Lindsay Gavin, Ph.D., has spent the past eight years leading trauma-informed care at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital. There she helped young patients understand how much past trauma has an affect on their mental health.

Now she is bringing that experience to Towson University as the new director of the Counseling Center.

She didn鈥檛 start out wanting to be in the psychology field. In fact, Gavin began college as an international business major.

After just a few classes, she realized business wasn't the right fit. She talked with her identical twin sister Lauren about what to do next. She likes to joke that they said, 鈥淲hat about psychology?鈥� at the same time.

That shared moment led Gavin toward three degrees and a career in psychology that has spanned more than a decade. Now she is leading 撸先生鈥檚 efforts to support students鈥� mental health as the director of the Towson University鈥檚 Counseling Center.

As she begins her first semester at 撸先生, Gavin is looking forward to becoming integrated into the 撸先生 community and developing strong relationships with her staff.

鈥淎nd I think right now is a time of great evolution with the growth of 撸先生鈥檚 student health and well-being unit. My role is to help make sure that the Counseling Center is ready to meet that moment of evolution.鈥�

Connecting her past to her present

When she recalls her initial leap in psychology,  she found it interesting to study human behavior. But it wasn鈥檛 until she started connecting her learning to her past where it became a true professional calling.

When you don鈥檛 have your mental health, nothing else matters.

Lindsay Gavin 

Concepts like 鈥攚here a person believes they have no control over a situation鈥攈elped her process her experience with childhood trauma.

Seeing how trauma affected each member of her family differently sparked a professional passion for understanding how it shapes development, leading her to pursue a career in youth and family trauma.

鈥淲hen I started to realize these connections, it made me feel like I was meant to be in this field,鈥� Gavin says. 鈥淭his feels like my calling, especially kids and youth trauma. I loved what I did, and it felt meaningful to me.鈥�

Healing pediatric trauma

Prior to arriving at 撸先生, Gavin worked at , where she helped develop and directed the hospital鈥檚 Trauma and Healing Program.

There, she and her team worked to improve screening, assessment and treatment for youth experiencing trauma in order to improve a culture of misdiagnosing youth, particularly youth of color, with behavioral disorders rather than understanding that their behaviors and difficulties were rooted in trauma.

This lead to understanding and improving the significant gaps in trauma education within the mental health field.

鈥淓very setting I've been in, I am like, 鈥榃hat is the trauma like, what is the trauma awareness and what are we doing to understand how it's affecting mental health?鈥欌�� Gavin says. 鈥淏ecause there is a great silence around trauma in general. And in mental health, there were a lot of people who were very uncomfortable to talk about it. I started to see that's what I want to do in our field more globally.

"I wanted break down the silence of trauma and help both mental health providers and the community to understand that trauma is a very shared human condition that can affect all of us, and to more openly talk about it and address it."

The transition to 撸先生

After years of intensive clinical work, Gavin began looking for an opportunity with broader organizational impact.

The director position at 撸先生 provided a unique opportunity for her to combine clinical practice with leadership, training and community engagement.

鈥淚t has all these things I want to do, all while getting to work as part of a system, getting more leadership experience and addressing mental health at a community level,鈥� Gavin says. 鈥淚t felt like a perfect next step. I even went to my old colleagues and told them this job has all the things I鈥檓 looking for.鈥�

Goals for the Counseling Center

As Gavin begins her tenure at 撸先生, her priority is building trust with Counseling Center staff while learning about the needs of the team and the students they serve.

She鈥檚 also working to expand the center鈥檚 vision beyond reactive services to preventative and community-based approach, which will help increase visibility across campus.

This includes helping to develop 撸先生鈥檚 Mobile Crisis Response Team, a new initiative that pairs a mental health clinician with the Towson University Police Department during behavioral health crisis calls. This ensures mental health emergencies are handled with a trauma-informed, de-escalation approach to keep students safe.

"And I think right now is a time of great evolution with the growth of 撸先生鈥檚 student health and well-being unit. My role is to help make sure that the Counseling Center is ready to meet that moment of evolution."

Lindsay Gavin

Gavin also wants to make sure the campus community understands that while it鈥檚 important that students get an education and a job, stable mental health is foundational for student success.

鈥淲hen you don鈥檛 have your mental health, nothing else matters,鈥� Gavin says. 鈥淚t has to be at the center of your well-being. As a youth coming to college, this is a big transition of you figuring out who you are and what you want to do. None of that matters if you鈥檙e too anxious or depressed and can鈥檛 get out of bed in the morning.鈥�