Erica Allen, ESF's new director of counseling services.

ESF Welcomes New Director of Counseling Services

06/21/2023

When you enter Erica Allen’s office in Bray Hall, you feel a calming energy as natural light filters through the windows and you settle into a plush chair. And that’s exactly what Allen, ESF’s new Director of Counseling Services, wants students to feel – calm, accepted, and safe.

“This is meant to be a welcoming place,” Allen said (who wants students to call her Erica). That starts with the waiting room that’s decorated with nature photos of campus and surrounding areas made by an ESF student – all designed to put students at ease. 

Allen has known mental health counseling was her calling since middle school, when she witnessed how her friends benefitted from it.

“A few of my friends were struggling with their mental health and I saw the positive change they had after they went to counseling,” she said. “I wanted to be able to do that for other people.”

And that’s what she’s done for more than a dozen years.

Allen joined the ESF community June 12, coming most recently from Onondaga Community College, where she served as assistant director of counseling services. Before that, she spent 12 years at ARISE, a mental health clinic that provides individual, family, and group therapy to help adults, teens, and children build on their strengths and improve their overall quality of life, working her way from intern to assistant director of clinical services where she supervised 65 therapists within three outpatient clinics and 36 area schools.

“We are thrilled to have Erica on board,” said Anne Lombard, Dean of Students. “The Counseling Center is a critical resource for our students and staff, and Erica’s leadership, experience, background, and enthusiasm will greatly benefit the ESF community.”

Along with Allen, Joelle Conant, a New York state-licensed mental health therapist with 10-plus years of experience, sees students. A search is on to add another staff therapist to the staff this summer.

“I love being a therapist and connecting with students,” said Allen. “I also love doing the administrative work that comes with my role so I can ensure students are getting the best care, and the other therapists I work with are feeling supported.”

Allen sees many things she likes about ESF and other areas she’s excited to build on and improve.

“I want to build on getting our name out there,” she said, so students know Counseling Services is here for them. She plans to update the current paper-based system to an electronic one to empower staff to make more data-driven decisions.

For example, looking at how many no-show appointments happen at a given time. “If there are a ton, then maybe that's when we should do our paperwork or outreach,” she said.  “Having data based on how many people no-show in general may let us know we need to ramp up our reminder appointment calls.”

What Allen is most looking forward to this fall is connecting with the student body.

“I'm excited to meet the students,” she said. During the interview process, she got a sense of how much the staff and faculty valued students. “They think the students are so humble and smart and appreciative of everything, and they just love them. I can’t wait to experience that and learn what students want. I never want to be so out of touch that I think I know it all when the student is the one who knows it all and knows what they need.”

For fall, Allen has new programming ideas in mind and hopes to kick off those plans in September during Suicide Prevention Awareness Month with a Chalk the Walk event where people decorate the sidewalks with positive messages.

With student’s needs at the forefront, Allen reminds wants to remind them their mental health is not only important but also private.

“We follow all the HIPAA privacy laws,” she said.  “Your counseling file never becomes part of your academic record. It has nothing to do with the college. No faculty knows that you’re here, and no staff knows that you’re here. We cannot tell family members that you’re here, it’s private.”

For parents, guardians, and other support systems, Allen reminds them that counseling services are available to their students and they should encourage their students to take advantage of them.

“Their student is now 18 years old or more, so they have to make that choice themselves, but we are here and we are open to seeing whoever needs us,” she said. “Coming to counseling is very brave. I want students to know that here in this office, we’re humans too. We’re people like they are, just wanting to help and support and talk with whatever they want to talk about. If they have any ideas of what they want to see, please reach out, let us know. This is a great opportunity with a new director to make some changes or to keep things they like.”

Most importantly, Allen wants students to know they can come to counseling for any reason.

“Whether it’s good things they want to share with someone and bounce ideas off them, or if they’re struggling with something. We are here to help them promote their personal growth, which will in the end help with their academic success too.”