As Portia Gordon settles into her role as the new director of counseling and health services at the University of New Orleans, she has a very simple message for students.
“We are here,” said Gordon. “The services are included in their tuition so they should be accessing those services as much as they can.”
Gordon, who arrived on campus July 1, based her message on a recent student survey in which she said a majority of the more than 600 respondents indicated they didn’t know about the on-campus counseling center—nor where it is located.
One of her priorities is ensuring that perception changes, Gordon said.
“Just getting the word out that it’s here, it’s available,” Gordon said. “And it’s right here on campus. We’re offering virtual sessions along with in-person sessions when school starts.”
The professional staff, which includes three counselors, is experienced in the assessment and confidential treatment of mental health concerns common among university students.
“We’re in the process of redefining what our services are,” Gordon said. “There are services listed, but they are very generalized. So we’re working on what do we do, how do we do it and how do we let people know what we’re doing.”
Another goal for Gordon is to remove the negative stigma some people place on seeking therapy and to normalize it as much as possible, she said.
“I think everyone needs counseling … it’s about your well-being in general, your quality of life,” Gordon said. “When it comes to self-care, I have my own therapist that I go see once a week. I recommend that to everyone. I try to normalize it as much as I can, that even therapists need therapy.”
Gordon is a licensed professional counselor with supervisor certification who previously worked as the counseling director for Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response (STAR®), a nonprofit organization that has centers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Alexandria. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling from Xavier University in New Orleans.
“The whole point of counseling is to work ourselves out of a job,” Gordon said. “Being able to see a client do well enough that they don’t have to come see me every week, to be able to make those changes for themselves, is the best part.”
Gordon also has worked in private practice for more than six years and recently opened a group practice, Turning Point Counseling, which provides mental health services with a focus on racial minorities and LGBTQ populations.
In response to what Gordon perceived as an understanding void among some counselors as it relates to racial minorities and LGBTQ populations, Turning Point created a training series called “Critical Conversations with Counselors.”
The sessions discussed topics surrounding gender, sexuality, race, relationships and trauma, in order to increase the awareness and knowledge of counselors in New Orleans who might work with marginalized populations, Gordon said.
At UNO, Gordon said she wants to focus on offering mental health training sessions to faculty members because they spend the most time with students.
“One of the major things that has been identified is being able to provide more training to faculty and staff about mental health, about working with students, about when to identify mental health crises and then what to do in those crises,” Gordon said.
The Counseling Center is located on the second floor of the University Center in Room 226. The office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The telephone is (504) 280-6683.
