Our Staff
The counseling service is staffed by licensed clinical social workers, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and a psychiatrist who specialize in women's mental health. The service also has students in masters and doctoral training from the Smith College School for Social Work.
Pamela McCarthy
Associate Director of Health Services
Pamela McCarthy is the director of the Counseling Service and Associate Director of Health Services. A licensed independent clinical social worker, McCarthy earned her A.B. at Williams College and her Master's in social work at Smith College School for Social Work. Before becoming director at the Counseling Service, she gained significant experience as a manager, therapist and teacher in both in-patient and out-patient mental health settings and is also an adjunct faculty for the School for Social Work. McCarthy has an expertise in helping college women address the roadblocks to their happiness and success through psychodynamic and interpersonal psychotherapy.
Donna Cohen
College Psychiatrist
Maria del Mar Farina
Clinical Social Worker
Maria del Mar Farina is a bilingual (Spanish/English), bicultural clinical social worker. She earned her MSW degree in 1998 from Smith College School for Social Work, where she is now a PhD candidate. Maria del Mar has worked for over 16 years providing individual and couples therapy to adults, children and adolescents. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Smith College School for Social Work (MSW program) and Westfield State University (BSW program) and has presented her work on immigration and identity internationally. Areas of specialty include parent-child conflict, depression, grief/loss, domestic violence, anxiety, trauma, as well as acculturation, immigration and life transitions such as separation and divorce.
Meg Laird
Clinical Social Worker
Meg Laird received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1986. Following a brother and a sister, she earned her master's degree from the Smith School for Social Work in 1992. She got started in college counseling when she was a master's intern, assigned to the Duke University Counseling and Psychological Services. When Laird is not helping Smith students, she enjoys singing and early morning walks.
Elena Volpe
Clinical Therapist
Elena Volpe is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She received her MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles in 1994 and moved to Massachusetts in 2005. She has a private practice in Northampton and South Hadley emphasizing an integrative approach to therapy. She developed Somapsychology, a method that unites breathwork, yoga, and martial arts with traditional verbal practices. Her clinical interests are far-ranging in that they encompass the broad cultural experience of gender, race and bi-culturalism as well as the intimate sensed experience of the physical body.
