Shernell Elibox, PhD, MA
Assistant Professor
Clinical Coordinator, Community & Trauma Counseling
Assistant Professor
Clinical Coordinator, Community & Trauma Counseling
Biography
Shernell Elibox, PhD, MA, is an Afro-Caribbean clinical mental health counselor who received her PhD in Counselor Education from The Pennsylvania State University in 2023. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor and Clinical Coordinator of the Community and Trauma Counseling Program at Thomas Jefferson University. Shernell spent three years as the first and only Clinical Suicidologist Counsellor on her home Island of Saint Lucia. During her tenure working for Saint Lucia’s Department of Health and Wellness, she sat on the island’s clinical team and was responsible for designing and implementing many mental health and suicide prevention and intervention campaigns. During her doctoral studies, she served as the Lead Clinic Supervisor of the Edwin L. Herr Counseling Training Clinic at Penn State and was instrumental in updating crisis counseling and training policy and procedures both for in-person and tele-health counseling. Shernell’s research investigates the relationship between intersectionality and suicidality and focuses on cultural humility in suicide intervention and prevention. Most recently, she undertook a 122,465-participant study investigating suicidality among college students of color. She brings her expertise as a suicidologist and international clinician and scholar into the classroom to enrich the experiences of the students she serves.
Mentoring
Shernell ascribes to the philosophy of ‘lift while you climb’ and is actively engaged in mentorship of the counselors in training in the CTC program and beyond.
Supervision
Relevant Courses Taken
- CNED 589 Seminar on Counseling Supervision The Pennslyvania State University, Fall 2021
- CNED 595 D Supervision of Counselors The Pennslyvania State University, Spring 2022
- CNED 595 I Doctoral Internship (in Supervision of Counselors) Fall 2022 and Spring 2023
Experience:
- CNED 595 A Counselor Education Counseling Practicum, The Pennsylvania State University, Spring 2022
- CNED 404 Group Procedures in Guidance and Counseling The Pennsylvania State University, Fall 2021
- CNED 595 A Counselor Education Counseling Practicum (onsite supervisor), The Pennsylvania State University Edwin L. Herr Clinic, Spring 2022
- CNED 595 B Counselor Education Counseling Internship I&II (onsite Supervisor) The Pennsylvania State University Edwin L. Herr Clinic, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023
I believe that the supervision process is a space for counselors to grow in their awareness, knowledge and skillset and to explore and develop their counseling identity. A fundamental aspect of my role as a supervisor, is to tap into the therapeutic talent of my supervisees and help them develop their counseling identity that is true to who they are. To do so requires a constant reflection on the different dynamics in the room; be that counselor – client, counselor – supervisor or supervisor – client. Additionally, this means being ready to respond to the need of the supervisee and the client, and taking up the necessary role to increase awareness and promote growth and development. As such, I approach the supervision process with vulnerability and strive to create a space where supervisees can be vulnerable and brave. Much like my counseling and teaching, I approach supervision from a Black Feminist lens, leaning on the Discrimination model (Bernard, 1979) and adapted Interpersonal Process Recall (Kegan 1997; Ivers et al., 2017), as the vehicles through which I practice.
Teaching
I approach teaching grounded in the same ideologies that guides my work as a clinician, researcher and leader – human beings are rich with knowledge. What knowledge is and ways of knowing is vast, and the willingness to engage in co-creating and sharing knowledge from each classroom participants’ life experiences requires a brave or “daring classroom” (Brown, 2010). Brown’s (2019) description of a “Daring classroom” best encapsulates the learning environment that I strive to create as an educator “… a place where both teachers and students commit to choosing courage over comfort, choosing what is right over what is fun, fast or easy and practicing values rather than professing them”. I am acutely aware of the amount of unlearning and restructuring of knowledge that happens in the counseling training process. This has pushed me to redefine learning as an invitation to think differently about the things that one may think that they know concretely. Thus, my praxis as an educator comes from the Black Feminist Pedagogical framework, which means that I engage in reflexive antiracist teaching, where I am constantly aiming to decolonize my courses and curriculums, decentering whiteness in the classroom, and giving voice and space to students and experiences that are often erased (Henry, 2005; Omolade, 1987). Additionally, it means raising awareness in all subject areas of the historical contexts and societal issues that continue to give power to and contribute to the oppression and marginalization of diverse populations and groups. To approach learning from this perspective requires me to be vulnerable and brave and as a counselor educator, and I believe that my role and responsibility to the learners in my classroom is to model this vulnerability and bravery, that in turn encourages students to name and follow their curiosity.
Classes Taught
- Counseling Theories
- Counseling Assessment
- Family Counseling
- Multicultural Counseling
- Practicum
Research & Scholarship
Shortly after completing my master’s in counseling, I held a dual role within the Department of Health and Wellness of my home island, Saint Lucia. My focus during that time as the first and only counselor attached to our National Health Helpline, the country’s ‘suicide helpline’ was to engage in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention work on a national level. By virtue of my role, I assisted in the training and development of the National Helpline staff and compiled monthly statistics for Saint Lucia’s Department of Epidemiology, the Chief Medical Officer and the Minister of Health and Wellness. During my time practicing as a clinical suicidologist, I witnessed first-hand how critically framing data can help mobilize both private and public sectors to respond to suicidality with urgency. This is when I began to value the role of research in addressing mental health. My second call to research in suicidality within the counseling field also happened during my time in this role. I became astutely aware of the lack of a prioritization research on suicide in the counseling field, when looking for research to frame and guide my clinical practice. My research agenda has been largely shaped by the major gap in the counseling field, on suicidality. Further investigation led to an even more troubling realization – the existing literature took a dominant culture approach to researching and understanding suicidality. This has moved the needle of my research to focus on historically marginalized and oppressed persons and suicidality.
Leadership & Advocacy
Leadership to me is rooted in vulnerability and bravery, and a use of my proximity to power to influence and effect change that benefits those who have been historically marginalized and oppressed. This approach has resonated with the students I have served as they have continued to express that they feel seen, heard, and supported by me. Historically underrepresented students have consistently communicated over the years that they are grateful for my willingness to advocate with and for them in our department. I have embraced that my role as a counselor educator does not end at raising awareness but includes mentorship and providing avenues to move awareness into practice at the micro and macro-levels