Consultation Services

A Thought Partner for the Work That Matters Most

Training changes what people know how to do. Consultation changes how institutions think. Both matter—and sometimes consultation needs to come first.

We work with campus leaders, counseling center directors, and administrative teams who are grappling with the harder systemic questions: Why does our current model keep breaking down? How do we build something more sustainable? How do we make the case for a different approach to leadership that doesn’t yet see the problem clearly?

Our consultation draws on the Positive College Experiences (PCE-C) Framework, over a decade of counseling center leadership experience, and deep familiarity with the structural pressures—funding, accreditation, staffing, campus politics—that shape what’s actually possible at any given institution. We don’t come in with a predetermined answer. We come in ready to think alongside you.

What Consultation Can Look Like

Consultation engagements are shaped around your specific context and goals. Common focus areas include:

  • Counseling center strategic planning: working with directors and their teams to clarify mission, scope, and sustainable models of practice in the face of growing demand
  • Campus mental health systems assessment: examining how support is currently distributed across campus, where gaps and pressure points exist, and what a more distributed model might look like
  • Narrative and culture change: helping institutional leaders understand how the crisis narrative shapes campus culture—and how to begin shifting it
  • Training program design and integration: working with campus teams to design, sequence, and sustain mental health training initiatives that go beyond one-off workshops
  • Leadership coaching for counseling center directors: individual consultation for directors navigating institutional pressure, staff sustainability, and the challenge of advocating for their centers from the inside

Engagements range from a single focused conversation to an ongoing advisory relationship—whatever serves your institution’s needs and timeline best.

Who This Is For

Consultation is a good fit if you’re a:

  • Counseling center director navigating unsustainable demand, staff burnout, or a need to renegotiate your center’s scope with institutional leadership
  • Dean of students or student affairs leader trying to build a more coherent, campus-wide approach to student wellbeing
  • Provost or academic affairs leader looking to understand what faculty and staff actually need to support students effectively—and what’s realistic to ask of them
  • Campus administrator who has been handed responsibility for mental health initiatives and isn’t sure where to start

Let’s Start with a Conversation

The first step is always a brief, no-commitment conversation about where your institution is and what would actually be useful. If there’s a fit, we’ll figure out together what an engagement might look like.

Mēgan Kersting, PsyD, LMHC
Director of College Behavioral Health Initiatives, William James College
megan_kersting@williamjames.edu