Student Stories and Experiences

Resources

The Latest Video Interviews

Valerie W. | Meridian Student Profile

Hear from Meridian student Valerie Wildman, about following her heart and soul call to choose Meridian She describes how her program has helped her understand the many different ways of learning and expressing oneself. She also shares Meridian's impact on her beyond the day-to-day.

David S. | Meridian Student Profile

Hear from Meridian student David Stevenson, who chose Meridian because he was looking for an education that focuses on the depth of the personal journey. He connects his understanding of transformative learning with his interest in native culture and traditional teachings being more than data. He also reflects on his future plans and being on a developmental path.

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.

—Stacey R.

PsyD in Clincal Psychology Student

Meridian spoke of cultivating cultural leadership, and that really caught my attention. Something that was new and unexpected was the use of and focus on ritual and the learning around liminality. I feel like I’m really learning and growing in that area, and it’s enrichening my capacity to work with groups and individuals and to facilitate the process. Now, I’m aware of when ritual would be appropriate, I have ideas for what could be useful, and I also have more trust for the process and what develops in the moment because we have practiced that.

—Grace F.

MA in Counseling Psychology

My time at Meridian has tremendously impacted how I am able to be present with clients... I think first and foremost there is an openness and excitement that I've been able to develop in myself for new and emergent possibilities in learning. I feel like I'm in the midst of people [Meridian faculty] who have so much of their personality and experience shining through, but also so incredibly open to learning and seeing what's unfolding with others, and that's really powerful. I experience a really responsible way of holding authority and developing community among learners. So much understanding and experience that's been shared information has been incredibly helpful and really stays with me in my personal life and work. There's a depth of authenticity that has been really important.

—Camille M.

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 didn’t really know what to expect when I came here. I guess I expected that things would be very personal and that there would be a lot of depth in the work. That has met my expectation. I hoped that it would be really fun, but it’s even more fun than I expected. That’s been a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I’m called to this work in Psychology, and so now it’s like I’m answering and I get to, in a sense, come home to something I’ve been moving toward for all my existence. So, I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to study that and to have access to all the things I’m doing here.

—Jon W.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

Each term, I am pleasantly surprised with what emerges from myself and what I get to witness emerge from others. My experience at Meridian has been defined completely by the people. I’ve been so fortunate to have the most wonderful classmates: so interesting, so diverse, from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and cultures. And that blending of voices and experiences creates such an interesting mix and transformative experience for myself. Add to that, the really extraordinary staff and professors that we get to interact with, and we create this container to guide us on this journey.

—Heather R.

PsyD in Clinical Psychology

I’ve always wanted to fuse dance and Psychology. I think what this joint program [with Tamalpa Institute] offers me is choice, flexibility, and connecting with a network I wouldn’t have before. I have choice in how I utilize therapy, how I utilize expressive arts, and in how I want to help people. My goal after Meridian is to be an expressive arts therapist. I feel like Meridian has really prepared me for that in being able to garner how I have been affected by others, my own memories, the stories of my own cohort, the concepts and theories and topics we’ve discussed…And that awareness is going to take me on for the rest of my life and my vocation.

—Gloria R.

PhD in 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 McCuthchan

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

As an older student with an advanced degree from a traditional institution, I sought an interactive, experientially oriented PhD program. Meridian's gifted faculty delivered an evocative curriculum, exceeding my expectations, providing me with the canvas on which a deeply transformative experience was created. The initiatory nature of my educational journey at Meridian not only broadened my therapeutic skills, but it also deepened my personal capacities. As I finish my clinical hours toward my licensure as psychologist, I draw on my training on a daily basis. The program provided me with practical therapeutic interventions and strategies, but its most lasting and profound gift was the development and expansion of my empathic imagination. I am grateful that I chose Meridian University to pursue my dream of earning a PhD I can think of no other experience, outside of having my child, that has so profoundly affected my personal growth and maturation process.

—Joy Policar

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, 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

I love the assignments, the readings, the exercises and group discussions, and the dialogue with the faculty and my classmates and some guest lecturers. I love all those experiences. I think it is very valuable and eye-opening as well as touching the depth of my heart. I feel like studying at Meridian and using the format of transformative learning is really another level of learning. The whole process is a holistic process for me to become a better person and leader for the world or community I live within. Here, I feel like the faculty are all human. Even in the class, the feedback they give us- I would say they are really like our guardian angels leading us in the process of learning. Just like the faculty, I love my fellow classmates as well because they are from different walks of life, have age differences, are doing different work, and have different experiences in life. It's like a 'we study together, let's grow together, let's learn together': I like this atmosphere and environment that Meridian has built.

—Claire L.

PhD in Psychology

My main goal in my career is to work in the diabetes and mental health fields, find that overlap, and do some heart-centered diabetes work. One thing that stands out about the faculty at Meridian is the amount of presence and space that they hold in our courses. Being at Meridian feels like swimming in a school of fish with other people that are all sort of going the same direction as I am, even though we all have our specialties, and I think that space has been very valuable to my creative process and my work and what I’m passionate about.