Transforming Campus Mental Health Through Connection and Sustainable Support
America’s colleges are full of people who genuinely want to support their students’ mental health. And yet—students, faculty, and counselors alike report feeling more overwhelmed than ever. The problem isn’t commitment or effort. It’s that the systems meant to provide that support were never designed to handle this scale of need.
The numbers tell a clear story:
This is what a capacity crisis looks like: well-meaning people, in under-resourced systems, caught in a cycle that pathologizes normal developmental challenges and burns out the very people meant to help.
The question isn’t what’s wrong with students. It’s what conditions are we creating—and what would it look like to build something better?
Part of the answer starts with challenging two assumptions embedded in the crisis narrative itself: that ordinary emotional struggle requires clinical intervention, and that counseling centers are the only place equipped to respond. Both assumptions concentrate support in a single, already-strained resource—and leave everyone else feeling underprepared and alone. A different model distributes that support across the entire campus community.
What’s needed is a model that meets students where they are—without turning every struggle into a clinical emergency. One that equips the whole campus community to respond, not just the counseling center.
Traditional mental health approaches ask “what’s wrong with you?” We ask two fundamentally different questions: “what happened to you?” and “what connections do you have?” This shift from pathology to resilience transforms how institutions understand and support student wellbeing.
Our work is grounded in the Positive College Experiences (PCE-C) Framework—our innovative translation of decades of research on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) to the higher education context.
The framework recognizes that college itself represents a critical developmental window—a time when new relationships, supportive environments, and meaningful experiences can build resilience even for students who faced adversity earlier in life. Rather than viewing struggle as pathology requiring clinical intervention, PCE-C helps institutions create the conditions where students naturally develop coping skills, emotional regulation, and connection.
The PCE-C Framework operates at three interconnected levels:
We partner with colleges and universities to implement proactive, trauma-informed approaches to student behavioral health. Our work spans faculty and staff training, direct support for counseling center professionals, and next-generation program development—all grounded in the belief that effective mental health support belongs across the entire campus community, not just behind one door.
Faculty and staff are already on the front lines of student mental health—whether they signed up for it or not. Our trainings give them the knowledge, skills, and sustainable boundaries to show up effectively for students without losing themselves in the process.
Learn MoreCounseling center professionals are navigating impossible demand, scope creep, and a crisis narrative that leaves little room for sustainable practice. We meet them where they are—through focused trainings, center-wide retreats, and scope of practice consultation that address not just individual skills, but the systemic pressures shaping how their centers operate.
Learn MoreOur Virtual Mental Health Training Program brings the depth and impact of our in-person trainings into a flexible, self-paced format—making evidence-based mental health education accessible to faculty and staff across institutions of any size. Currently in development, with market testing coming soon.
Learn MoreSometimes the most important work happens before any training takes place. We offer consultation to campus leaders, counseling center directors, and administrative teams who are ready to think differently about how their institution approaches student mental health—and need a thought partner to help them get there.
Learn MoreWe’ve trained over 300 faculty and staff across 32 institutions in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont, achieving participant satisfaction rates of 89% (rating 9 or 10 out of 10) and 100% commitment to applying new skills in their work.
Key outcomes from our training programs:
One of the best parts of this training was to be in a room with such amazing colleagues who are also facing similar challenges. I know I’m not alone in all of this
This entire day was so validating! This gave me renewed energy to continue this work with a stronger sense of connection and purpose.”
The concept of the mental health crisis as a narrative was completely new to me, and it was pretty eye-opening. But it helps me see students through a more compassionate lens, even when I feel this fried right now.”
Finally a training about boundaries that gives me a skill to go back to my job and actually do it.”
Mēgan Kersting, LMHC, PsyD, Director of College Behavioral Health Initiatives
Dr. Kersting is the developer of the Positive College Experiences (PCE-C) Framework—a research-grounded approach that reframes how campuses understand and respond to student mental health. Her work is built on a fundamental conviction that college itself is a powerful developmental window, and that institutions have far more capacity to foster student resilience than the dominant crisis narrative suggests. She leads all College Behavioral Health Initiatives at William James College, partnering with colleges and universities across New England to implement proactive, trauma-informed approaches to campus mental health support.
Dr. Kersting brings over a decade of leadership experience as former Director of the Center for Counseling and Personal Growth at Clark University, where she pioneered innovative programs to improve student access to mental health care, initiated comprehensive community education campaigns, nurtured student advocacy groups, and established training programs for graduate psychology interns. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from William James College, a Masters in Counseling Psychology from Boston College, and a Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College.