May 13, 2025 • 27 mins
On Auburn University’s campus, not all heroes walk on two feet. Sometimes, they come with four paws, a cold nose and a warm heart.
“They’ve got all the credentials,” said Dr. Doug Hankes, who heads up the university’s animal assisted therapy program, appropriately nicknamed the Dogtors.
That program plays an instrumental role in Auburn’s Student Counseling & Psychological Services (SCPS) – a department in student affairs serving as the primary mental health counseling center for undergraduate and graduate students.
SCPS’s four-legged team of Dogtors, including Dr. Rooster, Dr. Nessie, Dr. Eve and Dr. Winston, can often be found spreading joy to students across campus, rescuing them from the stress that often comes with college life.
“We currently have four Dogtors on staff,” said Hankes. “Three of them are retired detection dogs.”
In collaboration with SCPS, the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Canine Performance Sciences team re-trained the three dogs to become therapy dogs and donated them to SCPS.
Now retired from their days of sniffing out danger, the Dogtors have redirected their keen noses to providing comfort through group and individual therapy sessions with students.
“We call them our mental health ambassadors,” explained Hankes.
Hankes is finishing his 27th year on the Plains. He graduated from Auburn with his bachelor’s in physical education before heading to the University of Texas to complete his master’s in sports psychology. He completed his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of North Texas in 1996. After a stint at the University of Tennessee, Hankes returned to Auburn in 1998. For the past 20 years, Hankes has been the executive director of SCPS. He also serves as Auburn Athletics' executive director of counseling and sport psychology.
Hankes has seen firsthand the remarkable expansion of on-campus mental health services. Today, there are more than 30 mental health care professionals on staff at SCPS.
“How we've grown is just a tribute to our administrators who realized we need to take care of Auburn students and their mental health,” Hankes said.
With May marking Mental Health Awareness Month, Hankes and his team of Dogtors will be hitting the ground running. This month, they’ll kick off their Camp War Eagle Parent Run and Walk campus tours, welcoming hundreds of incoming freshmen parents. SCPS will continue hosting their Get Moov’in Walks twice weekly during Fall and Spring semesters. The Dogtors will also be on hand at many mental health awareness events throughout the year, promoting the benefits of good self-care.
For Hankes the most rewarding part of his and the Dogtors’ job is seeing students heal and thrive.
“It's the best job ever,” he said. “You get to see people change. You get to see people get better."
SCPS has two locations on campus: in the AU Medical Clinic and and in Haley Center. Students can walk-in any time and be seen. There is no charge for any of their services. Dogtors are at both locations, always ready to greet visitors with a firm tail-wag.
If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis, it's crucial to seek immediate help. Visit the SPCS website or call the counseling center at (334) 844-5123.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hey, everybody,welcome back to the
Everything Auburn podcast.
I'm your host, Dalton Odom,and I'm Carter.
Welcome to another episode.
Welcome back everybody.
I'll be honest, Dalton.
I just want to startjust right into it here. Okay?
I'm a crier.
But let's be real honest, Dalton.
(00:26):
We both are.
And when we scheduled todaymental health awareness month
this month.
So let's get somethingto go along with that, right.
I've been real scared about today.
Yeah.
We have,staff meetings every week.
And yesterday,we were telling everybody
who we work with.
Hey, we've got we're filmingthe podcast tomorrow. So excited.
(00:47):
And then Carter and Iwere both like, hey,
hope we don't cry.
Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.
We'll see how it goes.
Yeah, exactly.
And we've got a therapy dog here.
So it's true.
It's true. We do.
Thank goodness,thank goodness we do.
Because todaywe have the Executive
Director of Student Counselingand Psychological Services
and our AthleticsExecutive Director of Counseling
(01:08):
and Sports Psychology, Dr.
Doug Hankes. How are you doing?
That's pretty impressive.
Quite the quite the the job there.
Yeah, quite.
And and who is thiswe also have here with us.
This is Doctor Rooster.
He is one of our fourtherapy dogs.
And he, drew the lucky straw to,come to the podcast and love it.
Oh, is is this his first podcast?
(01:29):
This is his first podcast.
He heard paw cast and was, like,raised his paw
and was ready, ready to roll.
I love it. That's great.
Well, welcome to it.
We're glad you took some timeout of your day
to spend some time with us.
Yeah, have a little chat.
Looking forward to this is great.
So you grew up in Auburnfor the most part. Yeah. Okay.
And then you attended Auburn.
(01:50):
Correct.
Did okay.
Success in sevennot finishing four.
Hey, you know what? I like it.
And if that ain't the truth,because I did it in five,
and then I did two yearsof grad school, so that's okay.
Seven.
So customizing master rightis not in math.
Look, I'm a two timeliberal arts grad. Everybody.
We're we're good at communicating,not at math.
Okay. Right. That's fine.
(02:12):
But tell us a little bit aboutwhat all does student counseling
psychological services offer.
How did you get involvedin this position?
That sort of thing.
Loaded question on a long story.
This is, finishing upmy 27th year,
you know, went to Auburnas an undergraduate.
Met my wife here.
Really never thought that wewe both never
(02:33):
thought we'd ever come back.
We were gone for almost 15 years,and just a random set of events.
Coincidences happened, and,we ended up back here.
That was 1998.
The counseling center at that timewas in the basement of before,
and I don't knowif you remember Foy back then,
but we used to call itlike a submarine.
You couldtake your hand across the ceiling
(02:54):
and the asbestos ceilingand just run across the love
that you knowwhat I'm talking about.
And, you know,the running joke was
when a student came in, if,you know, if they weren't sure
they were depressedonce they got into our offices.
It was very depressing.
So basically,typically confirmed it.
All that to say isthe department was born.
(03:15):
All that to say, there wasnot a lot of emphasis
on mental healthat at Auburn at the time.
So, you know,where we were, in 1998
with a four,I think, a four person staff
for probablyabout 20,000 students.
And how we've grown is just,you know, it's a tribute
to our administratorsand a lot of folks
(03:35):
who've just finally,you know, realize
we need to take careof Auburn students
and their mental health.
I want to mention,you know, it's a field
that has in the last10 or 15 years has really
blown up.
But I mean, starting itwhen you guys did,
I can only imagine was pretty.
Was it on the front endor is it kind of in
par with I mean, I assumethat's not something
(03:56):
that was as prevalentthen that it is now.
I thinkI think back then we just did we
we looked atI call our student body.
I still call our studentbody shiny happy people.
As you walk around,it looks like everybody has got
got their stuff together.
And we've,I usually the first 10
or 15 years here at Auburn,we spent more time destigmatizing
(04:18):
or trying to destigmatizingmental health and seeking out
services and resourceswhen you needed them.
I, I'd say thatthat is really changed.
Now it's more abouttrying to figure out
how to take careof as many students
that request or,you know, want to be seen,
for different.
And again,when we say mental health,
I think people still go,oh, you know, what is that?
(04:38):
I mean, it'sit's anything that's getting,
getting in the way of youperforming optimally.
And so it can be,you know, somebody
who is so depressedthat they can't get out of bed,
or it could be justadjustment to college
or it could be a serious,serious mental illness.
And we we really see itall at the counseling center.
But yeah, yeah, I canI can only imagine
(04:59):
what it's like day in the life.
It's.
I think it's the best job ever.
Yeah.
I mean, you know,I think a lot of us
look at other people'sjobs and go,
I don't know how you do what youdo, and I get that a lot.
But you get to see people change.
You get to see people get better.
Particularly if you stayone place too.
As long as I have,I have so many people
who come backyears and years and years
(05:20):
later and, you know,we'll go, hey, you know,
you said X, Y or Z, and,you know, it helped
change my life or you helpedsave my life. So, that's.
You mean that's a great job?
Wow. Right.
Yeah, yeah.
And again,the therapy dogs, we got dogs.
We have Dogtors Oh, yes.
So that was with,you know, our research
(05:41):
team, aka Kim, our producer.
We see this Dogtors termall over your website.
Is that a term you guys coined?
Get a Dogtors. This is, Yeah.
That's how creativewe are to council. I like it.
Yeah, I love this.
So you have your two Dogtorsis that we have right now?
We have four Dogtors.
Okay, okay.
(06:02):
Three of our three of our dogsare retired
detection dogs from canineperformance Sciences
with the vet schoolhere on campus.
And and one of themis personally owned
by one of our counselors who, had,was trained there, there
like training standards.
And so oncethey have all been trained
up, to,to to therapy lines of therapy,
(06:25):
I forget what the accreditationagency is,
but yeah, they're legit.
They got they got the credentials.
So, you know,Carter was just talking about
maybe mental HealthAwareness Month.
And just for anybodywho's listening, students,
parents, whoever,what are some of the things
that you guys are doingfor Mental Health Awareness Month
in May there, sir,you have anything going on?
(06:45):
Is there any events or anythingthat y'all are doing,
anything that you'rehighlighting here?
We got a number of events.
It's, for for a college setting.
May is not a really good monthto have the awareness
because we goteverybody is heading out of town,
and thenwe've got a lot of incoming
freshmen and parentswho are not generally concerned
about mental health.
When they come to campwhere you go,
(07:06):
they're excited to come here.
If there are anymental health issues,
a lot of them are figuringthey're going to leave them
back in high school,and they're going to be flipping
the page.
So, you know, thethe events, we don't do
quite as many.
We do so many throughout the year.
I feel like,you know, we've got it covered.
But yeah, we'll bewe'll be out and about,
(07:27):
but we're out and about a lotanyway, right. Yep.
We did just mention it.
So it does require the askingright. Camp War Eagle. It's
everyone's first interactionas a as a college student
with Auburn. Right.
And you have a very special eventthat you do with I think it's
I think it's specialsince I created it
the it's special.
(07:47):
The parent runas part of Camp War Eagle.
So any of you coming to campWar Eagle parents especially,
you know,bring your running shoes. Yes.
Because you take ityou go on a been
an excursion with the parent.
We get hot and sweaty.
When did this how did you becomehow did you start this parent run?
So when I came backto Auburn, camp
where Eagle had just started,I think we're in like year
(08:09):
2 or 3 maybe.
Mark Armstrong was the,relatively new director,
and we had,I believe, bus or van tours,
and there might have beena walking tour
and I just said I was did a lot,a lot of running back then.
I was pretty serious.
And, I just said to, to Mark,I said, hey,
if I offered like a three milerunning tour campus,
(08:30):
would you let me do that?
And he just started laughing.
It's like, yeah, man, sure.
You know, you can do that,but you're going to be
running by yourself.
And so, that's how it started.
He used to all be runout of the hotel
and conference center,and we'd meet up there, early.
And, you know,for the first few years,
(08:51):
it might be just a handful.
A good crowd was 15.
But we know we never got shut out.
And just over the years,it's grown.
And then we've had a lotof other faculty
and staff memberswho have pitched in.
We have some folksthat have been running now
for 20 years that arepart of the Auburn University,
you know, faculty or staff.
So it's it's grown a lot more,it's, you know, it's a ton of fun.
(09:14):
The parents that do it love it.
They think it's the best thing,you know, since sliced bread. But,
you know, it's the bigrunning joke there.
Chris Landry with camp,where he will get up
in front of the parents at thein the opening ceremony and,
and and just mentionand just remind everybody
of the mandatory three mile runthat will be occurring
the next morning.
(09:34):
There's a march.
Right.
And then, you know,all the parents are, like,
groaning, like going, this is.
But then there's, you know,there's the 50 to 100.
We've had probablythe biggest crowd, maybe 100 125.
That's but you know,you just never know
who's going to show up.
But it is a lot of fun.
Hey, you know, I can only imagine,you know, it's mental health,
(09:55):
I mean, stressful, the parentssending the kids off to college,
get some endorphins.
You're going early morning,a little morning run.
See? Campus, I like it.
Sure. It's. Get a free T-shirt.
Hey, what's not to likeabout that?
The list of thingsI'll do for a free
t shirt is is shockingly long.
Yeah, that is shockingly long.
Yeah.
Another thing, though,I think it was very interesting,
(10:16):
is my favorite questionto ask people on the podcast.
I ask it every interview I dois my favorite thing by far.
Is, is how you got to Auburn?
Now, I know a couple thingsyou mentioned earlier.
You kind of left.
Never thought you'd be back.
Found yourself.
I'm in a similar situation,kind of a boomerang.
Kurt Sasser in Auburnhas coined this boomerang, term.
(10:38):
I believe, with Auburn people.
Yeah, but,it is our understanding
you have quite the,interesting journey back to Auburn
after having livedhere, went to school here, left,
and you found your way backthrough a bit of a fortuitous,
afternoon.
Is this the hot tub?
This is a hot tubstory is what I've heard.
I heard it involves a hot tub.
It does.
(10:58):
So I was workingat the University of Tennessee,
and I had actually runthe Chicago Marathon.
The weekend prior to this.
It was a small Southeasterncollege counseling center.
Directors conference.
And my director atthe time was really, you know, she
she was really tryingto talk me into coming
and going to this conferenceto share
the driving responsibilities.
(11:19):
And I was so beat upand I really, really,
really did not want toto go to this conference.
It was, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
And so I eventually agreed to goand, got the hot
springs, got checked in.
And then basicallythe first thing I did
was go buy a six pack of beerand head to the hot tub
and just kind of like, chill outbecause I was just, again,
(11:40):
so beat up.
And as I'm sitting theresipping my beer,
a gentleman gets in next to meand, we just strike up
a conversation.
And he was the directorof the counseling center
at Auburn at the time.
And so we got to talkingand he said, you know,
we have a position open,you know, would you be interested?
I said,I don't normally ask this
right away,but how much does it pay?
(12:03):
He told me.
I laughed and said,no, no, thank you.
That's like that.
That's like a huge pay cut.
I'm not interested.
You know, I love Auburn,but not that much.
And he said, well,why don't you just
why don't you come downand you can use it as an excuse
to visit your family?
And I was like, oh, okay.
And so, came downand interviewed
and felt so badlyfor the counseling center staff
(12:26):
at the timethat about mid-morning
I got out of interview, mode.
Interview modeI didn't really clean up to.
Right.
So normallyyou go to an interview,
you get the haircutyou take for me,
take the earrings out,get rid of the I mean, you know,
I can look presentable and,and so I said, now
I'm just going to be me.
You know, I'man Auburn grad, right?
I'm going to Auburn, man.
You know the place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(12:46):
They're going to getthey're going to get
they're going to get to see me.
But I realizedI was not going to come back.
And soI spent most of it interviewing,
just trying to advocatefor the staff here
and just say, hey,we're we're really
we're we're reallywe're really, really behind.
We we got to do better as an alum.
I'm frankly embarrassed.
And so I was notI didn't go over real
(13:09):
well during the interview.
And my wife at itwhen I got back,
my wife had applied for a jobover in alumni affairs
as a communications director.
And, they offeredher a job immediately
and then, yeah.
Then they sat on they sat on mefor about six months before,
I think.
I don't thinkthey could find anybody else
sure about this guy.
And pretty muchpretty much the harshest thing,
(13:32):
though, was a couple years ago,we were,
I was cleaning out a lot of files,and I stumbled onto my, like,
the filesthat had all my interview
materials in there.
And and there was one, you know,to get the written comments.
And he said, not in Auburn, man.
And I was just like,I was like, dagger to the heart.
So gosh. But different. Yeah. No.
So it all worked out right.
(13:52):
But it didn't work out.
But I mean, you are now.
Yeah, I think you'reI mean, you always are,
but definitely say it now.
Yeah. For sure. For sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Who would have guessed.
Hot tub in Arkansas I meanback in 98.
I mean people, you know, peoplereally, really wanted to come back
this boomerang thing.
And, you know, you couldn'tit was hard to get hired
(14:13):
at the university.
And for a married couple,or somebody was partnered up
for both peopleto get a job at the same time,
was was almost unheard of.
And people asked us all,how did you guys do this?
And it's like, you know,we really we're not
trying to come back, you know?
So I don't, you know,I don't, you know, I don't have
you don't have any advice for,you know, it's
kind of like it's supposedto have it's supposed to happen.
(14:33):
It's supposed to happen.
But yeah, this one thing,when I left the first time,
I had to come toterms with the fact that
it's not I'm not going to be back.
Yeah.
It's just because there'sonly so many people who do this
job who work in university,and they're really good
and they're great jobs,so they don't open up very often.
Right? Right.
So I fully expectedwhen I left that
(14:56):
I was saying goodbye forforever.
Never thought I'd end up back,but here I am.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's so great that I am.
Yeah, yeah.
It's always interesting hearingso I haven't been graduated
that longand I hearing from friends,
you know I'm what is it,three years
removed from graduatingand I there's still people
(15:18):
who've been like,I have not been back
since graduation and itit hurts, but they're like,
I live in Chicago.
Like, how am I going to. Yeah.
I can't just drive down, you know.
So it's a get me eliminatedany day of the week.
It's a sobering thought, you know.
Certainly is.
But I did want to, you know, asyou know,
trying to keep an eye on my timehere.
(15:39):
I can only imaginehow rewarding it is.
I mean, you get to interactwith students every day.
I feel comfortablesaying that every day. This.
I mean, college,I mean, right, it's
you get to really getsuch a great touch
of the university,you know, you know,
where the and you get the.
I mean, the best partabout the university
is, is the students.
I need to hang out with, studenttalk to students.
(15:59):
Maybe not at their happiest time,but you kind of come help them
get through it.
It's got to be so rewarding to be.
I think it's all the time,I think still,
I mean, I still thinkworking in higher
education is the best,the best job
there is, at least for me.
As a psychologist, you get to doso many different things.
You know, you could go outin private practice
(16:19):
or go work in a lot of otherorganized systems
and make a lot more money.
But the, you know, the people,the students, you get to interact
with, the faculty, the staffyou can be involved in research,
you get to go outand and do podcasts.
I mean, you get to start a,you know, a therapy dog program.
You get involvedin graduate student training.
(16:40):
I mean, they're justyou get such a mix of things.
It's it'ssuper rewarding for sure. Right.
And you also get to do a lot,not only with just
general population students,but you do a lot with
Auburn athletics.
Yeah, most of my backgroundwas in sports psychology.
I'm a licensed psychologist.
My my undergraduate master'sdegree is in sports psychology
within kinesiology.
(17:00):
So it's all focusedon performance enhancement.
So I just again randomly alot of me I try not
to get up on the mountain topand provide this wisdom
sort of thing.
But the one thing I will sayis the power chance events
and just like again,being in a hot tub
drinking a beer.
But, I wish I could tellyou was well planned out.
Making the move from kinesiologyis psychology,
(17:23):
and that was random.
And that with that alteredmy career.
And just, you know,what I've done with my life.
So, so, yeah,when I came back to Auburn,
I was lucky to, get started.
At the time,the swimming and diving program
was doing really good.
Jeff Schafferwas the diving coach,
and he was the first coachwho he was just like,
(17:44):
hey, you do whatever you wantto do with my dry
diver sports psychology wise.
And he's a great coach.
And they started doing well.
And DavidMarsh was the swimming coach
and he was like,why isn't Doug working
with the entire swimming team?
And so I got to workwith that entire team
and a lot of those individualsand kind of
got to ride their coattails.
I call basking in reflected glory.
(18:04):
You got to be a part ofour national championship teams
and then you're around enough.
I mean,and other coaches are like,
well, who's that guy?
And you know, and,you know, next thing I know,
I was doing a lot of again,I'm in the counseling center
all this is just extrabecause I love doing it.
And really trying to convincethe powers to be in athletics.
(18:24):
I mean, aswe could get out in front of this
and have we'rethere are going to be embedded
clinical sports psychologistand athletic departments.
It is going to be part of sportsmedicine,
just like athletic training,strength and conditioning.
We can either do this nowor we can, you know, we can wait
until everybody else does it.
We didn't quitewait till everybody else did it.
That's gone.
(18:45):
But yeah, eventually,they decided
they wanted to go that routeand then asked, did
I want to do that?
And I was like ten years ago.
It was my dream job.
There's no wayI'm going to leave
the counseling center.
What we're tryingto build right now.
But about 4 or 5 years ago, Iwas asked to step back in, and,
we had some unexpected turnover,and I think the thought was
(19:05):
if I came in,I could attract some folks
that would maybe stay.
And so I've got,I mean, I've got an amazing staff
in the counseling center,and I got an amazing staff
over in counseling,sports psychology.
So, beenbeen really, really lucky again
with the peopleI've got to work with.
And none of thatwould have happened
if you weren'tworking in higher ed.
He was saying. Never would have.
(19:26):
And hot tub and hot tubnever discount a hot tub.
I'm telling you, it's certainly,sports psychology is
especially something that I,you know, a big sports guy.
And you can't watch sports nowwithout hearing someone,
an athlete get up on camera,talk about how they've
done some sports psychologyand worked with mental training.
(19:46):
Yep, almostas much as physical training.
And I feel like five years ago,six years ago, it wasn't as,
maybe stigmatized and open.
It happened.
You don't hear about itas much now. You can't hear.
I mean, everyone'sgot their own personal person
they work with.
And, you know, it'sso much more present,
especially in sports.
In athletics, it'sso much more prevalent.
It was. Yeah, absolutely.
(20:07):
Years ago.
Yeah, absolutely.
And again you'veyou've got the performance aspect.
And then you have athleteswho deal with mental health
issues and personal issues too.
And it's I mean, for athletesall intertwined.
I mean, you know,if something's going on
in your personal life that it'sa lot of time
is going to negatively impactyour performance and vice versa.
(20:27):
You know, I'm a baseball playerand I'm in a slump.
It's hard to,you know, leave that at the field
and not maybetake it out on my partner,
you know? And anyway,so yeah, it's what's really cool
about working with athletestoo, is a lot of times
with the workyou do in the counseling center
with students who may or maynot actually get
to see all the changes.
(20:48):
But when you'reworking in athletes
with particularly performancespecific related stuff,
you can see whether they performbetter or not, right?
I mean, it's it's pretty clear.
And they're coming back inand giving you immediate
feedback about, hey, you know,we talked about this
and I've been practicingit took it out there.
And man, it made you know, itmade a difference.
(21:08):
So that's that's a ton of fun.
So I would be remiss to askwe have the one and only
Doctor Brewster here. Right.
So I was just hopingthat you could or Brewster,
if you'd like to chime in,provide any self-care tips
for anybody.
That's listening.
(21:28):
And then reallyjust around it out,
if there's somebody out therewho is struggling and listening,
what can they do?
Who can they contact,where can they go?
You can see he'spretty good at relaxing.
I do see thatsnoring over there in the corner.
And he's, he's and he'salso pointing out the importance
of like anyway self-careand taking care of your mental
(21:53):
health is pretty boringto be honest.
It's I call themgrannies a lot of the things basic
that if we would justdo them on a consistent,
probably daily basis,we could avoid a
lot of these issues.
But, you know,your grandma is going to ask,
are you are you eating right?
And, you know,are you getting enough sleep?
(22:15):
You know, you're taking care ofthat aspect of your life,
you know, how are you eating?
You know, how's yourhow's your diet?
Are you getting enough exercise?
Are you spendingtime, you know, socially,
you know, with your friendsand making those connections,
which can also be a problemfor some students, right?
Too much of that,but but a lot of those things
go a long wayif you can do them consistently.
(22:38):
You know, the problem is,particularly college students
is doing them consistentlybecause a lot of their life is
is not, you know, consistent.
Because, again,there's so many things that do
you don't want to miss out on.
Right? Right.
So you cut cornersin a lot of ways.
And sometimesyou can get away with that
for a long time.
And then sometimesit can catch up to you.
And particularlyif you're more prone,
(22:59):
if you know your family history,if you're more prone to anxiety
or depressive relatedsort of things, you know,
as long as your stresslevel is good,
you might not see any of that.
But once the stress levelgets amped up,
it's like a pot of spaghetti.
Just kind of, you know,everything's good at simmering,
and then you turn up the stressand then you got spaghetti
sauce going everywhere.
(23:20):
So again,self-care super important.
You can overdo that too, right?
You haven't got any moneyand you're going to go
get your nails done.
That's not self-care.
I mean, that's, that'sthat's that's
that's causing stress.
Really? Yeah.
Reminding students tosometimes they forget these things
and it can and again, it's boring.
(23:42):
Right.
But if you're consistent with it,it goes a long way. But it works.
It goes a long ways.
Yeah.
The counseling center, you know,how do you get connected?
So you can, you know,we're in two locations.
We're at the second floorof the medical clinic,
and we're also on the ground floorof Haley Center
underneath AuburnUniversity bookstore.
(24:04):
You can walk in,you know, any time and be seen.
We've got somebody on call.
You know, we hopefully wewe save most of those times
for crisis, an emergency.
We also let students definewhat the crisis or emergency is.
Or you can just callthe counseling center
number (334) 844-5123and get scheduled
(24:26):
for an intake appointment.
For non-emergencyintake appointments,
we can generally get students ineven at the busiest times
of the semester,you know, between a week and two.
And if it's a crisis,an emergency, you're going to be
scheduled same day. So,yeah, we make we try to keep
the barriers as low as possiblefor our students.
(24:46):
We don't charge forany of our services.
Again, it'sI think it's our administration.
And folks recognizehow important this is.
The dogs.
We have dogs at both locations.
A lot of people will just come into the waiting area
to just kind of hang outwith the dogs.
And, you know,we do a lot of outreach
events with them.
They do do a lot of groupand individual therapy.
(25:09):
So they actuallyare in sessions with students.
But probably their biggest impact,on our student body is,
the outreach events that they do,we call them our, you know,
our mental health ambassadors.
So we could do a tabling of thaton the concourse of
it says Student CounselingPsychological Services.
And you see a bunch of,you know, licensed
(25:29):
mental health professionals.
It's almost like, see elections.
You just go the other way, right?
You don't want to be,you know, like,
I'm gonna get psychoanalyzed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're not going to.
Yeah, I'm not going to gowalk up to the table
because, you know, then again,identified myself
as somebody with.
But if you got to, you know,if you have the dogs out
there, they're, you know,people are going to absolutely
come up and interact with dogs.
(25:50):
And, and sometimes, you know,that makes a difference to them.
Accessing services as well.
So but yeah, they make aI can't imagine not having dogs
in the counseling center.
Yeah.
So we've got, you know,one of these days
I'm going to retireand we've got something set up.
I know DoctorWoodard and Student Affairs
is basically said,you can retire, but
(26:12):
the dog program'sgot to keep going. Yeah.
So, they're definitely goingto be going to be part
of the counseling center,ongoing. But.
Yeah.
Incredible.
Well,I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for spending time.
Thank you for setting upthis program,
doing all so much work.
You, your team, your dogtors,do so much great work
(26:34):
for so many students.
I know it's a serviceI utilized while I was a student,
and I'm so thankfulthat I was able to,
And it's really incredible work.
But no, I love talking about it.
But, I mean, again,there's been so many people other
I mean, thathave contributed to it.
It's just it's it has not been me.
I just happen to have been aroundfor all of it.
Yeah.
Well, I'm gladthat you and your team
have been ableto do so much great work
because it is appreciate it.
(26:55):
It is a it is a very big need.
And I'm sure you've helpedso many students
and you will continue to helpso many students.
That's the plan.
That is the plan.
Well, thank you so muchfor spending your afternoon here
with us. And spending some time.
My name is Carter,I'm Dalton, that's Dalton,
and I'm Doctor Doug.
Doctor Doug and doctor rooster.
(27:17):
Thank you.
And thank you for listening.
We'll be back again next monthwith another
member of the Auburn familysitting right over here
in that fancy chair,and getting to hear
the Auburn storyand getting to hear
learn a little bit more about themand what they do.
Excited to see you then.
If you'd like what we hear, likewe hear, we want to hear more.
We get more episodes.
We get like 8 or 9 of themwe've done the last few months
(27:38):
and some awesome ones.
Wherever you'relistening to us now,
just go backwardsand there's more.
And we'll see you again next time.
Thanks. War Eagle.
War Eagle. War Damn.
Hey, everybody,welcome back to the
Everything Auburn podcast.
I'm your host, Dalton Odom,and I'm Carter.
Welcome to another episode.
Welcome back everybody.
I'll be honest, Dalton.
I just want to startjust right into it here. Okay?
I'm a crier.
But let's be real honest, Dalton.
(00:26):
We both are.
And when we scheduled todaymental health awareness month
this month.
So let's get somethingto go along with that, right.
I've been real scared about today.
Yeah.
We have,staff meetings every week.
And yesterday,we were telling everybody
who we work with.
Hey, we've got we're filmingthe podcast tomorrow. So excited.
(00:47):
And then Carter and Iwere both like, hey,
hope we don't cry.
Fingers crossed, fingers crossed.
We'll see how it goes.
Yeah, exactly.
And we've got a therapy dog here.
So it's true.
It's true. We do.
Thank goodness,thank goodness we do.
Because todaywe have the Executive
Director of Student Counselingand Psychological Services
and our AthleticsExecutive Director of Counseling
(01:08):
and Sports Psychology, Dr.
Doug Hankes. How are you doing?
That's pretty impressive.
Quite the quite the the job there.
Yeah, quite.
And and who is thiswe also have here with us.
This is Doctor Rooster.
He is one of our fourtherapy dogs.
And he, drew the lucky straw to,come to the podcast and love it.
Oh, is is this his first podcast?
(01:29):
This is his first podcast.
He heard paw cast and was, like,raised his paw
and was ready, ready to roll.
I love it. That's great.
Well, welcome to it.
We're glad you took some timeout of your day
to spend some time with us.
Yeah, have a little chat.
Looking forward to this is great.
So you grew up in Auburnfor the most part. Yeah. Okay.
And then you attended Auburn.
(01:50):
Correct.
Did okay.
Success in sevennot finishing four.
Hey, you know what? I like it.
And if that ain't the truth,because I did it in five,
and then I did two yearsof grad school, so that's okay.
Seven.
So customizing master rightis not in math.
Look, I'm a two timeliberal arts grad. Everybody.
We're we're good at communicating,not at math.
Okay. Right. That's fine.
(02:12):
But tell us a little bit aboutwhat all does student counseling
psychological services offer.
How did you get involvedin this position?
That sort of thing.
Loaded question on a long story.
This is, finishing upmy 27th year,
you know, went to Auburnas an undergraduate.
Met my wife here.
Really never thought that wewe both never
(02:33):
thought we'd ever come back.
We were gone for almost 15 years,and just a random set of events.
Coincidences happened, and,we ended up back here.
That was 1998.
The counseling center at that timewas in the basement of before,
and I don't knowif you remember Foy back then,
but we used to call itlike a submarine.
You couldtake your hand across the ceiling
(02:54):
and the asbestos ceilingand just run across the love
that you knowwhat I'm talking about.
And, you know,the running joke was
when a student came in, if,you know, if they weren't sure
they were depressedonce they got into our offices.
It was very depressing.
So basically,typically confirmed it.
All that to say isthe department was born.
(03:15):
All that to say, there wasnot a lot of emphasis
on mental healthat at Auburn at the time.
So, you know,where we were, in 1998
with a four,I think, a four person staff
for probablyabout 20,000 students.
And how we've grown is just,you know, it's a tribute
to our administratorsand a lot of folks
(03:35):
who've just finally,you know, realize
we need to take careof Auburn students
and their mental health.
I want to mention,you know, it's a field
that has in the last10 or 15 years has really
blown up.
But I mean, starting itwhen you guys did,
I can only imagine was pretty.
Was it on the front endor is it kind of in
par with I mean, I assumethat's not something
(03:56):
that was as prevalentthen that it is now.
I thinkI think back then we just did we
we looked atI call our student body.
I still call our studentbody shiny happy people.
As you walk around,it looks like everybody has got
got their stuff together.
And we've,I usually the first 10
or 15 years here at Auburn,we spent more time destigmatizing
(04:18):
or trying to destigmatizingmental health and seeking out
services and resourceswhen you needed them.
I, I'd say thatthat is really changed.
Now it's more abouttrying to figure out
how to take careof as many students
that request or,you know, want to be seen,
for different.
And again,when we say mental health,
I think people still go,oh, you know, what is that?
(04:38):
I mean, it'sit's anything that's getting,
getting in the way of youperforming optimally.
And so it can be,you know, somebody
who is so depressedthat they can't get out of bed,
or it could be justadjustment to college
or it could be a serious,serious mental illness.
And we we really see itall at the counseling center.
But yeah, yeah, I canI can only imagine
(04:59):
what it's like day in the life.
It's.
I think it's the best job ever.
Yeah.
I mean, you know,I think a lot of us
look at other people'sjobs and go,
I don't know how you do what youdo, and I get that a lot.
But you get to see people change.
You get to see people get better.
Particularly if you stayone place too.
As long as I have,I have so many people
who come backyears and years and years
(05:20):
later and, you know,we'll go, hey, you know,
you said X, Y or Z, and,you know, it helped
change my life or you helpedsave my life. So, that's.
You mean that's a great job?
Wow. Right.
Yeah, yeah.
And again,the therapy dogs, we got dogs.
We have Dogtors Oh, yes.
So that was with,you know, our research
(05:41):
team, aka Kim, our producer.
We see this Dogtors termall over your website.
Is that a term you guys coined?
Get a Dogtors. This is, Yeah.
That's how creativewe are to council. I like it.
Yeah, I love this.
So you have your two Dogtorsis that we have right now?
We have four Dogtors.
Okay, okay.
(06:02):
Three of our three of our dogsare retired
detection dogs from canineperformance Sciences
with the vet schoolhere on campus.
And and one of themis personally owned
by one of our counselors who, had,was trained there, there
like training standards.
And so oncethey have all been trained
up, to,to to therapy lines of therapy,
(06:25):
I forget what the accreditationagency is,
but yeah, they're legit.
They got they got the credentials.
So, you know,Carter was just talking about
maybe mental HealthAwareness Month.
And just for anybodywho's listening, students,
parents, whoever,what are some of the things
that you guys are doingfor Mental Health Awareness Month
in May there, sir,you have anything going on?
(06:45):
Is there any events or anythingthat y'all are doing,
anything that you'rehighlighting here?
We got a number of events.
It's, for for a college setting.
May is not a really good monthto have the awareness
because we goteverybody is heading out of town,
and thenwe've got a lot of incoming
freshmen and parentswho are not generally concerned
about mental health.
When they come to campwhere you go,
(07:06):
they're excited to come here.
If there are anymental health issues,
a lot of them are figuringthey're going to leave them
back in high school,and they're going to be flipping
the page.
So, you know, thethe events, we don't do
quite as many.
We do so many throughout the year.
I feel like,you know, we've got it covered.
But yeah, we'll bewe'll be out and about,
(07:27):
but we're out and about a lotanyway, right. Yep.
We did just mention it.
So it does require the askingright. Camp War Eagle. It's
everyone's first interactionas a as a college student
with Auburn. Right.
And you have a very special eventthat you do with I think it's
I think it's specialsince I created it
the it's special.
(07:47):
The parent runas part of Camp War Eagle.
So any of you coming to campWar Eagle parents especially,
you know,bring your running shoes. Yes.
Because you take ityou go on a been
an excursion with the parent.
We get hot and sweaty.
When did this how did you becomehow did you start this parent run?
So when I came backto Auburn, camp
where Eagle had just started,I think we're in like year
(08:09):
2 or 3 maybe.
Mark Armstrong was the,relatively new director,
and we had,I believe, bus or van tours,
and there might have beena walking tour
and I just said I was did a lot,a lot of running back then.
I was pretty serious.
And, I just said to, to Mark,I said, hey,
if I offered like a three milerunning tour campus,
(08:30):
would you let me do that?
And he just started laughing.
It's like, yeah, man, sure.
You know, you can do that,but you're going to be
running by yourself.
And so, that's how it started.
He used to all be runout of the hotel
and conference center,and we'd meet up there, early.
And, you know,for the first few years,
(08:51):
it might be just a handful.
A good crowd was 15.
But we know we never got shut out.
And just over the years,it's grown.
And then we've had a lotof other faculty
and staff memberswho have pitched in.
We have some folksthat have been running now
for 20 years that arepart of the Auburn University,
you know, faculty or staff.
So it's it's grown a lot more,it's, you know, it's a ton of fun.
(09:14):
The parents that do it love it.
They think it's the best thing,you know, since sliced bread. But,
you know, it's the bigrunning joke there.
Chris Landry with camp,where he will get up
in front of the parents at thein the opening ceremony and,
and and just mentionand just remind everybody
of the mandatory three mile runthat will be occurring
the next morning.
(09:34):
There's a march.
Right.
And then, you know,all the parents are, like,
groaning, like going, this is.
But then there's, you know,there's the 50 to 100.
We've had probablythe biggest crowd, maybe 100 125.
That's but you know,you just never know
who's going to show up.
But it is a lot of fun.
Hey, you know, I can only imagine,you know, it's mental health,
(09:55):
I mean, stressful, the parentssending the kids off to college,
get some endorphins.
You're going early morning,a little morning run.
See? Campus, I like it.
Sure. It's. Get a free T-shirt.
Hey, what's not to likeabout that?
The list of thingsI'll do for a free
t shirt is is shockingly long.
Yeah, that is shockingly long.
Yeah.
Another thing, though,I think it was very interesting,
(10:16):
is my favorite questionto ask people on the podcast.
I ask it every interview I dois my favorite thing by far.
Is, is how you got to Auburn?
Now, I know a couple thingsyou mentioned earlier.
You kind of left.
Never thought you'd be back.
Found yourself.
I'm in a similar situation,kind of a boomerang.
Kurt Sasser in Auburnhas coined this boomerang, term.
(10:38):
I believe, with Auburn people.
Yeah, but,it is our understanding
you have quite the,interesting journey back to Auburn
after having livedhere, went to school here, left,
and you found your way backthrough a bit of a fortuitous,
afternoon.
Is this the hot tub?
This is a hot tubstory is what I've heard.
I heard it involves a hot tub.
It does.
(10:58):
So I was workingat the University of Tennessee,
and I had actually runthe Chicago Marathon.
The weekend prior to this.
It was a small Southeasterncollege counseling center.
Directors conference.
And my director atthe time was really, you know, she
she was really tryingto talk me into coming
and going to this conferenceto share
the driving responsibilities.
(11:19):
And I was so beat upand I really, really,
really did not want toto go to this conference.
It was, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
And so I eventually agreed to goand, got the hot
springs, got checked in.
And then basicallythe first thing I did
was go buy a six pack of beerand head to the hot tub
and just kind of like, chill outbecause I was just, again,
(11:40):
so beat up.
And as I'm sitting theresipping my beer,
a gentleman gets in next to meand, we just strike up
a conversation.
And he was the directorof the counseling center
at Auburn at the time.
And so we got to talkingand he said, you know,
we have a position open,you know, would you be interested?
I said,I don't normally ask this
right away,but how much does it pay?
(12:03):
He told me.
I laughed and said,no, no, thank you.
That's like that.
That's like a huge pay cut.
I'm not interested.
You know, I love Auburn,but not that much.
And he said, well,why don't you just
why don't you come downand you can use it as an excuse
to visit your family?
And I was like, oh, okay.
And so, came downand interviewed
and felt so badlyfor the counseling center staff
(12:26):
at the timethat about mid-morning
I got out of interview, mode.
Interview modeI didn't really clean up to.
Right.
So normallyyou go to an interview,
you get the haircutyou take for me,
take the earrings out,get rid of the I mean, you know,
I can look presentable and,and so I said, now
I'm just going to be me.
You know, I'man Auburn grad, right?
I'm going to Auburn, man.
You know the place.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(12:46):
They're going to getthey're going to get
they're going to get to see me.
But I realizedI was not going to come back.
And soI spent most of it interviewing,
just trying to advocatefor the staff here
and just say, hey,we're we're really
we're we're reallywe're really, really behind.
We we got to do better as an alum.
I'm frankly embarrassed.
And so I was notI didn't go over real
(13:09):
well during the interview.
And my wife at itwhen I got back,
my wife had applied for a jobover in alumni affairs
as a communications director.
And, they offeredher a job immediately
and then, yeah.
Then they sat on they sat on mefor about six months before,
I think.
I don't thinkthey could find anybody else
sure about this guy.
And pretty muchpretty much the harshest thing,
(13:32):
though, was a couple years ago,we were,
I was cleaning out a lot of files,and I stumbled onto my, like,
the filesthat had all my interview
materials in there.
And and there was one, you know,to get the written comments.
And he said, not in Auburn, man.
And I was just like,I was like, dagger to the heart.
So gosh. But different. Yeah. No.
So it all worked out right.
(13:52):
But it didn't work out.
But I mean, you are now.
Yeah, I think you'reI mean, you always are,
but definitely say it now.
Yeah. For sure. For sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Who would have guessed.
Hot tub in Arkansas I meanback in 98.
I mean people, you know, peoplereally, really wanted to come back
this boomerang thing.
And, you know, you couldn'tit was hard to get hired
(14:13):
at the university.
And for a married couple,or somebody was partnered up
for both peopleto get a job at the same time,
was was almost unheard of.
And people asked us all,how did you guys do this?
And it's like, you know,we really we're not
trying to come back, you know?
So I don't, you know,I don't, you know, I don't have
you don't have any advice for,you know, it's
kind of like it's supposedto have it's supposed to happen.
(14:33):
It's supposed to happen.
But yeah, this one thing,when I left the first time,
I had to come toterms with the fact that
it's not I'm not going to be back.
Yeah.
It's just because there'sonly so many people who do this
job who work in university,and they're really good
and they're great jobs,so they don't open up very often.
Right? Right.
So I fully expectedwhen I left that
(14:56):
I was saying goodbye forforever.
Never thought I'd end up back,but here I am.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's so great that I am.
Yeah, yeah.
It's always interesting hearingso I haven't been graduated
that longand I hearing from friends,
you know I'm what is it,three years
removed from graduatingand I there's still people
(15:18):
who've been like,I have not been back
since graduation and itit hurts, but they're like,
I live in Chicago.
Like, how am I going to. Yeah.
I can't just drive down, you know.
So it's a get me eliminatedany day of the week.
It's a sobering thought, you know.
Certainly is.
But I did want to, you know, asyou know,
trying to keep an eye on my timehere.
(15:39):
I can only imaginehow rewarding it is.
I mean, you get to interactwith students every day.
I feel comfortablesaying that every day. This.
I mean, college,I mean, right, it's
you get to really getsuch a great touch
of the university,you know, you know,
where the and you get the.
I mean, the best partabout the university
is, is the students.
I need to hang out with, studenttalk to students.
(15:59):
Maybe not at their happiest time,but you kind of come help them
get through it.
It's got to be so rewarding to be.
I think it's all the time,I think still,
I mean, I still thinkworking in higher
education is the best,the best job
there is, at least for me.
As a psychologist, you get to doso many different things.
You know, you could go outin private practice
(16:19):
or go work in a lot of otherorganized systems
and make a lot more money.
But the, you know, the people,the students, you get to interact
with, the faculty, the staffyou can be involved in research,
you get to go outand and do podcasts.
I mean, you get to start a,you know, a therapy dog program.
You get involvedin graduate student training.
(16:40):
I mean, they're justyou get such a mix of things.
It's it'ssuper rewarding for sure. Right.
And you also get to do a lot,not only with just
general population students,but you do a lot with
Auburn athletics.
Yeah, most of my backgroundwas in sports psychology.
I'm a licensed psychologist.
My my undergraduate master'sdegree is in sports psychology
within kinesiology.
(17:00):
So it's all focusedon performance enhancement.
So I just again randomly alot of me I try not
to get up on the mountain topand provide this wisdom
sort of thing.
But the one thing I will sayis the power chance events
and just like again,being in a hot tub
drinking a beer.
But, I wish I could tellyou was well planned out.
Making the move from kinesiologyis psychology,
(17:23):
and that was random.
And that with that alteredmy career.
And just, you know,what I've done with my life.
So, so, yeah,when I came back to Auburn,
I was lucky to, get started.
At the time,the swimming and diving program
was doing really good.
Jeff Schafferwas the diving coach,
and he was the first coachwho he was just like,
(17:44):
hey, you do whatever you wantto do with my dry
diver sports psychology wise.
And he's a great coach.
And they started doing well.
And DavidMarsh was the swimming coach
and he was like,why isn't Doug working
with the entire swimming team?
And so I got to workwith that entire team
and a lot of those individualsand kind of
got to ride their coattails.
I call basking in reflected glory.
(18:04):
You got to be a part ofour national championship teams
and then you're around enough.
I mean,and other coaches are like,
well, who's that guy?
And you know, and,you know, next thing I know,
I was doing a lot of again,I'm in the counseling center
all this is just extrabecause I love doing it.
And really trying to convincethe powers to be in athletics.
(18:24):
I mean, aswe could get out in front of this
and have we'rethere are going to be embedded
clinical sports psychologistand athletic departments.
It is going to be part of sportsmedicine,
just like athletic training,strength and conditioning.
We can either do this nowor we can, you know, we can wait
until everybody else does it.
We didn't quitewait till everybody else did it.
That's gone.
(18:45):
But yeah, eventually,they decided
they wanted to go that routeand then asked, did
I want to do that?
And I was like ten years ago.
It was my dream job.
There's no wayI'm going to leave
the counseling center.
What we're tryingto build right now.
But about 4 or 5 years ago, Iwas asked to step back in, and,
we had some unexpected turnover,and I think the thought was
(19:05):
if I came in,I could attract some folks
that would maybe stay.
And so I've got,I mean, I've got an amazing staff
in the counseling center,and I got an amazing staff
over in counseling,sports psychology.
So, beenbeen really, really lucky again
with the peopleI've got to work with.
And none of thatwould have happened
if you weren'tworking in higher ed.
He was saying. Never would have.
(19:26):
And hot tub and hot tubnever discount a hot tub.
I'm telling you, it's certainly,sports psychology is
especially something that I,you know, a big sports guy.
And you can't watch sports nowwithout hearing someone,
an athlete get up on camera,talk about how they've
done some sports psychologyand worked with mental training.
(19:46):
Yep, almostas much as physical training.
And I feel like five years ago,six years ago, it wasn't as,
maybe stigmatized and open.
It happened.
You don't hear about itas much now. You can't hear.
I mean, everyone'sgot their own personal person
they work with.
And, you know, it'sso much more present,
especially in sports.
In athletics, it'sso much more prevalent.
It was. Yeah, absolutely.
(20:07):
Years ago.
Yeah, absolutely.
And again you'veyou've got the performance aspect.
And then you have athleteswho deal with mental health
issues and personal issues too.
And it's I mean, for athletesall intertwined.
I mean, you know,if something's going on
in your personal life that it'sa lot of time
is going to negatively impactyour performance and vice versa.
(20:27):
You know, I'm a baseball playerand I'm in a slump.
It's hard to,you know, leave that at the field
and not maybetake it out on my partner,
you know? And anyway,so yeah, it's what's really cool
about working with athletestoo, is a lot of times
with the workyou do in the counseling center
with students who may or maynot actually get
to see all the changes.
(20:48):
But when you'reworking in athletes
with particularly performancespecific related stuff,
you can see whether they performbetter or not, right?
I mean, it's it's pretty clear.
And they're coming back inand giving you immediate
feedback about, hey, you know,we talked about this
and I've been practicingit took it out there.
And man, it made you know, itmade a difference.
(21:08):
So that's that's a ton of fun.
So I would be remiss to askwe have the one and only
Doctor Brewster here. Right.
So I was just hopingthat you could or Brewster,
if you'd like to chime in,provide any self-care tips
for anybody.
That's listening.
(21:28):
And then reallyjust around it out,
if there's somebody out therewho is struggling and listening,
what can they do?
Who can they contact,where can they go?
You can see he'spretty good at relaxing.
I do see thatsnoring over there in the corner.
And he's, he's and he'salso pointing out the importance
of like anyway self-careand taking care of your mental
(21:53):
health is pretty boringto be honest.
It's I call themgrannies a lot of the things basic
that if we would justdo them on a consistent,
probably daily basis,we could avoid a
lot of these issues.
But, you know,your grandma is going to ask,
are you are you eating right?
And, you know,are you getting enough sleep?
(22:15):
You know, you're taking care ofthat aspect of your life,
you know, how are you eating?
You know, how's yourhow's your diet?
Are you getting enough exercise?
Are you spendingtime, you know, socially,
you know, with your friendsand making those connections,
which can also be a problemfor some students, right?
Too much of that,but but a lot of those things
go a long wayif you can do them consistently.
(22:38):
You know, the problem is,particularly college students
is doing them consistentlybecause a lot of their life is
is not, you know, consistent.
Because, again,there's so many things that do
you don't want to miss out on.
Right? Right.
So you cut cornersin a lot of ways.
And sometimesyou can get away with that
for a long time.
And then sometimesit can catch up to you.
And particularlyif you're more prone,
(22:59):
if you know your family history,if you're more prone to anxiety
or depressive relatedsort of things, you know,
as long as your stresslevel is good,
you might not see any of that.
But once the stress levelgets amped up,
it's like a pot of spaghetti.
Just kind of, you know,everything's good at simmering,
and then you turn up the stressand then you got spaghetti
sauce going everywhere.
(23:20):
So again,self-care super important.
You can overdo that too, right?
You haven't got any moneyand you're going to go
get your nails done.
That's not self-care.
I mean, that's, that'sthat's that's
that's causing stress.
Really? Yeah.
Reminding students tosometimes they forget these things
and it can and again, it's boring.
(23:42):
Right.
But if you're consistent with it,it goes a long way. But it works.
It goes a long ways.
Yeah.
The counseling center, you know,how do you get connected?
So you can, you know,we're in two locations.
We're at the second floorof the medical clinic,
and we're also on the ground floorof Haley Center
underneath AuburnUniversity bookstore.
(24:04):
You can walk in,you know, any time and be seen.
We've got somebody on call.
You know, we hopefully wewe save most of those times
for crisis, an emergency.
We also let students definewhat the crisis or emergency is.
Or you can just callthe counseling center
number (334) 844-5123and get scheduled
(24:26):
for an intake appointment.
For non-emergencyintake appointments,
we can generally get students ineven at the busiest times
of the semester,you know, between a week and two.
And if it's a crisis,an emergency, you're going to be
scheduled same day. So,yeah, we make we try to keep
the barriers as low as possiblefor our students.
(24:46):
We don't charge forany of our services.
Again, it'sI think it's our administration.
And folks recognizehow important this is.
The dogs.
We have dogs at both locations.
A lot of people will just come into the waiting area
to just kind of hang outwith the dogs.
And, you know,we do a lot of outreach
events with them.
They do do a lot of groupand individual therapy.
(25:09):
So they actuallyare in sessions with students.
But probably their biggest impact,on our student body is,
the outreach events that they do,we call them our, you know,
our mental health ambassadors.
So we could do a tabling of thaton the concourse of
it says Student CounselingPsychological Services.
And you see a bunch of,you know, licensed
(25:29):
mental health professionals.
It's almost like, see elections.
You just go the other way, right?
You don't want to be,you know, like,
I'm gonna get psychoanalyzed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're not going to.
Yeah, I'm not going to gowalk up to the table
because, you know, then again,identified myself
as somebody with.
But if you got to, you know,if you have the dogs out
there, they're, you know,people are going to absolutely
come up and interact with dogs.
(25:50):
And, and sometimes, you know,that makes a difference to them.
Accessing services as well.
So but yeah, they make aI can't imagine not having dogs
in the counseling center.
Yeah.
So we've got, you know,one of these days
I'm going to retireand we've got something set up.
I know DoctorWoodard and Student Affairs
is basically said,you can retire, but
(26:12):
the dog program'sgot to keep going. Yeah.
So, they're definitely goingto be going to be part
of the counseling center,ongoing. But.
Yeah.
Incredible.
Well,I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for spending time.
Thank you for setting upthis program,
doing all so much work.
You, your team, your dogtors,do so much great work
(26:34):
for so many students.
I know it's a serviceI utilized while I was a student,
and I'm so thankfulthat I was able to,
And it's really incredible work.
But no, I love talking about it.
But, I mean, again,there's been so many people other
I mean, thathave contributed to it.
It's just it's it has not been me.
I just happen to have been aroundfor all of it.
Yeah.
Well, I'm gladthat you and your team
have been ableto do so much great work
because it is appreciate it.
(26:55):
It is a it is a very big need.
And I'm sure you've helpedso many students
and you will continue to helpso many students.
That's the plan.
That is the plan.
Well, thank you so muchfor spending your afternoon here
with us. And spending some time.
My name is Carter,I'm Dalton, that's Dalton,
and I'm Doctor Doug.
Doctor Doug and doctor rooster.
(27:17):
Thank you.
And thank you for listening.
We'll be back again next monthwith another
member of the Auburn familysitting right over here
in that fancy chair,and getting to hear
the Auburn storyand getting to hear
learn a little bit more about themand what they do.
Excited to see you then.
If you'd like what we hear, likewe hear, we want to hear more.
We get more episodes.
We get like 8 or 9 of themwe've done the last few months
(27:38):
and some awesome ones.
Wherever you'relistening to us now,
just go backwardsand there's more.
And we'll see you again next time.
Thanks. War Eagle.
War Eagle. War Damn.
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