2020 Gumbo Final - Book - Page 90
Psychology in the P.M.
Story: Lara Nicholson
Photo: Aurianna Cordero
Page Design: Gabe Henderson
w
88
Practice what you teach: LSU professor provides
therapy when not teaching abnormal psychology
ednesdays at 6 p.m. leave LSU’s campus fairly
uninhabited. Students who aren’t pulling an
all-nighter at Middleton Library are typically
at home studying or getting ready for a night
out at Tigerland. The sounds of crickets, frogs
and bats chirping to one another overtake the
campus, and dimly lit street lamps are all that
illuminate the empty Quad.
Walk into Lockett Hall at that time, though,
and you will find a room filled with about 220
students, listening to one man speak about
schizophrenia, autistic spectrum disorder,
obsessive compulsive disorder or any other
mental illness in the book. What makes that
professor stand out is that he doesn’t simply
read the definitions and symptoms out of his
abnormal psychology textbook; he shares
stories about children, adolescents and adults
with said mental illnesses, all of which he
treated anywhere from 20 years ago to earlier
that day.
LSU adjunct professor Bryan Gros has balanced
a full-time career as a clinical psychologist and
psychology professor for over 20 years, with a
stronghold on the Wednesday 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
slot for his abnormal psychology class. “My
favorite thing about LSU and teaching is being
able to bring clinical experience to a class that
is closely related to clinical work,” Gros said. “I
find that very exciting, and once I get through
the first three chapters-- history, biology, etc.- it really starts rolling, and I can bring clinical
experience.”
A typical Wednesday for Dr. Bryan Gros-- his
busiest day of the week-- begins at Capital
Area Human Services on Government Street,
where he works full-time as the director of
psychological services. He begins his days by
interviewing new patients, typically children and
adolescents ages 5 to 19 who are brought in
by parents or referred by teachers. Then Gros
begins his casework with recurring patients
and supervision of University graduate students
that work at the clinic. On some days, he will
also do some work for his private part-time
practice, where he evaluates children for gifted
programs, ADHD or disabilities. He gets off of
work at 4:30 p.m., grabs a quick bite to eat at
Wendy’s and drives to the University for his 6
p.m. abnormal psychology class.
He has taught abnormal psychology at the
University for all but about five years during his
career. For those five years, he taught theories
of personality and adjustment psychology, but
never found his material to be as engaging as
abnormal psychology. “What I like most about
it [abnormal psychology class] is that I can use
my experience from the clinical work to help my
teaching,” Gros said. “I wouldn’t find the class
as enjoyable if I wasn’t able to bring clinical
experience to it, which is probably why I didn’t
find theories of personality all that exciting.”
Not only does Gros have one full-time job and
two part-time jobs, he is also a single parent of
two teenagers, a boy and a girl. He said that
raising children by himself is something he
was never taught, but had to learn. Luckily for
him, he did not find it difficult to find a balance
between work and home life. “Wednesdays are
the only day where I get home after sundown,”
Gros said. “My days are pretty busy, but my
nights are free for family. I don’t find it too
difficult to do that. Once I had kids, it was more
important to me to spend nights with my kids
than working.”
Gros was born and raised in New Orleans
and obtained his Ph.D. in psychology from
the University of Southern Mississippi. He
completed an internship and post-doctoral
fellowship in clinical child and pediatric
psychology from the University of Louisville
medical school, where he was inspired to
pursue clinical psychology for children and
adolescents as a career. “There were a couple
of child cases that came through the clinic,”
Gros said. “They were asking for graduate
students who might want to see these, and I
volunteered. My first case ever was a child with
autism. After that, I just started taking more child
cases and found that it was my calling.”
Gros says he truly loved graduate school, and
that he would do it over again if he could avoid
tests and essays. That interest in academia
inspired him to pursue a career in education
on top of his clinical work. During a class, Gros
will explain the personalities and behaviors of
patients who come to his office with the mental
illness being discussed. He will divulge into
their behaviors, symptoms and treatments,
providing as much detail as possible and