they all have their own unique story with their own unique difficulty that we can help with.”

Harville believes there’s a great opportunity for the center to partner with some of the other departments and programs in Student Housing West, such as the Multicultural Alliance and Gender Equity Resource Center and the Graduate Student Center.

“We’re clumped together with the other student services out here, so we want to collaborate more with them,” he said. “It will be a much easier transition if we work together to get students into these services.”

Harville, who has worked in the Counseling Center for nearly two decades, has seen students’ views on counseling shift over the years. He said more students seem willing to get counseling now than they used to.

“When I started, there was a much larger stigma in seeking mental health. That’s transitioned quite a bit,” he said. “It’s becoming more a part of someone’s self-care and is considered a very reasonable choice. Some are proud of the fact they’re taking care of themselves in that way. I’m very excited about that — that counseling is becoming more normalized.”

Harville hopes the new Counseling Center will encourage more students to take advantage of its services. He has already received positive feedback from the clients he’s met there so far.

“It used to be that if I was sitting across from somebody, it was possible to bump feet due to the limited space. Now people have some room to move around. It’s much more comfortable,” he said. “I really appreciate the university’s commitment to mental health and being willing to put resources into this. There’s going to be a continued need for mental health services for students and this allows us to better meet their needs.”