“Experts Spotlight” with Nancy Gajee
Clinician, May Counseling Center Walpole, Mass.
Nancy K. Gajee, M.A., is a clinician at the May Counseling Center in Walpole, Mass. She is also the Director of May Institute’s School-based Counseling Initiative serving children in public schools. In addition, she oversees outcome data management and research for the clinics in Walpole, Mass. and West Roxbury, Mass.
Nancy is also the captain and rider of Team Boston, representing the West Roxbury and Walpole clinics in the Rodman Ride for Kids. The Ride is just around the corner and the teams are busily preparing and raising money.
Question: You first joined May Institute as an APA intern in 2006. What was that experience like for you and how has it helped shape your career?
Nancy Gajee: At first it was a bit overwhelming! All new clients, having to learn about paperwork, figuring out who had knowledge about administrative disorders versus psychotic disorders versus child disorders–it was a lot to take in. Luckily, I’ve had amazing supervisors at May who have guided me. One of the things I value the most about my Behavioral Health experience is the culture of collaboration among a multi-disciplinary staff. Clinicians coming from social work, psychiatry, psychology, and nursing backgrounds bring valuable perspectives and knowledge to the table.
Q: How has your role with May Institute changed over the years?
NG: I went from being an intern with responsibility for treating a few clients, doing some paperwork, and showing up for team meetings to now being responsible for a lot that goes on in Behavioral Health. In terms of treatment, I see individuals, families, and couples, and I run groups for Transitions, our day treatment program for young adults. I direct our School-Based Counseling Initiative and treat children at a Boston elementary school. I also oversee the Gym Program, a multi-family group that focuses on increasing social skills and behavioral regulation for kids, as well as improving parenting skills and family functional communication through directed games and physical activity.
As part of my job, I consult with schools, as well as local, regional, and state agencies. I also conduct testing and assessment of children, adults, and adolescents. And I’m in charge of research and outcome data, designing, implementing and presenting studies.
Q: You are very involved in the Rodman Ride for Kids. What's that like, and how has the Rodman Ride helped to support your programs?
NG: I’m glad May Institute joined in The Rodman Ride for Kids, because it has helped to create a culture of development within the agency that was not so visible four years ago. Because of the Ride, we’ve been able to buy new rugs and nap mats for the Children’s Therapeutic After-school Program and new technology so we can collect and analyze assessment and outcome data to help inform us about how to best serve children and teens. But I think the Rodman Ride has done more than just raise money to support our Behavioral Health programs. It has made us focus on what it is we do well, and articulate it. I’ll be riding 25 miles again this year to help raise awareness and resources for our children’s programs.
Q: What issues are teens most concerned about today? Why?
NG: The usual stuff–relationships, sex, drugs, music, clothes, gadgets, grades, identity. They’re trying to figure it all out and not look foolish doing it. Adolescents tend to set the bar way too high for themselves. Who could figure all that stuff out, and cope with violence at home, depression, anxiety, suicide of a friend, and get it all perfectly right? But that’s what adolescents expect of themselves. So when they don’t succeed at something, it’s a huge blow.
In a community mental health setting, we tend to see a lot of what goes wrong with all of those things, and lots of feelings of failure. Nonetheless, I see a lot of resilience in the kids I work with. It’s just a matter of finding their strengths and letting them in on it. One thing I always look for is a teen’s sense of humor. I’ve found that once a teen can bring their humor to the surface and develop it, it’s quite often a factor of resilience.
Q: Is there anything you would like to share about May Institute mental health services that you think is not well understood?
NG: I think many people are unaware of everything the Behavioral Health Division of May Institute does. We do an exceptional job treating individuals with mental health and behavioral problems. We treat children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families, individually and in groups. We provide outpatient therapy and medication management, as well as day treatment programs for chronic and severe psychiatric illness. The Behavioral Health Division treats a range of diagnoses, including depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, to name a few.
On any given day we may provide treatment to a husband going through a divorce, a child being bullied at school, a woman experiencing psychotic delusions, a couple working to save a marriage, a child who has experienced abuse, a parent whose child has challenging behaviors, and a middle-age man who has just been diagnosed with Asperger’s Disorder for the first time. We have a well trained group of clinicians with experience in a range of evidence-based treatments.
