Young people have witnessed the growing demand for mental health care, especially in underserved areas like Eastern Washington, said Heidi Perez, associate professor of psychology and chair of the CWU Department of Psychology.

“Students know that it’s a big need within the community, especially as they’re seeing things like the lasting effects of COVID-19 on individuals’ mental health, anxiety, and depression,” she said. “They just want to serve and support and help.”

CWU and local partners are striving to meet the needs of both students and the community by restarting two programs that prepare future professionals: the mental health counseling master’s degree program and the on-campus community counseling clinic.

Renewed Focus On Counseling

Central launched a counseling graduate program in the 1970s and it eventually became a mental health counseling program. However, it went on hiatus in 2023 due to a lack of faculty—an unexpected perfect storm of people retiring or moving on to other jobs, Perez said.

But local healthcare leaders knew it was important to bring the program back. In May 2024, Comprehensive Healthcare gifted nearly $770,000 to the CWU Foundation to support the first two years of reopening.

The Comprehensive Healthcare Fund will cover hiring faculty members, administrative staff, and graduate assistants, as well as some operational costs.

“We’re confident in this partnership that develops a pipeline to significantly impact the workforce shortage we’ve seen over the years in community behavioral healthcare,” Comprehensive Healthcare CEO Jodi Daly said at the time the gift was announced.

The fund allows the CWU psychology department to hire more quickly than usual, Perez said. The department began the hiring process this summer, with plans to have faculty on board in the fall. Once the faculty is in place, the program can begin recruiting students. The goal is to welcome a new cohort of 12 students in 2025.

In the meantime, Professor of Psychology Sara Bender—the interim mental health counseling program coordinator—is revamping the curriculum to “make it the best possible program for students,” Perez said.

Bender said she’s felt supported by the university and community, and she is committed to getting the program off to a good start.

“I believe that we need competent, ethical, and compassionate mental health practitioners in our community, so this program is really important to me,” she said.

The curriculum updates reflect emerging best practices within the counseling profession, including an increased attention towards “telemental health,” Bender explained.

She’s also working to align the curriculum with Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards, which correspond to most states’ licensure requirements for counselors. The program will prepare students to serve in a variety of behavioral health jobs.

A robust graduate program will not only draw new students to Central; it will also tap into the pipeline of undergraduate psychology students who are eager to continue their education.

“There’s a resurgence of passion for the work,” Bender said. “And there’s a need.”

Community Clinic Reopens

Another cornerstone of Central’s mental health education program is the Community Counseling and Psychological Assessment Center (CCPAC), commonly referred to as “the clinic.” 

The CCPAC closed in late 2022 due to loss of staff and the mental health counseling program’s pause. Thanks to funding from Kittitas County, it recently reopened with a mission to serve Ellensburg youths from ages 12 to 17.

The Kittitas County Commission voted late last year to earmark $333,392 generated through the county’s one-tenth of 1% Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Tax to support the CWU clinic for the next two years.

Unlike many programs, Central combines in-house and external clinical training for mental health counseling students, Bender said. The students start with practicums in the CCPAC, where they are closely supervised by faculty, and are then placed in local clinical settings.

“This format honors students’ professional development, allowing them immediate access to faculty guidance and peer support at the beginning of their clinical training while serving the community in-house prior to expanding their professional network while placed in the community,” she said. “That supportive process is really important.”

Students in Central’s school psychology graduate program also gain practical experience in the CCPAC as they work toward their three-year education specialist (Ed.S.) degree.

School psychologists are distinct but complementary with school counselors. They primarily focus on disability evaluation for students with behavioral, social, and emotional challenges, while determining which special education services those students need. Their work also includes a mental health component, and Perez noted that school psychologists often report feeling unprepared for that part of their role.

While the CCPAC was closed, school psychology students trained directly in local school districts. Now, they will supplement their school-based practicums with their work in the clinic, said psychology Professor Heath Marrs, the program coordinator for the school psychology program.

“When you have an on-campus training clinic, it just provides a different level of supervision, a different level of training, and kind of a different approach,” Marrs said. “It’s really going to be great in helping us further develop that mental health service provision role of the school psychologist.”

Perez added that the Ellensburg School District will refer patients to the clinic.

“Hopefully, we can serve some students that the school district isn’t able to serve or that maybe need more ongoing care,” she said. “I think it will provide a new layer of support for those students.”

Marrs said he’s seen a similar model work successfully in the CWU Reading Intervention Center, where school psychology students gain experience evaluating and tutoring elementary-aged students.

Treating local middle and high school students at the CCPAC “will be really great because it allows our students to gain that training, but at the same time, they’re delivering those services that we just don’t have enough of because the demand is so high as the needs have increased,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to combine top-level training, while also providing that service to the community.”

Reigniting Hope

The first step in reopening the CCPAC was hiring a dedicated clinic director, which is a new role. Michele Gurtler started in July and comes to CWU with extensive experience in mental health services and serving Central Washington communities. 

Gurtler, who worked in behavioral health services at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic for the past 32 years, said she’s seen more kids struggling to manage their anxiety in the past 10 years, especially during and after the pandemic.

Directing the CCPAC gives her the chance to continue serving children while giving future professionals the practical experience they need to effectively support the kids and communities who need them.

“The need for mental health therapists is huge. Lots of places are looking; they always have openings,” Gurtler said. “I want to turn out some good-quality therapists and some good-quality school psychologists who are ready to go and work as soon as they graduate.”

Kittitas County Commissioner Brett Wachsmith, who helped facilitate the funding resolution for the clinic, said he hopes the county’s investment lays the groundwork for long-term success and expansion.

“It’s exciting to see the possibility of teaching and educating students here, and hopefully having the ability to retain them and their talents here locally, as opposed to just educating them and then they move on to different parts of Washington state or elsewhere,” Wachsmith said. “It’s just an exciting time to see where this goes.”

Since the Comprehensive Healthcare Fund and Kittitas County funding are both two-year commitments, Perez said the psychology department is looking for ways to sustainably support the mental health counseling graduate program and the CCPAC over the long term.

“We’re building them in what we hope will be the best version possible,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we can continue in that vein.”

If the programs are able to continue, they have potential to exponentially help the people of Washington and beyond.

“Our programs serve so many of the local agencies who already have trouble filling their job openings. We just have such a huge need in the community that is already unmet,” she said. “Even one new counselor makes a big difference.”

Read about a recent CWU School Psychology graduate who is giving back to his hometown of Yakima.