The Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has hired Lana Smith-Hale, LCSW, as the Director of its new Compassionate Counseling Program. The Compassionate Counseling Program will focus on body image, self-esteem, and mindful eating. Smith-Hale will be responsible for program development and providing clinical services to students who have anxiety, depression, stress, low self-esteem, body image issues, and issues with eating. Additionally, Lana Smith-Hale is responsible for providing mid-to long term therapeutic services to students through individual and group sessions as well as providing supervision to student-clinicians involved in the Compassionate Counseling Program.
Lana Smith-Hale has over eight years of experience working in the behavioral healthcare field with direct patient care in a variety of settings. She has experience working with at-risk youth and vulnerable families with a particular focus on anxiety, depression, and trauma. Smith-Hale also has prior experience running a residential home for women with eating disorders serving in both a clinical and administrative capacity. She maintains a private practice located in downtown Santa Barbara where she provides individual, couple, and family therapy for a wide range of issues including anxiety, transitions and stage of life concerns, relationship troubles, and behavioral issues. Regardless of the setting, Smith-Hale is very passionate about helping others work through issues so that each client can reach their potential and live a happy, fulfilled life.
At UCSB, Smith-Hale’s new role will be focused on helping students who struggle with body image, eating concerns, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, and relationships. She will be developing a program at the Hosford Clinic focused on helping students increase their coping skills, gain insight into themselves, and increase self-esteem and confidence. In addition, those who may struggle with disordered eating may benefit from the therapeutic services offered through this program. Through a variety of groups and individual sessions, Smith-Hale looks forward to working collaboratively with other services on campus like Student Health, Student Resources, and Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) to provide clinical services for students with this need. In addition, in alignment with the Hosford Clinic’s purpose, these services will be available to community members who need sliding scale services.
The Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic is a university-based community clinic that is designed to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive, low-cost individual, couple, family, and group psychological treatment and testing/assessment services to people living within the central coast community. The Hosford Clinic serves as a training site for students in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) of UC Santa Barbara and as a clinical-research facility for the faculty and students of the CCSP Department. It also strives to provide educational, consultation, and training services to professional and paraprofessional clinicians and educators in the tri-counties.