In January 2026, LMU’s Student Psychological Services (SPS) integrated its services with Student Health Services (SHS) on the MyHealthPortal. This launch allows students to schedule medical and mental health appointments, wellness groups, and workshops online at their convenience, and communicate directly with their providers and other members of their health care team in order to coordinate their care.
This transformation also allows SHS and SPS to foster an integrated network of care, where students can know they are seen, supported, and never alone on their journey at LMU. “By introducing online scheduling and an integrated health model, we’re meeting the technology needs of today’s students and making it easier for them to access the right care at the right time,” said Kawanna Leggett, Ed.D., senior vice president for Student Affairs. “This approach reflects our commitment to cura personalis, providing coordinated, responsive care that supports whole-person well-being and helps students thrive academically and personally.”
For students seeking support, being able to remove a barrier such as having to walk in or call can help provide additional support for students during a time when they may need it most. “Scheduling your own appointment could also increase your sense of self-efficacy. You might be feeling down, and you would like to ask for help, and if you click a few buttons and succeed in getting yourself to get help by scheduling an appointment or joining a therapy group at SPS, that could give you a small boost and sense of hope that is likely much needed in that moment” said Dr. Zarin Tejani, LMU’s medical director.
Expanding access to online scheduling is just one of the benefits to students as LMU expands its approach to health and well-being services through SHS and SPS by providing an integrated health model. This work began a few years ago when Tejani joined LMU in spring 2023 as LMU’s medical director, expanding her leadership to bridge across SHS and SPS departments. This holistic approach to leadership also led to a new approach to student care: recognizing that mind and body are often connected, Tejani began looking for ways to make the care students receive more collaborative and integrated. “By having SPS and SHS on the same system, LMU students have better access to the patient-centered, evidence-based, team-based collaborative care model that has already been widely adopted in many of our local healthcare settings,” said Tejani.
SPS has opened the door for more students to easily connect with the support they need. One of the benefits of online scheduling is its ability to strengthen care coordination by enabling direct, secure communication between students and their providers. “As SPS director, it is important to me that students seeking services at SPS are reassured that their providers are attentive to all aspects of their well-being-medical, spiritual, relational, etc., and equipped to help connect them to a variety of resources across campus to best meet their needs,” said Satinder Gill, Psy.D. ABPP., “A consolidated online health portal allows health care providers to communicate in a timely manner about students’ pertinent health information to offer them the best quality of care and support for their needs.”
SPS continues to expand its care model with new resources that support student wellbeing. This year, SPS introduced a relaxation room, a dedicated space for reflection, meditation, creativity, and self‑care. Students can reserve the room in one-hour increments, and many use it before or after appointments to help them decompress and reset. SPS also launched a new training track in August 2025, welcoming its first cohort of licensed professional counselor (LPC) trainees from the LMU School of Education. Led by Sam Schwartz, Ph.D., the program provides supervised clinical experience while expanding SPS’s capacity to support students.
SPS also continues to advance these services to provide additional student support and well-being programming, including services like:
- TimelyCare teletherapy delivers access to 24/7 virtual mental health care from anywhere in the U.S. at no cost. Whether you’re anxious or overwhelmed, you will be able to talk to a licensed provider from your smartphone or any web-enabled device at no cost for all enrolled LMU students.
- Wellness Workshops and Groups during the academic year, including these this spring, from support groups to art therapy, there is a space for everyone. View the complete list of dates and times and to sign up here.
- The Wellness Educator (WE) Program, sponsored by SPS, arose from a perceived need by students to raise awareness of mental health issues among the LMU community. The goals of the WE Program are to educate students in a peer-to-peer model about mental health and wellness, reduce stigma, and raise awareness of SPS and other wellness resources on and off campus. In fall 2025, Wellness Educators completed 19 liaison events (with campus partners) serving 421 students and completed another 20 other outreach events serving 401 students. They get weekly training from SPS staff, and many go into careers in mental health. Interested in joining the WE program for the 2026-27 academic year? Students can apply here by March 27 at midnight.