Get to know Miss Porter’s Cathie Hillian P’25, ’27 | Associate Director of Counseling
As a mental health provider at an independent school, Cathie collaborates with faculty, dorm parents, staff members, and peers to support students’ mental health and well-being. Her team focuses on encouraging students to prioritize self-care and maintain healthy boundaries within a fast-paced boarding school environment.
Here are 3 questions to get to know her better:
How do you foster a safe and supportive environment for students to discuss their mental health concerns?
I really try to focus on building trust and ensuring confidentiality. I believe in creating a space where students feel free to talk without judgment. I want them to feel heard, seen and respected for who they are. I establish clear boundaries and expectations regarding confidentiality, letting students know that their concerns will be taken seriously and protected to the fullest extent possible.
I also encourage an open-door policy, where students can approach me at any time, either one-on-one or in small groups, to share what’s on their mind. I make sure they know there are many options available for support and help them feel like they have some control over how they get support. I think it is important also to normalize some of the things that may be going on for them to help remove stigmas they may be worried about. Our office has worked hard to take away the stigma of mental health and help students see that taking care of your mental health is just an everyday thing that we all have to do to be our best selves, showing that it’s okay to not be okay and to seek help. Creating a culture of empathy and active listening is crucial. Regular check-ins, both formal and informal, allow students to voice their feelings without fear of stigma. Ultimately, my goal is to normalize mental health conversations and show that it is a strength to ask for help when needed.
What specific challenges do boarding school students face, and how do you address these unique needs?
Our students often face a unique set of challenges due to the combination of academic pressures, living away from home, and the need to navigate an independent lifestyle at a young age. The combination of these things, along with the normal challenges and emotions of being a teenager, can impact their mental health in a number of ways. They can really feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, feelings of isolation, and difficulty in adjusting to a more structured environment without the same family support they might have at home.
It can really be helpful to create a supportive and empathetic environment. Encouraging students to express their feelings and concerns is key. Providing regular check-ins and helping them identify other supports in the community can help them feel heard and supported. Giving them a space where they feel comfortable discussing any mental health challenges is really important as well.
I encourage students to prioritize self-care; I help them identify the things that they enjoy doing, and I help them find ways to make time for those things. In our 9th grade class, we explore the importance of self care and how that benefits them in other areas of their lives. In this class, we also focus on Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance and Emotional Regulation Skills, all of which we find extremely helpful to all our students.
I work with students to recognize their strengths and build emotional resilience so they are better equipped to handle difficult situations. It is essential that I help students develop coping strategies for managing homesickness, social pressures, and academic stress.
Can you share a successful intervention or strategy you’ve used to help a student manage stress, anxiety, or other mental health issues?
Different students need different things and it is important to get to know each student and work with them around what works for them for their struggle or situation. That is the tricky thing about coping skills: what works for one person may not work for another person. It is important for students to recognize this as well. When we aren’t feeling well, it can be really easy to just want someone to tell you what to do to “fix it” but it does take work on our part to do the work and try different strategies to find out what works for us and makes us feel better. One thing I have found helpful for some students who have a hard time starting their day because they might be anxious about the day ahead is to identify something that they really enjoy doing and plan to start their day with that. Maybe they enjoy going for walks, reading or drawing. They can set aside time in the morning to do that to start their day. Oftentimes, that can relax them and help them destress, which can lessen their anxiety. Also, if they plan, it gives them something to look forward to and focus on the night before, instead of stressing over the other parts of their day, that might cause them anxiety.

