Articles and research from our team on the future of mental healthcare for young adults.

Innovative products include DBT self-guided content and emotional wellness coaching resources

NEW YORK, March 27, 2023 – Mantra Health, a clinically informed digital mental health provider for colleges and universities, announced a series of milestones that mark a new era of growth for the company. This month, Mantra Health launched a suite of new products, which includes dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) self-guided content and emotional wellness coaching resources for students; partnered with Togetherall to incorporate a high-quality peer-to-peer support network into their suite of services; and secured $5 million in a Series A extension round of funding from returning investors to set the course for its exponential growth.

“We set out to create the most comprehensive and effective mental health and wellness services for higher education,” said Mantra Health Co-Founder Matt Kennedy. “With this expansion, we are responding to a desire for an innovative, integrated campus mental health experience, bringing our mission of providing accessible, equitable, and high-quality solutions with a complete turn-key product for our university partners with the dual goals of improving student success while managing risk.”

Expansion of Services and Togetherall Partnership

Mantra Health’s new Whole Campus Care service allows access to comprehensive mental health services that support students across every stage of their mental health journey. Whole Campus Care offers teletherapy, telepsychiatry, and 24/7 emotional wellness support services. New services include a first-of-its-kind DBT Self-Guided Skills program that teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness via curated skill collections, video lessons and journal reflections. All DBT content is designed by Dr. Carla Chugani, Mantra Health’s Vice President of Clinical Content and Affairs, and one of the world’s foremost experts in DBT as it applies to college students.

The platform’s additions encourage the adoption of skill-building programs through a new coaching service. These coaching programs, which have been proven to enhance engagement and improve outcomes, provide short-term and goal-oriented intervention and are available regardless of a student’s location nationwide. 

“At Mantra, we remain firmly committed to providing clinically informed services that provide young adults with the highest quality of care,” said Dr. Chugani. “Our DBT program meets students and young adults where they are with what they need. We will also work with campuses on student activation and engagement, ensuring that students not only know about the product, but use them effectively and with successful outcomes.” 

The Whole Campus Care service includes a unique partnership with Togetherall, the leading digital peer-to-peer support community with 24/7 clinical moderation and oversight, to provide students with a high-quality, clinically rigorous well-being ecosystem of mental health care, all accessible within an integrated patient experience.

The mission-aligned organizations have joined together to bring students a more integrated and comprehensive mental health solution. Through Togetherall’s anonymous, peer-to-peer support community, which is overseen and moderated 24/7 by licensed clinicians, students will give and get support from their peers. If desired, they will also have the chance to connect to Mantra Health’s clinical services, such as therapy, psychiatry, and on-demand behavioral health support, which includes crisis care. 

“We’re proud to partner with an industry leader like Mantra Health and to open our safe online community to even more college students,” said Matthew McEvoy, Togetherall’s President and General Manager in North America. “Through this integration, we’re connecting hundreds of thousands of students from all backgrounds and providing them the safe space they need to confide in and support one another through anonymous yet personal connections.”

Both Mantra Health and Togetherall are dedicated to serving students of all backgrounds, including underrepresented students, students with disabilities, and those identifying as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) and/or LGBTQIA+. Togetherall has experience working with traditionally marginalized student groups and those who don’t feel comfortable help-seeking. Mantra Health offers a diverse, specialized group of providers, so students can match with clinicians who understand their cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. 

The significance of this work has been validated by Mantra’s investors, including its Series A lead investor VMG Partners, who led a syndicate of internal investors, adding $5 million in Series A extension funding to support this expansion of services, bringing the company’s total fundraise to-date to over $34 million. 

“We’re pleased to see the incredible value that Mantra Health is providing to their college and university partners,” said Khira Gabliani of VMG Partners. “We continue to invest in Mantra because we believe it is ideally positioned to provide a much-needed service for students in need.” 

With this additional funding, Mantra will increase its research and development capacity to develop innovative, effective mental health products for higher education. Mantra will continue to offer its Capacity Expansion solution, a high-quality clinical staffing product for college counseling centers, maintaining a campus-tailored care solution with an exclusive provider group for institutions looking to augment their counseling services. 

Mantra Health is an award-winning digital mental health provider for colleges and universities. On a mission to make evidence-based mental health care more accessible to students, Mantra Health partners with higher education institutions and health insurance plans to provide undergraduate and graduate students with virtual therapy, psychiatry, crisis care, and wellness content. Through augmenting high-quality, evidence-based clinical services with seamless campus integration, Mantra Health aims to provide digital and clinical services to 40 million young adults. The company was named a Rising Star by the 2022 UCSF Health Hub Digital Health Awards in Mental & Behavioral Health. Mantra Health solutions have been deployed across more than 100 college and university campuses, including Penn State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Miami Dade College, and Cornell University, serving more than 800,000 students.

Togetherall is the clinically moderated, online community where students give and get support on concerns affecting their mental health. Students share what’s on their minds, anonymously, safely, and in the moment with peers who have similar lived experiences. Togetherall provides an unmatched level of clinical rigor. All our online moderators are licensed mental health clinicians, ensuring 24/7 oversight of our peer-to-peer community and immediate risk-detection and clinical intervention, if the need arises. Over 4.6 million students from more than 400 institutions worldwide already have access to Togetherall with the majority of students joining experiencing feelings of depression and/or anxiety. More than one-third of students reported that Togetherall was their only source of mental health support. Registrant data reflected the diversity of the community, with 51% identifying as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC), and 5% identifying as transgender or gender non-conforming.     

Mantra Health Announces New Solutions for Campus Mental Health Crisis, Supported by Series A Extension Funding

Cultivating a Culture of Care with the Catholic University of America’s Dean of Students

Higher education wasn’t a common pursuit in the community where Jonathan Sawyer, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the Catholic University of America, grew up. In his graduating class of approximately 200 students, fewer than ten went on to pursue a four-year degree and he was one of them. 

He wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps and pursue a career in engineering, but Sawyer had a hard time adjusting to campus life at Virginia Tech. He had little social interaction with his peers, didn’t connect with professors, and was in a challenging living situation. At the end of his freshmen year, he went to the housing office to request a change – and ended up with a job in housing services, where he helped new students with the transition to campus. 

This experience strengthened Sawyer’s relationship to the university and led to other opportunities, more enjoyment, and greater academic success. He hopes that, regardless of what college a student chooses to attend, they will find that same degree of connection, support, and engagement that Sawyer found at Virginia Tech.

Turning the Dean’s Office into a Hub for Students

After earning a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Virginia Tech, Sawyer took a job as the Residence Hall Director at Ball State University in 1995, then moved to Catholic University in 1998 where he first worked in Residential Life and Student Conduct and later as the Dean of Students, a role he has held for 19 of his 25 years at the university.

Sawyer has been in the trenches with the students, helping them work through challenges, and he’s managed a staff that has faced an ever-increasing volume of student issues. Since the pandemic, Sawyer has found himself engaging more and more with students. The caseload has almost quadrupled in his office, although there are few undergraduate students enrolled at the university.

From his vantage point, Sawyer believes that virtual engagement during COVID has impacted a great number of students’ ability to develop coping skills needed to overcome obstacles, leading to an increase in engagement between students and staff. “Students are also more comfortable articulating certain issues and we’ve created a framework here to engage with students. We encourage them to come forward when they need help,” says Sawyer. Students will go to the dean’s office to discuss their academic challenges, or personal hardships. “They learn pretty quickly that this isn’t a place that gets you in trouble. We help the students.”

At larger state schools, students might not interact with the Dean of Students, but at a small, private Catholic university, it’s different. “Everybody should know you,” Sawyer explains, which is why he has deliberately created a culture of openness within the department and encouraged students, parents, and other community members to come to his office with any questions or concerns, which he then filters out to his staff. This has allowed the dean’s office to become a centralized place for students to access guidance and support.

Sawyer wants students to “learn how to cope, how to be resilient, and how to recognize that life is full of setbacks and, at times, failure.” He wants students to develop key skills, like communication, negotiation, self-reliance, so they can overcome these obstacles and make a broader impact on the community around them. The challenge, however, is maintaining a strong relationship with the students and building the proper support systems to care for them across all four years. This starts with the parents, with the months leading up to college, and freshmen orientation, but must continue through the duration of that student’s time on campus. 

Maintaining Balance in a High-Stress Environment 

Now more than ever, students are talking about their mental health and seeking out counseling services, which has dramatically increased the service utilization rates. At the same, we’ve witnessed more suicides, deaths, disturbances, and shootings at campuses across the country, which has turned the counseling center into a triage center.

Staff, from counseling services to student affairs, are overworked, and often overwhelmed with the rising demand. To mitigate these problems, Sawyer treats the dean’s office like a hub, where initial intakes can be conducted. Maybe a student does need counseling support, or maybe they simply need coaching. By establishing the dean’s office as the go-to place on campus, Sawyer has managed to reach anywhere from 35-45% of the entire undergraduate population on an annual basis. 

Maintaining this structure is challenging, however, with students graduating every year, and as the university aims to double its enrollment over the next decade. But Sawyer and his staff have been working for the university for many, many years, long before COVID. They’ve weathered many storms and they know how to cope with the changes and roll up their sleeves and get to work. They also understand that the chaos will rise and fall across the academic year, but when limits are reached staff are reminded to take pause before resuming. 

“We can’t get overwhelmed by the reality of what today is, because tomorrow is going to bring something different,” says Sawyer. At the same time, “we can’t keep pushing through because it will pile up and that’s not healthy either.”

Sawyer aims to maintain the balance, but knows that it’s a year-round rollercoaster, and rest needs to be taken during breaks and in the summer months. This downtime also gives Sawyer and his staff time to rethink procedures and processes of the year and consider what worked, what didn’t, and what approach should be taken for the next academic year. 

Keeping the Focus on the Student Experience 

“The work is ever-changing. There’s never a dull moment,” Sawyer says. He describes the experience of supporting students across the four-year journey as akin to having children, of which he has three of his own. “You get to see these students change and grow, just like you do your own family.” 

Often, he’ll tell students of the many times he went fishing in college. The river near his undergraduate campus was winding and in order to find the right place, he had to test out different spots, push his limits, sometimes wading into the water, and always adjusting his position based on the weather or time of year. Sawyer compares this experience to college, in which there are obstacles that need to be overcome – and in which students have the opportunity to develop their own sense of independence. 

“It's about loving yourself and self-sufficiency,” Sawyer says. Far too often students are encouraged to go to college, find their spouse, get a job, but what they should be focused on is their own self-identity and finding the things that bring them joy. “What we do isn’t rocket science, but it’s really hard work. It’s stressful. And we don’t know what the future holds, but hopefully good things.”

Photo copyright: Ed Pfueller | The Catholic University of America

If you wish to be a part of our spotlight profile series, email us at outreach@mantrahealth.com. 

Preventative Care with the President and CEO of Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area

Dr. Andrew Flagel, PhD, President and CEO of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and Visiting Senior Scholar at The George Washington University, has worked in higher education for 30+ years. 

You wouldn’t know that Dr. Flagel intended to become an attorney. His mother, a school teacher and community activist, founded one of the largest economic development programs in the country – and Dr. Flagel thought he would follow in similar footsteps. But when he got on campus, his perspective changed. 

“I found myself really engaged in the life of the university and its interaction with the community and that led me to, much to my parents’ dismay, turn down law school to decide that I would spend my career in education,” says Dr. Flagel.  

While an undergraduate student at George Washington University, Dr. Flagel worked three jobs to overcome financial hardship. At the same time, he enjoyed every opportunity he was afforded, including being a part of the radio station, taking on leadership roles, working for the university, and receiving mentorship from the university’s president. 

During this time, he started to consider “new ways of thinking about access to colleges and universities,” an interest that really propelled the rest of his career. After completing his masters, Dr. Flagel took the regional director of admissions role at his alma mater. 

“I had no idea I’d be doing this for the next four decades,” says Dr. Flagel, who went on to earn his PhD in Education from Michigan State University. 

Dr. Flagel has worked in enrollment, marketing, public relations, student affairs, among other areas. For seven years, he worked as the Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment at Brandeis University, where he oversaw various departments, including sexual assault services and prevention, the health and counseling centers, athletics, housing, financial aid, and many others. 

“It’s such a tremendous sense of responsibility when you wake up every morning, feeling like these lives are in your hands and knowing that you can't save them all,” he says. “I don’t have a great solution for those who are in it every day,” but he understands that the work these campus leaders are doing is essential. 

This is, in part, why he enjoys his current role, in which he gets to support those on the ground, providing them with resources and tools to develop more student health and well-being initiatives. 

Removing Barriers to Care in a Post-COVID World

The mental health challenges affecting students have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, putting an enormous stress on the campus and its community.

“Anyone working in student affairs or education understands that there has been a rising tide of anxiety and other disorders in students at the elementary, middle school, and early-college level,” says Dr. Flagel. While older adults have started to move on, the younger generations are still recovering, Dr. Flagel explains. “That wave was heading towards us before the pandemic. With the pandemic, we’ve seen this incredible surge in anxiety, self-harm, and other mental health conditions.” 

The pandemic has had cascading effects on the students, but also the faculty and staff who are working long hours, often with few resources, to meet the ever-increasing demand for support. If the staff are experiencing anxiety, how are they supporting students? If the counseling center is overwhelmed, how are they meeting rising demand? What about the student health center? These are questions Dr. Flagel is working to solve as he focuses on campus- and community-wide initiatives.  

One of the biggest barriers to care, he knows, is based on socioeconomic factors. Students are battling financial instability, food insecurity, and housing concerns, but also societal problems, like gun violence and the opioid epidemic. 

Creating Better Solutions for Holistic Health

While there are many challenges to addressing student health and well-being, Dr. Flagel has found that building partnerships across the campus and community provides tremendous value. During the pandemic, for instance, the Consortium received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and worked with AU and Gallaudet to expand access to COVID-19 testing. Other initiatives include partnering with the Capital Area Food Bank to address food insecurity on campus, and working on a massive project to bring affordable housing to students. 

Additionally, over 100 faculty members, from across 18 institutions across the Consortium, are working collaboratively to develop the best possible recommendations for practical and actionable approaches to reducing gun violence, Dr. Flagel explains. And next year, he’d like to tackle the opioid epidemic and increase campus access to Narcan. 

One of the biggest challenges is recognizing the fact that the structure of higher education doesn’t really support big complex initiatives. Each campus is designed to be autonomous and separate. Even internally, collaboration is difficult to achieve, which is why Dr. Flagel suggests creating new mechanisms for collaboration. 

“We’ve siloed, in bizarre ways, student wellness from approaches to student success,” Dr. Flagel suggests. “A strategic approach to wellness starts with an equity approach. We know these challenges are significantly greater in the lowest income brackets and among populations that are significantly underserved. How do we make sure that we're not losing students because of housing, lack of access to food, lack of access to appropriate health care, and how do we do that proactively?”

At Georgia State University, for example, micro-grants are now being offered to students who are nearing graduation and falling short financially. At Denison University, President Adam Weinberg has invested in a new wellness center that combines medical, counseling, and wellness, to create a whole person approach to health. 

The most expensive visit is the emergency room, Dr. Flagel explains. Rather than waiting for students to reach a state of distress, why aren’t we thinking more proactively? And how can we track outcomes? Rather than tracking visits, how do we figure out metrics? If we’re not measuring and disaggregating that data, we’re failing to determine programs and initiatives that are most successful, he says. 

“It’s a critical time to think about the health of our community, but it requires a team effort and a kind of visionary strategic approach. Everything matters, from insurance to providers to access,” says Dr. Flagel. 

Photo credit: Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area

President Brian W. Casey spends much of his free time on the College University Campus, swimming, attending the institution’s athletic events, hosting dinners, walking his dog through the quad, and conversing with students. He doesn’t have to engage in this way, but Casey loves being a part of the campus community. 

“This is where I belong, on a campus” he says. “When I run into a group of students and they pet my dog and tell me what’s going on, I’m completely energized.”

For many years, before working at Brown University, Harvard University, and DePauw University, where he served as the institution’s 19th president, Casey was an attorney on Wall Street. He was wildly successful, but unsatisfied with the life he had created for himself. Where did he belong? After leaving his law firm, he gave himself one year to answer one basic question: what’s the one thing that’s true about me? 

During this brief time, Casey wrestled with a loss of identity and a newfound understanding that many of his life’s achievements had been, perhaps, driven by the interests of others. Were the achievements driven by an inner interest, or by an effort to please others? While visiting his sister in California and touring some local universities, Casey realized that he was happiest on a college campus and always had been. He knew he belonged on a campus. This simple, yet profound realization – his one true thing – led him back to higher education, first as a PhD student at Harvard University where he earned his doctorate in History, and now, years later, as Colgate’s 17th president.

Recognizing the Importance of the Campus Environment 

Casey believes the beauty of a campus – and its culture – plays an important role in the lives of the students. As the president of Colgate, he aims to “nurture and strengthen the campus, make it more beautiful, make it more redolent of connection, make it a place of belonging, but also exploration for students.”

As an undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame, where he was a Division I swimmer, Casey felt this sense of community. The beautiful tight-knit campus was infused with rituals and traditions that structured campus life and created instant bonds among the students. This wasn’t always the case, he believes, when he attended Stanford University for law school. As a young twenty-something new graduate student on a sprawling, California  campus, he found it harder to establish a sense of community.

“Notre Dame undergraduate students didn’t have to wonder where to go on Wednesday nights,” Casey recalls, because there were built-in routines which everyone seemed to follow. In many ways, it was comforting falling into such rhythms. At times, though, it could seem to be constraining. As a gay man on a largely conservative campus, finding a distinct identity was challenging at times, but the experience, as a whole, had a positive impact on the president. 

“I remember walking back from the library at Notre Dame, walking through beautiful quadrangles, my mind buzzing from reading and studying. And now I think, this is my job. My job is to make that moment available for Colgate students,” says Casey. “Most people don’t spend their lives in a place where they can walk to libraries at night and read books, but on campus that’s really the student’s job – to read, to think, to connect and to walk under beautiful trees on a beautiful campus.”

In addition to the day-to-day administration tasks, Casey says one of his greatest challenges (and privileges) as the Colgate president is telling students stories of themselves. “You create a space and you tell them it’s a space. You tell them when they arrive, ‘these are four years that will be quite different from the other years of your life. This will be different. But it’s for you to use, to consider, to grow into.’’ Part of my job is to tell them that.” 

During an opening speech to an incoming freshman class, he once said, “If you do nothing else this year but fall in love with one book, that’s all you have to do.” An avid reader himself, Casey admits, “I’ve never met a really good book that didn’t lead me to the next book.” 

Since joining Colgate, Casey has launched a $1 billion Third-Century Plan, created a hub for creativity and innovation, planted over 400 trees, removed student loans from financial aid packages, and increased assistance for all students on financial aid to help pay for their books, among other impactful initiatives. He is working to remove barriers for students, give them safety, support, and resources, but also create beautiful spaces for them to connect with one another and learn.  

“I know there’s a student on campus reading a book right now that Colgate alumnus has made possible – and that makes me very happy,” says Casey. 

Creating a Sense of Belonging Among Students 

With an ongoing rise of anxiety, depression, and suicidality on campus, Casey says it's important for administrators to prioritize student well-being and “take what may seem like student dramas seriously.” It’s easy to say, “it’s silly to be worked up about a test or a romantic breakup,” Casey explains, “but I remember being worked up about these things at their age. This is the oldest our students have ever been and their dramas are quite real for them. When something goes wrong, they feel like their whole world is collapsing.”

Even though Colgate has increased support services and capacity and created more ways for students to reach out, Casey says, “We’re doing a very poor job of teaching students to remove themselves from the endless noise of the world. I worry that we send so many emails and messages to them. Then encourage them to get their resumes in order and their careers started early. These all may be very good and necessary things, but it is rare for us to say, ‘why don't you read tonight? Why don’t you slow down?’” 

In this post-pandemic world, more and more students are missing out on the community aspect of college life. Many forgo shared meals to use the grab-and-go options at the dining hall; some are joining the Greek system, but don’t feel it fully represents who they are. Others are trying to establish themselves without the Greek system, without clear direction or support. This is why Casey continues to ask himself: How do we create a sense of belonging for students and create different, varied spaces on campus? How do we create rituals and diversify them to reach more students? 

One major initiative is expanding and enhancing what was once a simple fraternity row on the campus into a larger and richer new campus neighborhood for Colgate juniors and seniors that gives them places to eat and gather. Fraternities, sororities, and theme houses will be renovated and connected to new courtyards and quadrangles with new apartments and townhouses.  All of this will be knit together with new green space and new gathering places. These changes will create new pathways and spaces for connection, which will promote belonging and help students establish themselves as individuals as well as community members. 

Though this may not seem like a direct tie to mental well-being, promoting social connectedness has proven to be a key component of mental health promotion and suicide prevention – and will aid in the support of student mental health. 

“We’re working to really redefine what the campus is, what it should be physically, and what it should be programmatically,” says Casey. “This is what feels most paramount.” 

Colgate University has partnered with Mantra Health to expand accessibility to high-quality, evidence-based mental health care. To learn more about this partnership and the services being offered to students, email us at partner@mantrahealth.com. 

Colgate University President Brian W. Casey Promotes Social Connectedness and Belonging on Campus

NEW YORK, February 3, 2023 – Mantra Health, the clinically-informed digital mental health provider for young adults, announced today that it has been named to the New York Digital Health 100 (DH100), a recognition that highlights the most exciting and innovative startups in the New York region. Digital Health New York (DHNY) publishes the annual list as part of the New York Healthcare Innovation Report, a comprehensive analysis that takes an in-depth look at the data, trends, and people that have propelled New York to become the capital of healthcare innovation. 

“We are incredibly honored to have been selected for the New York Digital Health 100 and to be included in this list of innovative companies,” said Ed Gaussen, Co-Founder and CEO of Mantra Health. “On our mission to provide young adults with accessible, equitable, and quality mental health and wellness solutions, we aim to push the standard of telehealth forward and change the way campus mental health care is delivered. This recognition is a testament to the incredible work being done at Mantra.”

Now in its 4th year, the DH100 had double the number of applicants compared to 2022. With this explosive growth, the scope of the list greatly expanded, and now represents 35 new companies; counts 12 unicorns among its ranks; has 23 organizations that are led by female CEOs; and 37 of the companies on the list raised $1.6B in 2022.

“In 2023, the New York Digital Health 100 includes an incredibly diverse, innovative and forward-thinking set of companies and leaders that are making an impact on the future of healthcare,” said Bunny Ellerin, Co-Founder and CEO, DHNY. “On behalf of the entire New York healthcare ecosystem, we are delighted to spotlight these organizations, support their growth and applaud them for their meaningful contributions to improving healthcare.”

Working collaboratively with college and university partners, Mantra Health continues to build products and services that support the institution, campus, and student body. Mantra Health combines quality mental healthcare with seamless campus integration to meet the diverse and specialized needs of young adults. Learn more about Mantra Health's comprehensive evidence-based approach to digital mental health care here. 

Download a copy of the New York Healthcare Innovation Report here.

Mantra Health is an award-winning digital mental health clinic on a mission to improve access to evidence-based mental healthcare for young adults. Through augmenting high-quality clinical services with software and design, we aim to improve the mental health of over 40 million young adults through partnerships with higher education institutions and health insurance plans. Mantra Health was named a Mental & Behavioral Health Rising Star at the 2022 UCSF Health Hub Digital Health Awards. The Mantra program has been deployed across 100+ campuses including Penn State, MIT, Cornell, and Miami Dade College, reaching over 800,000 students.

Digital Health New York (DHNY) is the premier network of CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, payers and providers driving New York’s healthcare ecosystem. DHNY works to increase the visibility of New York as a leader in healthcare innovation, showcases the organizations and leaders curating the future of healthcare, and brings people together to share ideas, spark new directions and create success. For more information, visit www.dhny.co.

Mantra Health Named to the New York Digital Health 100

The Rising Need for DBT in College Mental Health with Carla Chugani, PhD, LPC

After many years of working with young adults and studying dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), Carla D. Chugani, PhD, LPC, is bringing the first self-guided DBT skills program designed for college and university students to market.

Dozens of wellness programs exist, promising quick and easy tips for better living, but few are designed through the lenses of both evidence-based practice and cultural humility, while keeping the developmental needs of college students in mind. DBT is a unique combination of mindfulness, cognitive behavior therapy, and dialectics. It has proven effective for treating college students with self-injurious behaviors, suicidality, or borderline personality disorder, among several other mental health conditions. 

As a master’s student in mental health counseling at Florida Gulf Coast University, Dr. Chugani saw how many students were struggling with borderline personality disorder, suicide ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, and other mental health conditions. She believed DBT could help – and, Jon Bunner, PhD, Senior Director of Counseling and Wellness Services, agreed. 

Dr. Chugani led the development of Florida Gulf Coast University’s first DBT program for college students. Her experiences with that program motivated her to go back to school, this time for a PhD in counselor education, after which she brought her knowledge and expertise in DBT to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she still remains as an adjunct faculty member.  

Learning to be a DBT therapist gave me an opportunity to help other people who have suffered in the ways that I have suffered. Nothing has ever made me more proud or humbled than the number of students who told me these skills I taught them have changed their lives.

While she loves the treatment, Dr. Chugani is constantly reflecting on the effectiveness of the treatment, believing there are still ways in which it can improve. Dr. Chugani’s most recent research focused on teaching DBT skills as psychoeducation rather than therapy, which allowed her to learn about the ways in which DBT materials may need to be adapted to reach larger, more diverse audiences.

DBT, while scientifically proven to be effective, is also expensive and hard to access for many college students who may be on their parents insurance, uninsured, or unable to find a quality DBT provider in their community. This is, in part, why Dr. Chugani took on the role of VP of Clinical Content and Affairs at Mantra Health. She hopes to change this reality. She’s also focused on normalizing and destigmatizing mental health care – and making clinical content more accessible to students who want to improve their well-being.

 “We aren’t born with all of the life skills we need to survive and thrive,” says Dr. Chugani. “For many college students, devoting time to improving mental health while dealing with a busy class schedule, work, and personal responsibilities is a significant challenge. We must acknowledge the pressures and demands on students’ time and find realistic ways to help them develop healthy skills that will serve them in the transition to adulthood and beyond.”

The new DBT skills program, which launches in spring 2023, will help students develop skills in key areas related to self regulation, including mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and relationships. Best of all, students will be able to access the evidence-based lessons at any time and on their own schedule, so they can engage with the program at their own pace.

“I’m excited about the launch and I hope we can find innovative ways to integrate the program onto campuses in ways that are meaningful and responsive to the student experience,” says Dr. Chugani. 