Hello.
My name is doctor Tiffany Gunnels.
I'm a licensed professional counselor who can do supervision in the state of Colorado.
I'm also a licensed addictions counselor.
I currently reside in Colorado, but work at Divine Mercy University, which is why you're here.
I came to Divine Mercy University in 2022 after a career in the community to mental health field for about thirteen years.
I graduated in 2008 from Ohio University with a degree in counselor education and supervision and a master's from Denver Seminary in counseling.
After completing my PhD, I went into the field in doing community mental health and worked as a counselor working with mandated clients in an adult outpatient program.
I started as a substance use disorder counselor and then moved into working with, adults who had co occurring disorders, so substance use and mental health, and worked with those who came to us for domestic violence offenses.
So, most of the clients I worked with were mandated from child protection services, probation, or parole, or halfway houses.
I mostly did group work and I did some individual work and assessments.
And after doing that for a while, I moved into, a position as a program director over a child and family team, helping clinicians bridge that gap of parents working working with their kids and not just being in the room with kids by themselves, but bringing the parents into the experience as well.
And after that, I worked in our quality improvement department, looking at documentation and are we following all the regulations we needed to.
COVID happened and then I made the decision to, leave that position and stay with my family for a year while I figured out what I wanted to do.
And as I was reflecting on that, I really wanted to go back and see if counselor education was a good fit for me.
It was something that I couldn't do when I first graduated, but wanted to really see is this where I wanna be because I missed teaching, I missed the classroom.
So I reached out to Divine Mercy University who had an excellent reputation for, being a school, at least the Institute for Psychological Services had a great reputation.
So I reached out to see if they had a counseling program, and they did.
And I was hired as an adjunct faculty in 2022.
When I came on board, I taught the diagnosis and treatment class.
And this is a class where students learn to translate what clients come in and tell them is going on in their life to, a diagnosis, to a name, here's how we name that and here's how we're gonna treat that, here's how we're gonna help you be better.
So I've taught that for several years, I no longer do that now, but hope to get back to it eventually.
I also teach our internship class, which is the class where students are in the field, they're at a site, and they're learning how to put all of the things they have learned in the classroom into practice with clients.
And they come back to the internship classroom, meet with students from DMU and talk about their experiences.
We talk about, challenges they're facing as counselors, in training in their sites, and brainstorm and troubleshoot and support one another.
So I've taught that a few times and it's fun to see students out in the professional setting really seeing how this all works.
Another course that I've taught is addictions and counseling, and I've taught, I've helped teach our residency, counseling five ten, which is our very first time students come in person to our program.
And I love that I've taught that class diagnosis and treatment and internship because I get to see students at the beginning, in the middle and the end of our program, and how much they've transformed and grown over the process.
And they take these concepts that they have at the beginning of the program and begin to build them, begin to develop them, and eventually get to see them in action.
And I can't, I can't tell you how exciting it is.
And sometimes I get goosebumps when students in internship class talk about a breakthrough with a client, or about a skill that they learned actually worked and it was successful with their clients.
And then to hear them talk about their clients and the growth that they're seeing, and to be able to sit in presence with them and walk alongside them in their journey.
One of the things I think that makes DMU unique and special is the Catholic Christian meta model of the person, the CCMMP, or as we like to call it, the model of the flourishing person.
It's this underlying anthropology and this underlying foundation for all the counseling that we do that helps us to understand who people are, who humans are in relation to each other, in relation to themselves, in relation to God and their community.
And it really helps students integrate faith into this process.
If they wanna work with clients who have a faith, then they can do that and they're prepared to do that.
But the CCMMP also helps them just understand people in general and be able to work with anybody that comes into their office regardless of who they are, what their faith is, what their background is, and to be able to meet them there and to treat them with dignity, respect, and great care and hopefulness for their flourishing.
So that I think is a dynamic aspect of what we do.
Some of the things students I think can expect from our program is to come in and learn a lot of information, but also in a very practical way.
Every class puts together different assignments for you to take the information that you are being given in your readings and conversations and discussions and put them into practice that's, going to be helpful to you as a counselor.
It's very, very, intentional that way and, hands on in a lot of ways.
So I think that's one thing that makes us really unique.
You'll get many opportunities to practice doing those counseling skills before you go into the field and actually do that.
So speaking of going into the field, recently, I transitioned into becoming the associate director for training and internships.
So I help students who are ready to go into their clinical placement, get organized, find placements, answer questions about what it's gonna be like, and support them in that process as they find their sites, get set up, and get connected to their sites.
We do that through a course called the clinical placement orientation.
And I co facilitate that or co lead that with our director of training and internships, professor Warren.
We help students get to that point, and then I teach our practicum class now.
So practicum is the first step into a clinical site.
This can be a little nerve wracking and anxiety provoking for some students, but it's also really an exciting time where all of those skills start to come together and come alive, and you get to see them in action with clients.
It's not role playing anymore.
It's real people with real things going on in their life, and you get to walk alongside them.
So I'm currently in that role where I help teach that, and I also teach a class called psychopharmacology to our California students because they are required to take it per California regulations.
And we just discussed about how do you have conversations with medication providers about clients that you're currently seeing who are on medication?
How do you support your clients who are on medication?
Be consistent with them.
Talk about side effects they might have and how to have conversations with their medication providers.
So it's a really, I think, well, again, very practical class.
Students can expect from DMU quality and excellent faculty and, instruction.
A lot of the instruction is on your own, but faculty are very available to talk with you.
Our faculty have a range of backgrounds and specialties from trauma to addictions to working with children, from infant child mental health to, older adult mental health and everything in between.
And so if there's a question you have about the field, we probably have a faculty person who could answer that and help guide you in that.
As far as what you can expect from students, yes, it's a distance program, but the residencies and the cohorts seem to really bond well with each other and support one another through this process, and their academic studies, and well into their clinical placement and beyond.
In fact, I've talked to some graduates from DMU who have gone in together to do some private practice work and have elaborated on various professional projects after graduation.
And it's exciting to see that this work doesn't stop when you graduate, but that it continues on and continues to grow.
Other takeaways I think students have from this program is just this knowledge that, that people can be helped, that they come away from this program being hopeful, that maybe they can make a difference that they, can help people who are struggling.
And there's a lot of people struggling right now.
And so I think a lot of students can take away, this confidence that they've been trained at an institution that has prepared them well to be able to go out and walk alongside people as they struggle with what other mental health relationship and psychological challenges they might be facing.
So it's a pleasure to be a part of this faculty.
It's a pleasure to work with our students, and, I'm so glad to be part of DMU.
And so I hope you consider our program.
And if you do, if you show up and I meet you, please or if you see me, please come say hi.
I would love to talk with you.
So thank you.