Cohort of two: Psy.D. students rely on friendship as they build community bonds

Aaron Gardner and Sara Johnson have done more than find their place at Radford University. Much more. Within the last three years, they have found and made an impact on a welcoming community, building lifelong friendships, particularly with one another.

This past spring, the two Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) students finished their third year in the program. It’s been a whirlwind experience, particularly being the only two students in the cohort. That fact has presented challenges but also provided unique and powerful opportunities.

They came to Radford for different reasons. Gardner, who calls Alcoa, Tennessee, home, was looking for a place in Appalachia where he could connect with other students and people in the surrounding community. 

“I care a lot about this region,” Gardner said of Appalachia. “The thing about Radford is the people here care about cultural considerations. So, not only am I able to tap into my own identity here, but I'm also able to effectively learn about what's going on in the community that I live in.” 

Johnson, who grew up in urban St. Louis, Missouri, was seeking a counseling psychology program that focused on and emphasized “culture and diversity and social justice and rurality,” she said, expressing her desire to make a positive impact on the mental health of others.

“We know that folks in rural areas tend to not have access to mental health services, or if they do, we have clinicians who are stretched thin,” she explained. “So, I really liked the focus of Radford’s program. It felt very aligned with kind of my personal values.”

Radford’s Doctor of Psychology program opened in 2012 with an academic focus on rural mental health and additional emphases on cultural diversity, social justice and evidence-based practice in psychology. Gardner and Johnson are in the program’s final cohort.

Both came to Radford after earning master’s degrees. They felt it was a place to build a community for themselves, all while helping to strengthen those around them. 

Throughout their time at Radford, Gardner and Johnson have carved out time from their ultra-busy schedules to build meaningful and valuable connections with people in Radford and the New River Valley. More than a year ago, for example, the two participated with the Psy.D. cohort ahead of them in a food drive at a local grocery store. They’ve helped organize a community food drive and worked with Bobcat Backpacks, which provides weekend food for children in need.

“We just wanted to get out in the community and make connections,” Johnson said. “As psychology trainees, we, with our faculty, know community connections are vitally important. It’s important to let people know what psychologists do and what psychology looks like. So we showed up with the notion that it’s going to be helpful for us to make ourselves known in the community.”

That notion led Gardner and Johnson to develop the Radford Gratitude Project.

“This was a community-engaged social justice project inspired by research highlighting the positive impact of gratitude on mental health,” explained Stirling Barfield, an associate professor of psychology and licensed clinical psychologist.

The project featured portable chalkboard walls set up at the Radford farmer’s market. Gardner and Johnson encouraged visitors to write on the boards, expressing gratitude with a word, phrase, picture or anything they wanted to share. 

“There were many themes of positive relationships, whether they're romantic or platonic, Gardner said. “There was also description of religiosity on the walls as well. Children made drawings of Pokémon or their favorite artist.”

The project was showcased throughout the community with the intention of fostering a culture of appreciation and well-being, Barfield said.

“We went out three times with it, and it was really fun,” Johnson said of the Gratitude Project. “People would tell us really meaningful stories about their lives. It's awesome to hear about what was going well and what was going right in our community.”

Gardner and Johnson have found community, too, in the things they do every day at Radford and surrounding areas. 

Throughout their semesters, they attended classes two days a week and taught undergraduate courses, typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Mondays and Wednesdays, Gardner and Johnson worked at their respective practicum sites, eight hours each day. In year one, they completed practicums at the Community Health Center of the New River Valley. For the past two years, Johnson has worked at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salem, Virginia, and Gardner at Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center.

“We're trainees, but we have patients and clients that we see, too,” Johnson said, explaining their dual roles.

Fridays were reserved for talks with faculty and dissertation meetings. They also held office hours for students enrolled in the undergraduate psychology courses they taught. 

In the Doctor of Psychology program, Gardner and Johnson have gained valuable experiences working with people of all ages and backgrounds. In addition to taking and teaching courses and working in practicums, the two have collaborated with Radford’s occupational therapy graduate students to increase accessibility at the university’s McConnell Library, and they’ve conducted training and outreach on substance use disorder for the Radford Ministerial Association in collaboration with New River Valley Community Services.

“Over time, we have been developing a really strong skill set to work with a lot of different people,” Johnson said. “So getting exposed to what community health in a rural area looks like has given us a range of experiences and an ability to work with folks experiencing various types of things, from substance use disorders to chronic pain.”

That range of experiences is preparing Gardner and Johnson well for their future and, more immediately, for internships they will work in over the next year. Students in the program are required to complete a faculty-approved 2,000-hour internship. Gardner will continue his work at Cook Counseling Center, and Johnson will intern at the University of Kansas Medical Center, working with adults, adolescents and children in rural communities.

“We both got our first choice of internships,” Gardner said. “It feels good; that means a lot to us.”

Gardner and Johnson express a deep appreciation for their time in Radford’s Psy.D. program, for the ways it has prepared them for work as counseling psychologists and helped them gain confidence in their own identities. 

“This program at Radford really has prepared me to deeply understand myself, what feels good to work in and the environment that I am sharing with these colleagues,” Gardner said. “But also, I think what has been nice with the program is that they have honored who I am. It's been like a very faithful relationship between not just us [Gardner and Johnson], but with the professors as well, where they allow you yourself to shine first.

“So, it is because they've cared to actually get to know us,” he continued, “that we've been able to really figure out how can we honor ourselves right now and then take it with us wherever we may go in life.”

The caring and nurturing spirit that the two found at Radford has helped them find their places here. It has also helped Johnson find her identity in the counseling psychology discipline, she said.  

“The program and the people here have provided opportunities to go out into the community and connect with people in the way that I like to,” she said, “and the way that I think is really important for mental health and well-being.”

The past three years have been challenging, but overall, it’s been a “good feeling,” Gardner said with a smile.

“It just feels really good to develop into someone you are proud to be,” he continued as his voice softened. “I have absolutely found my place at Radford. I have this discipline that feels good to me, and it feels in alignment to something that is important to me, and I get to show up as a human being first, and Radford has elicited all of that growth. Without Radford, I don't know what my growth would have been. I am very thankful for this university.”

Both are thankful, too, for the strong bond that has developed between them.

“I know this one person will always be there for me, and she's always been there, and so I would always want to be there for her,” Gardner said, looking at Johnson. “And so, this cohort is a strong one. It's a mighty one for only two folks in it, and this friendship is one that I would like to keep for a long time.”