To ensure our students have increased access to individual therapeutic intervention and social-emotional wellness, we partnered with MindPeace, a Cincinnati leader in school-based mental health services.

Read About The Partnership Meet the Team

Through our relationship with MindPeace, we recently partnered with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to provide families the choice of accessing quality mental health treatment services with a private therapist.

In October 2021, we welcomed Melynda Bowers. 

Melynda Bowers is a Licensed Independent Social Worker and received her Master’s in Clinical Social Work from Portland State University-Portland, Oregon. She has worked as a wilderness therapist in the mountains of New England, clinical counselor in an intensive outpatient day program, and therapist in both school and office settings, individually and in groups. She works with youth ages three and older, as well as adults, families, and groups. 

Ms. Bowers is available to provide private mental health treatment services on our campus. This allows families the choice of accessing a private therapist from a nationally renowned research hospital right here at Country Day. It also reduces the time students miss curricular activities to attend treatment sessions while eliminating the need for parents and students to travel to these appointments.

This optional and confidential service is in addition to the services already provided by Dr. Nikki Bishop-Kallmeyer, Alexis Nordrum, and Dr. Kathy Scheidler (see: The Team in the navigation to the left). 

Our school psychologists are excellent on-campus resources who can provide short-term interventions, accessibility, and consistency, but they are not licensed to provide and dictate mental health treatment. Our school psychologists will continue to provide social-emotional support, help students work through school-based issues, and assess if students need further treatment. They will also continue providing individual and group counseling.

Parents and faculty can contact our school psychologists to make student referrals for services with Ms. Bowers. The cost of therapy visits can be supplemented through insurance, Medicaid, or private pay options.

Students and their families have direct access to Ms. Bower's expertise to create another layer of support that strengthens the connections between home, school, and the community. Our hope is that by offering private therapy services on our campus, we are making it more convenient for students to access the services they need.

According to Angela Joiner, director of equity, diversity, inclusion & social emotional learning, “Our partnership with MindPeace increases our social-emotional wellness efforts, allows for more inclusive and equitable access, provides a greater level of collaboration between home and school, and supports a sustainable, evidence-based structure for comprehensive mental health services on our campus.”

For more information about this new service or any of our mental health services, please contact Angela Joiner at barberjoa@countryday.net or 513-979-0309.