Haverford College’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) kicked off the new school year by welcoming many new members to its team. CAPS, campus’ home for student psychological counseling, grew its senior staff by two with the addition of Noël Shipp and Kaamila Mohamed. It also welcomed nine new members and three returning members to its graduate training program, which offers in-depth, clinical experiences to doctoral and graduate social work students. 

For both Shipp and Mohamed, their new jobs as CAPS psychological counselors represent a return to Haverford. Shipp, who earned her MSW at the University of Pennsylvania, previously served as a CAPS social work intern during the 2019-2020 academic year. Mohamed, who earned their MSS at Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, was previously a Student Life Office graduate assistant as well as a member of the CAPS team at Swarthmore. In addition to Mohamed’s role as a CAPS counselor, they will also serve as the office’s outreach coordinator.

The graduate trainees are either doctoral student externs, graduate social work interns, or post-graduate fellows who, as part of their training, provide therapy to a caseload of students. This year’s cohort includes David Albert, an extern from Widener University’s Psy.D. program; Rachael Cohen, a second-year graduate student from Bryn Mawr; Allison Connett, a post-graduate fellow who completed her Psy.D. at Immaculata University; Mary Dever, a second-year graduate student from Bryn Mawr; Joyce Kong, a fourth-year Psy.D. student from Chestnut Hill College; Kaseem Parsley, a fourth-year from Chestnut Hill College’s Psy.D. program; Pamela Rook, a fifth-year extern from Widener University; Brooke Roseman, a fourth-year extern from West Chester University’s Psy.D program; Jensine Sneeden, a third-year extern from Widener University’s Psy.D program; Lydia Spence, a second-year graduate student from Bryn Mawr; Annie Thacker, a Bryn Mawr MSW graduate completing her post-graduate fellowship; and Andrew Wilkens, a third-year Psy.D. student at Chestnut Hill College.

Additionally, CAPS has added two new psychiatric consultants, Paula Bu and Charles Altman, who will each be available to students eight hours a week. This will almost double the available hours for psychiatric consultations and improve student access.

Even with all these new additions, CAPS is looking to grow its team further. This fall, they are hiring two student liaisons. The students in these new paid positions will be a resource and ambassador for CAPS for their fellow students. They will meet with student groups to inform and advise about CAPS, hold information sessions, help plan outreach and education events, and more. 

In addition to all these new faces, CAPS is offering its usual array of services this year, including ongoing psychotherapy sessions, single-session consultations, daily drop-in appointments at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (which can be scheduled by emailing hc-capsdropin [at] haverford.edu), and evening and weekend emergency coverage (which can be accessed by calling Campus Safety at X1111). They are also offering three psychotherapy groups: one for those living with anxiety, one for LGBTQ+ folks, and one for those who are interested in connecting and relating. However, due to campus’ mask mandate, all CAPS services are continuing to be held virtually via the HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom. 
 
"I’m excited for CAPS to continue to develop in ways which help to meet our student mental health needs,” said CAPS Director Philip Rosenbaum, “especially our additional staff who will provide unique perspectives to our department and help with scheduling of individual sessions, groups and outreach opportunities."