Providing a "Path Towards Healing": MSUM Counseling Students Return to Micah’s Mission

By Adam Chalifoux

Last fall, students in Dr. Aaron Suomala Folkerds’ Counseling Masters program provided pop-up counseling sessions to the guests at Micah’s Mission.  

That partnership will continue this year, with a new group of counseling students ready to begin working with guests at Micah’s Mission. Located at 1901 1st Ave N in Moorhead, Micah’s Mission provides emergency shelter and case management to men, women, and children experiencing homelessness. 

For those receiving counseling sessions, this is a crucial step in a path towards healing.  

“Professor Aaron and the counseling students have been very helpful at Micah's Mission for multiple reasons,” said Housing Director Shelley Brooks. “They are able to deliver rapid, short-term sessions with our shelter guests, catching acute distress before it escalates into an emergency.”  

For the masters’ students, this partnership provides real-world experience and fieldwork hours.  

“I’d bring over three students a week just for three hours, and it was kind of a walk-in counseling clinic provided by students in training,” Folkerds said. “I was there to supervise, and it was kind of an outreach of our community outreach center that we have at the University.” 

Providing these counseling sessions at Micah’s Mission also strengthens relationships and trust between case managers and the people they serve.  

“They (counseling students) also can help foster a strong trust relationship between the case manager and guest,” Brooks said. “By providing mental health services, the guest is better able to work on goals to get them into housing. Also, they were able to provide these counseling services onsite at Micah's Mission, thereby eliminating the burden of finding transportation to campus and preventing any anxiety a guest may have over having to go to an unfamiliar location.”  

The partnership between Churches United and the MSUM Counseling Masters’ program works towards a shared goal of providing a path towards healing; one of the pillars of Churches United’s mission.  

About us: 

Churches United was founded in 1987 in the heart of downtown Moorhead in a former Lutheran church. In 2019, Churches United merged with the Dorothy Day organization, also located in Moorhead. CU now operates Micah’s Mission, which provides emergency shelter and a community day center; Dorothy Day Food Pantry, a standalone food pantry in downtown Moorhead; and Bright Sky Apartments and Silver Lining Apartments, both permanent supportive housing apartments in north Moorhead.