Lipscomb therapy center celebrates a decade of service

Reunion at Bisons Weekend drew alumni to celebrate the healing brought through the Lipscomb Family Therapy center since 2015.

Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078  |  11/24/2025

Bisons Weekend in November served as the backdrop to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of a small Lipscomb facility making an impact far beyond its modest square footage. 

The Lipscomb Family Therapy Center’s (LFTC) drew 75 friends and alumni to rekindle memories and see the updates to the center, housed in a small home nestled between Lipscomb Academy and Green Hills Church of Christ.

The center launched in 2015 with a mission to offer affordable mental health and relational care to individuals, couples and families who may not be able to afford it elsewhere, and a decade later it has certainly succeeded, serving more than 4,000 clients and providing more than 44,000 hours worth of therapy, according to the clinic’s director Sean Suber.

With an average fee of $23, the LFTC has saved clients more than $3.4 million over a decade, he said. 

In addition, more than 250 students have graduated from Lipscomb’s Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program and 61 are currently enrolled.
 

“In short, not only have we been able to serve thousands of people in the past decade, but we have also reached those who likely would not have received mental health care at all due to the significant barriers that exist for low-income individuals,” said Surber. “While we have made some great strides this past decade, we are determined to continue advertising and letting Nashville know that we are here to help.”

The facility has seen 13 cohorts of student-therapists come through its doors. The clinic offers its services through student interns who are supervised by licensed therapists. Many former student showed up at the reunion to express their gratitude for their experience at Lipscomb, and particularly for the LFTC.

Five alumni spoke during the reunion program, sharing their personal connection with the MFT program and its facility.
Marcus Geromes (MFT ’14) graduated from the program just before the LFTC went into use, but he certainly understands the importance of having a designated space for healing. He went on to found Therapy Space, a company that builds out office space specifically for therapists in private practice to share in five U.S. states.

“To have a curated, intentional space on-site for students, to be supported by professors who love them—and any Lipscomb alumni know, our professors love them—to have that experience, it elevates the educational experience for every student,” said Geromes.

Having worked with many Lipscomb MFT graduates through his company, Geromes said he can see they enter the profession prepared and with confidence because of the experiences they have seeing clients at the clinic, he said.

“The diversity of clients we saw here at the LFTC, from so many different walks of life, really prepared me to feel a lot more confident seeing folks that I didn't think that I was coming to college to see,” said Liz Stinus (MX ’21). “I came to Lipscomb, thinking that I really wanted to work with kids and families, and I graduated realizing that I was a lot more passionate about trauma and grief and working with really complex diagnoses.”

At many MFT internships, student-therapists generally work with one demographic, said Stinus, so she felt the LFTC experience was unique.

“It gave us confidence to actually know what we're called to, not just what we think we're called to,” she said.

The facility has gone through some changes since many of the visiting alumni had carried out their internships at the center, said Chris Gonzelez, director of the MFT program and the founder of the LFTC.

The facility sports all new furniture, including built-in desks creating 12 workspaces in the intern room; a new security door; updated interior design; and updated technology for video recording for supervision purposes.
The center has moved with the times, adding upgraded technology to expand online therapy possibilities and electronic health records.

As part of the reunion, alumna Sahel Gingerich (BA ’18, MFT ’24), presented the gift of a bench that she and her husband Daniel (BBA ’10) handmade from wood on their family land in Waverly. The bench has 11 slats to represent Sahel Gingerich’s membership in MFT cohort 11.

The bench was dubbed, Bowen’s Bench, in honor of Murray Bowen, an American psychiatrist and a professor at Georgetown University who is among the pioneers of family therapy and was originally from Waverly.

“I just wanted it to be very personal. I put a lot of work and love into this bench. It really  represents how much we appreciate this program, what we learned, how we grew and all the people that have been part of the story,” she told the reunion crowd. 

In addition, the reunion served as the announcement of the Bridge to Healing Fund, intended to provide additional training and resources for MFT students and to make a bigger impact on the community though additional resources, support groups and eventually a bigger facility.

The initial goal for the Bridge to Healing Fund is to raise $50,000 by the end of 2026.

“Mental health care is for everyone and the Bridge to Healing fund helps make that possible.” said Gonzalez.