Catching the PASS: PASS Clinic Director Interview

CATCHING THE PASS:  INTERVIEW WITH PASS CLINIC DIRECTORS: 

DR. DEBBIE THURNECK AND DR. KENDAHL SHORTWAY

October 2023 

Published 2.12.2024

 What is the PASS Clinic?

  • Dr. Shortway: The PASS Clinic is mutually beneficial to the university and the community and serves two primary purposes: 1) To provide training opportunities to future psychologists and 2) To provide psychological services, including treatment and assessment, to children and adults. These services are available to people affiliated with ECU as well as people residing in the surrounding areas.
  • Dr. Thurneck: Our mission is to be a center of excellence in training psychologists. We do this by providing supervised clinical training to graduate student clinicians in the Clinical Health and Pediatric School concentrations of our Health Psychology PhD Program. We focus on evidence-based practice within a culture that embraces the concepts of human diversity, inclusivity, and cultural humility. The PASS Clinic was first established in 2010. Since that time, 86 student clinicians have provided behavioral health services, including therapy, consultation, and assessment services, to almost 1,500 patients in the PASS Clinic.

 Tell us about yourself and your work in the PASS clinic.

  • Shortway: This is my first semester as a Clinical Assistant Professor at ECU and I am a licensed psychologist in NC and NJ as well as a certified school psychologist. I consider myself a “generalist”, as I have worked with diverse populations of children and adults in a variety of settings and for many different presenting problems and difficulties. Currently at the PASS Clinic, I supervise Ph.D. students who are learning to conduct assessments and provide therapy to adults. I also serve as Assistant Director of the clinic, and therefore assist with administrative decisions and tasks.
  • Thurneck: I am a licensed psychologist in NC and was previously licensed in VA and OH. This is my second year as director of the PASS Clinic and ninth year serving as the primary supervisor of the Pediatric Service (both therapy and assessment). I also serve as DCT for the Pediatric School concentration.

 What kind of interest or background led you to this type of work?

  • Shortway: I never intended to be a psychologist. I was not a psychology major. In fact, even at the start of my doctoral program, I did not think I would enjoy clinical work. Thankfully, I trust the process and roll well with uncertainty and changing my mind.

I have essentially been guided by three questions: What is practical for me to do right now with what I have and what I know? Will I experience enough value and meaning in this pursuit to wholeheartedly continue with it? What is my contribution to this world?

I truly love practicing therapy, teaching, and supervising. I consider it an honor to be with people in times of suffering, and the responsibility and love I feel in my work has become a pillar of purpose in my life. I could share more about my education, personal experiences, and training, but the three questions above are what truly led me to this work.

  • Thurneck: I also followed a quite nonlinear path to psychology. I did not study psychology as an undergrad. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. Just one year working in a large law firm in Atlanta, however, taught me that being a lawyer was not for me. Instead, I had a brief stint as a photographer and personal assistant before going back to school and earning a degree in School Counseling. I loved my two years working as a school counselor in an elementary school in Norfolk, VA, but I realized there was more I needed to know to be effective in helping children and families. That led me to seeking a doctoral degree in psychology. My program was a Combined-Integrated program in Clinical and School Psychology, which provided me the training in integrated efforts and systems-level partnerships that I was looking for. Since that time, I have worked in college counseling centers, in private practice, in clinical faculty positions, and as director of two psychology training clinics.

 What about this work motivates you and provides inspiration?

  • Shortway: As a therapist, I have heard the best and the worst about humanity. Though it can be devastatingly heavy work, the moments of connection and growth have brought invaluable beauty to my life. I don’t think my former clients could ever fully understand how much they have inspired me. Likewise, as a teacher and supervisor, I am constantly inspired by students and clinicians in training. The path to becoming a licensed psychologist can be grueling at times, and yet people show up with openness, vulnerability, and a strong desire to help others. Motivation and inspiration to train compassionate, helpful psychologists is everywhere—it’s in the grocery store, at the playground, and in the news—wherever there are people struggling or suffering, there is a call to learn more, do more, and give more.
  • Thurneck: The students I work with! They provide me inspiration and motivation every day. I genuinely enjoy contributing to clinical training, and I look forward to sharing in the excitement of internship interviews and Match Day every year. I also enjoy collaborating with other psychologists and professionals across ECU and beyond in developing training opportunities and addressing clinical needs of the community.

What challenges do you see in this work in the near future?

  • Shortway: As a training clinic, we need to balance meeting the demands of the community with ensuring the best training for our student-clinicians. A training clinic is a unique mental health setting because of this symbiotic relationship. There are no current major challenges, but this balance needs to be central in my awareness as decisions and challenges arise.  
  • Thurneck: Funding has always been a struggle, but we are now very well positioned in this regard. Educating the public about what good, evidence-based practice looks like and requires is definitely challenging, especially in this TikTok age of misinformation about mental health and treatment. I am sure establishing our new site will present some challenges, but I will happily accept those. 

 How does the PASS Clinic achieve the balance of training, clinical service, and staying afloat?

  • Shortway: We are so fortunate at the PASS Clinic that we can offer services for relatively small fees and on a sliding scale. There are many reasons why we can do this and staying afloat is because we are a training clinic and not despite it. I have trained and worked in numerous settings, and the quality of care at training clinics is typically aligned with high standards because of the attention to supervision, the clinicians are not burned out, and everyone is there “for the right reasons” – more money can certainly be made elsewhere. As I mentioned above, it is a somewhat delicate symbiotic relationship, but like all mutual symbiotic relationships, we are better for it.
  • Thurneck: I agree with everything Kendahl stated above. Additionally, we receive a lot of support from the department, the College, and Danielle Braley-Winkle, of course.

 What is your vision for the PASS Clinic of the next five years.

  • Shortway: I defer to Dr. Thurneck for this question because I am the rookie and still learning about the context of our clinic. Whatever directions we go, I am showing up for the ride and dedicating my best to it.
  • Thurneck: Excellent clinical training will continue as our primary mission, while also serving the needs of the ECU and broader community. We are in an excellent position to expand our services. Evidence-based therapy, consultation, and assessment services will continue, and I hope we will be offering group treatment options as well. I would also like to see more cross-concentration efforts, such as joint case-conferences and provision of health workshops that would address both pediatric and adult populations.

 The PASS Clinic was recently given money from this legislature to expand services. How do you see that resource advancing the work of the PASS Clinic?

  • Shortway: Accessibility! We plan to increase accessibility so that members of the ECU community and local areas can reach us easier. We also plan to enhance training via physical space and learning opportunities.
  • Thurneck: As Kendahl said, the funding is intended to extend our reach, in both the services we provide to the community and the clinical training opportunities we provide our students. This funding and support is unprecedented. What an exciting time to be in the Clinic!

 What do you most enjoy about living in Greenville and working at East Carolina?

  • Shortway: I moved from NJ and have been here for just over three months. Time outside in nature is extremely important to my well-being and I am enjoying the adjustment to a warmer climate with different topography and plant and animal species. I love that I can quickly find places to go and things to do but can also relax in peace and quiet. I have attended and worked at many universities, and I think the spirit of ECU surpasses all the rest! Purple is contagious here and I am loving the sense of connectedness.
  • Thurneck: I appreciate the personal and professional support that I receive from the people I work with here, and I enjoy my work as director very much. The heat does get to me, but easy access to beaches and proximity to Ocracoke make the heat more bearable.