Lennis G. Echterling
Professor of Counseling Psychology
James Madison University
Lennis G. Echterling is Professor of Counseling Psychology at James Madison University, where he has taught for over 23 years. His approach to teaching has been to reduce the barriers between the classroom and the community, between theory and practice. Every semester, he involves students in providing thousands of hours of service in applying psychology to ‘real world’ problems. In particular, Dr. Echterling has mobilized faculty and students to provide psychological services in more than a dozen catastrophic events.
Dr. Echterling also served as the Director of JMU’s Counseling Psychology Program for 14 years. During this time, he educated hundreds of future counselors, initiated major improvements in the curriculum, and guided the program through two successful Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditations. In 2005, the Southern Association of Counselor Education and Supervision honored JMU Counseling Psychology by naming it the Outstanding Counselor Education Program at the Master’s Level.
For over three decades, Dr. Echterling has been studying and promoting the psychological resilience of individuals, families, groups, and communities that have experienced trauma. He has provided crisis and disaster intervention services in the US, including Mississippi and Texas after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and other countries, including India after the 2004 tsunami. Following the 9/11 attacks, he worked as a Red Cross volunteer with survivors at the Pentagon. More recently, he was a crisis counselor and consultant after the shootings at Virginia Tech University. Since 2003, Dr. Echterling, along with colleagues and students, has provided play-based therapeutic services to the children of mobilized Virginia National Guard members.
Dr. Echterling’s books include Crisis Intervention: Promoting Resilience and Resolution in Troubled Times, Thriving! A Manual for Students in the Helping Professions, Beyond Brief Counseling, and Becoming a Community Counselor. He has received the College Award for Distinguished Service, JMU’s Distinguished Faculty Award and Altogether One Award, Virginia Counselors Association’s Humanitarian Award, and the national Counseling Vision and Innovation Award from the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.
Dr. Echterling was awarded his B.A. from Rockhurst College and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He lives in Harrisonburg with his wife.
"I like to think of every encounter I have with a student as a spontaneous seminar, which is derived from the Latin word for ‘seed plot.’ In the final analysis, I see my teaching as carrying on my family’s simple, vital tradition of planting seeds, cultivating growth, and waiting patiently for the harvest."