Student Stories and Experiences

Resources

The Latest Video Interviews

Mansoureh B. | Meridian Student Profile

Meridian student Mansoureh Bahadori shares how students are part of the curriculum that weaves together the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.

Rod P. | Meridian Student Profile

Hear from Meridian student Rod P. as he enters his third year at Meridian. He shares how he balances his family life and outside work as a school therapist with the flexibility of being a part-time student. He also describes how the internal work that Meridian fosters, as well as the collaboration with classmates and interaction with faculty, has refined his skills and helped apply his experience to his work with clients.

Student Testimonials

Read key takeaways from Meridian graduate students about their educational experience and why they chose Meridian's curriculum, faculty, community, and learning platform.

—Vanessa N.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

Take a moment to imagine the most meaningful educational experience possible. Then, like me, imagine embarking on the life changing journey of going to Meridian. Engaging in the educational process at Meridian provided me the invaluable opportunity to enhance my willingness to participate in daily life as both a learner and a teacher. In a unique and compelling fashion, Meridian’s staff and faculty mentor students towards developing those capacities necessary to become a powerful and effective psychological practitioner who can serve the larger community with compassion and respect. Embracing Meridian’s encouragement of its students to strive towards cultural leadership in both professional practice and personal life, continues to be a challenging experience fully worth its immeasurable reward.

—Susan J. Gulbe Walsh

PhD, Counseling Psychologist, University of California, Santa Cruz

What's special about it is knowing that it's come from me. Meridian has given me tools, but all of this was in me. I don't feel like I've been converted to something or that anyone is sitting up above me... I feel like I've been empowered to be in my full capacity.

—Stacey R.

PsyD in Clincal Psychology Student

I remember my first week in at Meridian, we jumped right into the art of Psychotherapy and I was blown away by that. I deeply value that kind of education because I think it really gets into your bones. When I think about working with individuals, I can’t imagine relying on an education that would do it any other way. I know that the capacities that have been cultivated within me as a result of this experiential, transformational learning have really served my needs personally, and I feel more confident about how I take that into the world and working with clients.

—Sloan B.

PhD in Psychology

My overall experience at Meridian has been transformational, and I don't mean that to be cheesy. I really am not the same person that enrolled in the school. I've become more courageous, more self-authoring. I really am loving this person that I'm growing into, and a lot of that has to do with the tools and education taught at Meridian University.

—Sara S.

PhD in Psychology Student

I have very much enjoyed all of the classes I have been taking so far and I enjoy the faculty. One thing I can say that I have not experienced until now was such kindness, compassion, and empathy with faculty. The staff at Meridian are very mindful to speak to you on a very personal level. The most challenging aspect of Meridian is looking into yourself and exploring all those things in yourself that you may or may have not known that has been inside you. The most exciting part is also the flip side of this. You just get to this level where it clicks in a way that makes you think: I’m glad I’m here and I want to keep going.

—Rosa N.

MA in Counseling Psychology

Thirty years ago I became a Marriage and Family Therapist. Decades later, seasoned by life experiences, I returned to graduate school to deepen my own journey. I found a program at Meridian that integrated, within its academic requirements, challenges that engendered a richer and more expansive level of beingness to my life and work. The psychology program at Meridian is truly a transformative program.

—Rich McCutchan

PhD, M.F.T, Psychotherapist in Private Practice

I think for me the kind of engagement part is more being in a space where so many different students meet. Kind of this international vibe and the stories and the context people come from, because sometimes we can also share things online or in small breakout rooms, and somehow, these different viewpoints, that always make me somehow reflect on something... I also like the questions and perspectives that the faculty brings. It just makes me curious and makes me think and inquire more into myself

—Piret J.

Open Enrollment Student

Transformative learning really is something that has changed my life because it integrated all parts of myself. It leaves nothing out. Everything is subject for examination in this program.

—Phoenix J.

PhD in Psychology Student

Meridian offers a lot around learning your own countertransference and transference so that you know that you're affected, how you're affected, and also how to take care of yourself. And that actually super helped me through these really difficult cases. Meridian helped develop a higher capacity for relating to other human beings, no matter what their walk of life is.

—Mardi Storm

MA in Counseling Psychology

How I got to Meridian was doing my research and looking for universities that had values I align to…and I think the reason it aligns with why I care about higher education is because I’m very interested in the transformation of higher education. It’s a leadership doctorate that I’m in, and I feel that you’re a leader in your family and in everywhere in the world. I think how I’m showing up is more consistent and aware of others and the community. I’m walking a little softer in the world because of my doctorate work.

—Micki M.

Ed.D in Organizational Leadership

So far, my experience has been pretty phenomenal. It’s an incredible program. One of the things that’s really special about Meridian is the cohort culture. What’s called for is your presence, to be with the as-is in the moment, and to allow whatever’s in the room to arise without trying to fix, move, or change it. That capacity, I felt like I came into Meridian with, but I’m going to be leaving at a whole other level of ability to do that. The learning here is kind of meant to throw you for a loop and let you sit in that, and when you come out the other side, there’s a transformation that’s taken place.

—Michelle G.

MA in Psychology

Years after completing my doctorate, the education I received at Meridian continues to offer me guiding principles, as well as deepened capacities for self-awareness and tolerance, which I draw upon each and every day; my education feels like a living organism that continues to ripple forth. Furthermore, the power of Meridian's learning community structure catalyzed me to bring my psychological training into the political realm, towards work I never imagined myself doing: the healing of my own, local community.