When Merle Keitel, PhD, joined the University in 1986, Fordham was in the midst of establishing its doctoral program in counseling psychology, a branch of psychology that uses a culturally informed approach to helping people improve their well-being and resolve distress.
“Counseling psychologists help clients capitalize on their strengths to live a better quality of life, whether they are suffering from a mental disorder or navigating normal life issues or developmental transitions,” said Keitel, a licensed psychologist and professor of counseling and counseling psychology.
Within this field, Keitel focused her scholarship on people “who were in very stressful circumstances, but were not being recognized, acknowledged, or offered services.” That often included women, as well as anyone struggling with or impacted by health issues such as cancer, disordered eating, recurrent miscarriage, and infertility.
“I’ve spent my time looking at invisible groups at risk for mental distress,” said Keitel, who has mentored 71 Fordham doctoral students and published groundbreaking books such as Counseling Women with Breast Cancer and two editions of The Handbook of Counseling Women.
Keitel will receive the Bene Merenti medal for her four decades at Fordham at Convocation on March 4; this May, she will retire. Below she shares some reflections and career highlights.
On Being a Trailblazer
Psychology was a male-dominated field when Keitel entered it.
“I had no female mentors when I was getting started,” said Keitel. “I was aware of how women were invisible and how often women’s comments were dismissed or devalued in mixed-sex professional groups. In 40 years, that’s something that I have seen really change. Now women are well-represented in the psychology field, including in leadership positions,” she said.
On Building Fordham’s Counseling Psychology Program
Keitel arrived at Fordham when the counselor education program was transitioning to a counseling psychology doctoral program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). Today’s graduates work in a variety of settings—clinics, universities, schools, and private practices—with populations ranging from adolescents to adults. Fordham also offers master’s programs in mental health counseling and school counseling, which Keitel directed for a number of years in addition to the doctoral program.
“I think my leadership as director of the APA-accredited counseling doctoral program for many years and my presence on search committees that recruited brilliant, kind, and social justice-oriented researchers and scholars created programs I am extremely proud of,” said Keitel. “The fact that the faculty members got along so well role modeled for students how to build a warm and productive community.”
Teaching and mentoring students are highlights of her career. “I just love my students as people and learn so much from them.”
Illness Impacts More Than the Patient
For her dissertation, Keitel researched the experiences of the spouses of cancer surgery patients. Her landmark study garnered a lot of attention, she said, because no one had looked at their experiences before. She later examined how serious illnesses impact other family members as well.
“That’s been a really big change—there’s a recognition now that diseases like cancer significantly affect family and close friends, it’s not an individual illness.”
The Impact of Destigmatizing Illness
Keitel and her students have brought attention to hidden stressors surrounding taboo subjects and stigmatized groups. Their research on subjects ranging from mothers blamed for their child’s anorexia to men grieving their wives’ recurrent miscarriages have helped mental health professionals provide these populations with more insightful counseling.
“Many of the illnesses that I studied were because there was stigma associated with them, which compromised the patients’ and family members’ ability to cope and benefit from social support,” said Keitel.
