Licensed Social Worker, Certified Employee Assistance Professional
Upper Valley Medical Center External EAP, Miami County Mental Health Association

Profile: Lisa Pleiman, Family Nurse Practitioner
By KEN MOSIER
For Health Care Today

Jane de Colgyll actually wears two hats, although the two are similar. On one hand she is a certified employee assistance professional counselor for the Upper Valley Medical Center External EAP. As a licensed social worker, she also works 10 hours a week as an outpatient therapist for the Miami County Mental Health Association at the Dettmer Campus of UVMC.

de Colgyll said the difference is often in the length of time, a patient is seen. Patients at the Mental Health Association are more often seen for longer periods of time while the Employee Assistance Program provides only short-term counseling.

"I see a full range of people coming into my office — both (at EAP) and the Mental Health Center," de Colgyll said. "These are people who might have family problems — maybe they are going through a divorce or maybe the kids are going through a divorce and they are confused about all that. An individual might come in because they are having problems with drugs or alcohol or they might be having problems with anxiety and not coping very well on the job or even off the job with their families."

de Colgyll originally planned to teach. She got her bachelor's degree from Elmira College in upstate New York. She then earned her master's degree in education from Antioch College in Yellow Springs.

After a brief teaching stint, she went another direction.

"I had the opportunity to be involved with a training and planning program and was doing some facilitating and training of adults. I got very excited about the prospect of working with adults," she said.

	de Colgyll tackles paperwork at her desk.

She worked in career counseling at Wright State University's Displaced Homemaker Program and then with Goodwill Industries, where she helped disabled clients get jobs.

Afterwards, she worked for the Family Services Association, helping clients make the transition from public assistance to working independence.

She said the director of Family Services became her mentor, and she was sent to the University of Iowa to get training in family development.

"Once I got that training, it just seemed to click that this was the direction that I wanted to go — to help empower people to better their lives," she said. "It kind of became a calling. It just seemed right.

"At this point, I can't imagine myself doing anything else," she said.