By Llen King
Reporter
Amanda Hall, Crowder’s new counselor, loves helping students and Crowder’s family environment.
Where did you go to college, and what was your college experience like?
I did my undergrad at Mizzou in Columbia and I did my graduate school at Pitt State to get my masters. So, one of the big differences I guess between grad school and undergraduate school was just being more involved in the department, being kind of around the professors a lot more, being more active during office hours and stuff like that. During my undergrad, I didn’t do that so much. It was kind of that thought process like, I don’t want to bother them. When I was Pitt State, I was a lot more involved. You get to know them better; they get to know you. They can help you out with a lot of things instead of just “Hey here’s the answer to tomorrow’s quiz.” Building that relationship is really good because they can be mentors and not just teachers.
What is something that you learned that you would give as advice to students about going to college?
A lot of it is learning to be more motivated internally instead of externally. Now you don’t have parents breathing down your neck so that you get to class on time. Nobody’s calling home when you miss class. There’s not somebody saying “Now it’s time to study.” You have to do that all on your own. Kind of figuring out, how do you motivate yourself, how do you make your own schedule. It’s not someone telling you you have to but of course if you want the outcome then you kind of have to find a way to do that on your own.
Who do you think students should go to when they’re struggling with setting a schedule for themselves or having issues adjusting to college?
So that’s one of the nice things about Crowder, there’s a lot of good people that want to help. A good first resource is going to be the teachers, especially if it’s specific to the class. “ I can’t quite figure this out. I read this in the textbook and it didn’t make sense to me.” Or even just like “I saw this in the syllabus and I’m not exactly sure what this means.” Talk to your teachers, go to their office hours, that’s why they’re right there on the syllabus. The teachers here are great. They really care. If it’s more broad, like you said, struggling with the schedule, sometimes the teachers can help with that as well, but we also have the Student Success Center, which is where my office is located. There are advisors there and they’re really good. They aren’t just like “put me in the class I want” they can help with these other things too. There’s also me, I’m the counselor, I can help with that if they’re struggling. There’s a lot of reasons why people struggle to get motivated and get going. Some of those might be something that we can work on in counseling.
What are some of your hobbies?
Let’s see, I like to write, I like tea a lot. I don’t know if that’s really a hobby but I like finding new teas and stuff. I do a lot of board gaming, I like games.
What’s your favorite game probably?
Oh gosh, that’s a hard one. As far as board games, sorry, I could talk about this for another half hour. I really enjoy investigation type games. There’s a game called Sherlock Holmes Consultimg Detective. My husband calls it my homework game. It has maps and interviews and clues and I have to take notes. Sometimes I play with people, sometimes I play it on my own. Some people might think that’s sad, but that’s alright. I have fun. It’s figuring things out which is fun. Then I also enjoy tabletop games as well. I’ve also got this gaming group going on.
What made you decide to become a counselor?
Well I’ve always been really interested in psychology. My dad is a psychiatrist. He started going to school to become a psychiatrist while I was in grade school. I kind of got to see him learning these things and learning along with him and thought it was interesting even when I was little. I like helping people out and figuring out what’s going on and how to help.
How long have you been a counselor?
Nine years I’ve been practicing.
What’s your favorite part of being a counselor?
I find people really interesting. I like getting to know people and working together to see folks going from where they’re struggling and lost to seeing them growing that confidence. I just like seeing people improve and getting to where they’re more comfortable in their skin. Its nice to see that.
How long have you been at Crowder for and why did you decide to work at Crowder?
I’m new to Crowder, I started in June so about three months now. I have actually wanted to work at Crowder for a long time. My husband teaches here, Nathan Gandy, he’s a psychology instructor. He’s been teaching here for a long time, over ten years now, maybe 15 years? Getting to see how Crowder has that family atmosphere and how much he enjoys working here compared to anywhere hes worked before, without sharing too much of his business, it’s really been something I’ve wanted. Even before Crowder had a counseling office, I was like “Hey wouldn’t it be cool if Crowder had a counseling office, and wouldn’t it be cool if I was the counselor?” It took me a while to get here but I am very, very happy to be here.
What do you think of Crowder so far?
The places I have worked before have been like mental health clinics. You go there to get counseling. This obviously, is different. There’s a lot of different people here, for a lot of different things and doing a lot of different stuff. I already, I haven’t been working here that long, but I can walk down the hallway and see five different people from five different departments and I’m like “Hey! It’s so cool to see you.’ Its neat to be able to have that, even though we all do different stuff, to all feel like we’re part of Crowder. To feel like, If I need something that has to do with that department, I can just reach out and I’m going to hear back and people are going to do their best to be helpful. Its just really neat. It’s a great atmosphere.
What does the counselor at Crowder do, what’s your typical day look like?
The most important thing I do, at least to me, is meet with the students that are struggling. Whether they sought me out or a teacher said, “You may want to look into this.” Being able to do counseling with students, I think, is kind of why I’m here. On top of that, I also sometimes give presentations to faculty or students. I’ll be doing educational things like “hey, let’s talk about sleep.” I’m doing as presentation on sleep, wellness and how to get better sleep on the fifteenth, next Wednesday. Its part of wellness week. Giving presentations like that, talking to students like “Hey, this is a stressful time as we get into midterms. Hey, this is stressful, this is how you can handle stress, here’s coping skills.” Just kind of, not necessarily one on one counseling, but like getting that information to more people. Another thing I do is I’m involved with the behavioral intervention team, Crowder Cares. Crowder Cares is a small team of staff from across different departments. We all come together to talk about issues going on. Anybody can make a referral, so a teacher or a fellow student can put in a referral online at Crowder Cares website. That referral comes to us and so as a team we talk about what this student needs. “What can we do to help? Do they need to be connected to a department? Can we offer them counseling?” It’s very different case by case. Basically, we just work together to figure out what the student is going to need. I kind of serve on the team as the counselor, being able to provide info about mental health issues and stuff that might be going on and how we might be able to support those folks. Everybody brings something different to that team and its very dynamic, lots of different stuff going on. I also help students in crisis, and I also see students from our other Crowder campuses as well.
What kind of things do students come and see you for?
I see a lot of folks dealing with anxiety. A lot of brand new students that are like “this is a lot. What’s going on?” A lot of students that have been dealing with anxiety and depression for a long time. They either used to have a counselor and need a counselor here or sometimes it’s brand new, they haven’t seen anybody before. I see a lot of people coming for anxiety, some folks have been having panic attacks. A lot of folks that are having trouble and kind of feeling really uncomfortable in social situations and I think at least part of that has to do with COVID. How we’ve been, a lot of us, kind of staying on lockdown and away from people. Now all of a sudden we’re around people and it’s kind of like “Whoa.” So a lot of folks dealing with that, some folks dealing with depression. Certainly in college that can be real tough because that goes to that motivation we talked about earlier. It’s really hard to get motivated and do your classes when you’re struggling with depression. I see a lot of different stuff.
Could you tell me some about Mindful Mondays?
Mindful Mondays is another thing I do. Mindful Mondays is a very no-pressure come and meet the counselor. We will talk about stress, relaxation. It’s not going to be a deep dive “Well, tell me about your parents. Let’s diagnose you.” We’re not going to do any of that stuff. It’s not even really like a group therapy where you go around and you’re like “Hi, I’m Amanda, I’m an alcoholic.” We’re not doing any of that stuff. It’s really kind of like I was talking about with the presentations. A drop in, “Do you have questions for me? Is there anything I can help with? Let’s talk about what’s stressing people out and how we can deal with it.” It’s not going to be super personal unless you really want it to be personal. Folks can stop by and not say a word. You don’t have to introduce yourself. You can just hang out and I’ll probably do most the talking. You’re welcome to talk if you want to though. Very no-pressure, you can stick your head in and go if you think, “This isn’t for me.” I just want everyone to feel welcome to come and see me. If you think there’s something you want to talk about more in depth later than you can certainly come by the office. There will also be snacks.
What would you say to a student who is unsure about getting therapy or asking for help? Maybe someone who thinks their issues aren’t “bad enough” for therapy?
I do hear that a lot, “you know my stuff isn’t as bad as so and so’s stuff.” Honestly, we all do that. Even the most struggling person that you can think of that is dealing with X, Y and Z, they’re still still thinking “But I’m not that bad.” Nobody wants to take up space. Trust me though, you’re not bothering me, I enjoy doing therapy. If you have any thoughts or questions on it, we can certainly talk for a little bit and see if it’s something that will work for you. I am certainly willing to sit down with someone for half an hour, whatever and just talk about what therapy is like. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. I won’t put anything in my system about you, we’ll just talk about how it works. I am more than happy to sit down with people who are curious about therapy. Also a good way day to do that might be Mindful Mondays. If you just want to meet me and see if I’m someone you can talk to or not. I know sometimes that’s a part of it. Honestly, If you are struggling, you can go to therapy. The first session, is more assessment stuff, asking a lot of questions. Then after that it’s really more of a conversation, with goals. If you’re wanting to work on your anxiety and find new coping skills, we will work on that and on building those skills. If you’re struggling and having a hard time with your parents and you just need somebody to talk to about that is not involved with the situation, sometimes you just need a third party that can listen and give you an outside perspective. Sometimes if we share all this stuff with a friend, they might give us advice or take one side or the other. Therapy is a little different because I don’t do that so much. Help people to process that and find the spots where maybe the way we think about the situation is not the healthiest way and find a new way to look at things. It looks a lot different for different people. Mainly the goal is that as we talk about these things, we learn more about ourselves and healthy ways to do things.
What should someone expect if they start seeing you?
First session is a lot more questions. You set your own goals. You tell me what you want to work on. If you don’t know that’s okay, we can explore those things. I might make suggestions but ultimately that’s up to you to decide.
How would a student schedule an appointment or contact you?
I’m located in the student success center. You’re welcome to stop by and if I’m not with anyone, I’m happy to do those conversations in person. You can also leave your phone number and email with the receptionist if I’m not there or I’m with someone. Probably the best way is to schedule just over the phone. My phone number is 417-455-5609 and my email is counseling@crowder.edu.
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