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The Danville-based Discovery Counseling Center of the San Ramon Valley has appointed Sumita Bhandari as its new executive director in the wake of the retirement of Kathy Chiverton, who held the position for nearly 11 years.
“I think what I’m going to miss probably most is making the connections with people, and relationships,” Chiverton said. “The way my mind works is I meet someone, and I want them to meet someone else I know, or take advantage of some program I’m familiar with, and I love growing programs and seeing things come to fruition and having that satisfaction … and bringing people together to make it happen.”
“That’s probably what I’ll miss most, and probably terrifies my husband, that I will be thinking of projects for him to do,” Chiverton added.
Although Chiverton announced her retirement several months ago, she has continued as standing executive director at Discovery Counseling Center, where she was first hired in 2011, throughout the board’s months-long search for her replacement, culminating in staying through the onboarding process with Bhandari, who was announced as the center’s new leader on April 28.
“We just thought with our connections in the community with business, with politics, that we would get some candidates,” Discovery Counseling Board Chair Michael Copeland said.
Copeland said that although he and other board members had some trepidation about filling Chiverton’s role upon hearing of her retirement, they were confident that the right candidate would rise to the top quickly. However, after about 15 initial responses, seven phone interviews, and three personal interviews during the initial recruitment process, Copeland said the board still came up empty-handed.
“At the end of the year we just hadn’t found the right candidate,” Copeland said.
The board then asked for advice for Chiverton, Copeland said, who then prodded Bhandari, whom she’d known for many years, to apply.
“She just kind of checked all the boxes,” Copeland said. “She interviewed extremely well, and each time you sat down with her you got to know a little bit more about her.”
Copeland also pointed to Bhandari’s respect for the work at Discovery Counseling, and mutual respect between her and Chiverton, as deciding factors in the board’s decision.
While Copeland said that Bhandari’s existing rapport with Chiverton factored into the board’s decision, Chiverton emphasized that the decision had been up to the board, not her.
“I was not involved in the selection process, but I had known Sumita for a long time, and I urged her to apply. And without any prompting from me, the board embraced her and saw exactly in her what I had seen, so it was definitely meant to be,” Chiverton said.
Bhandari said that getting to know Chiverton and her work at Discovery Counseling shed new light on the organization, which garnered her long standing respect and admiration.
“I think even as a community member who’s lived here for a long time, I did not realize what a gem this organization was until I met Kathy through other activities,” Bhandari said.
“I would just encourage people to get to know Discover and what we’re doing, and just to learn a little bit about the organization,” she added. “Because when you do, you realize especially in the context of this mental health crisis that we’ve got going on … to know that you have a resource like this in the community, it’s a valuable thing.”
Discovery Counseling was founded more than 50 years ago, and has served the San Ramon Valley and surrounding community ever since, aiming to make mental health services accessible and affordable to all community members. Chiverton said that during her more than 10-year tenure, the pandemic years had brought issues to the surface, and demonstrated the need for services such as those offered at Discovery Counseling.
“Things have changed fundamentally in the last two years, and COVID has really brought a new level of concern to I think many families and many students, and we’re hearing it across the board,” Chiverton said. “Increased absenteeism and truancy from school, anxiety is through the roof; we’re seeing students and families that are having a hard time communicating with each other; we’re seeing marriages that are being put under pressure because of COVID.”
Chiverton said that while the content of issues Discovery Counseling is aimed at helping the community with had remained mostly the same during the pandemic, the intensity of them had risen significantly in recent years.
“All the things we’ve seen in the last eight or nine years have just intensified due to COVID, and I don’t see that easing up in the future,” Chiverton said.
Bhandari also underscored the needs that had been exacerbated by the onset of the pandemic and its continued impacts.
“Three quarters of our clients need subsidized services, so I think that the larger issue that we are seeing is that as COVID recedes, we are still seeing the crisis of mental health get more serious with every day,” Bhandari said. “People are finding themselves in heightened state of anxiety about what it is that they have to worry about, and there’s this uncertainty that has been provided by the pandemic that is not really going away for people.”
Bhandari said that amidst all of these pressures on mental health services, and the mental health crisis that was spurred by the pandemic, she was confident in taking the reins as leader at Discovery Counseling due to her relationship with, and support from, Chiverton.
“One of the reasons that I was comfortable taking this position was that I was going to be working with Kathy in this transition,” Bhandari said. “There is no better person to transition into this job with, because I don’t know anybody else who is as lovely and gracious as my friend here.”
Chiverton also noted that the mental health needs of San Ramon Valley residents were heavily impacted by the pandemic, but pointed to the increased pressures on community members who are struggling financially in an area known for its affluence.
“I think that puts enormous pressure on some families who are hidden in this community you don’t know who they are by looking at them but there is a significant number of people who are not in a comfortable place financially, and that adds to mental health issues, especially in a community where people seem to be making it,” Chiverton said.
Chiverton called this population Discovery Counseling’s “niche”, and emphasized the center’s mission of making mental health services affordable and accessible to all via a sliding scale payment policy.
Although the economic pressures for San Ramon Valley residents can lead to additional mental health concerns, Chiverton pointed out one benefit for Discovery Counseling in terms of funding, in the form of Thrift Station, the volunteer-run shop near Hartz and San Ramon Valley Boulevard in Danville that provides a significant amount of funding for the center.
” (They) generate enough income to be a third of our annual income,” Chiverton said. “Community-based mental health organizations have folded throughout Contra Costa County, and we are one of the few still remaining just because we have that robust source of support. We could not be here or do what we do without them.”
Now towards the end of the month-long transition period alongside Chiverton, Bhandari, a former attorney at the Danville-based law firm Gagen-McCoy, said that she was already feeling confident in the role.
“It’s been something that has felt natural, so there’s not a lot that I feel nervous about, and I think part of that is because I know should anything come up I feel extremely comfortable reaching out not only to get Kathy’s opinion, but also all of the community members that are involved with Discover,” Bhandari said.
Chiverton said that despite her retirement, she would be continuing her long practice of community involvement and volunteer service locally, with Bhandari noting that she was excited to continue the work Chiverton had started, with her predecessor’s support.
“Kathy has always been and will always be on a mission that she has wholeheartedly identified with and motivated her to do what she’s done all these years and that includes making this transition as smooth as possible,” Bhandari said. “We have a relationship where we are very direct and honest with each other, and that just makes this transition so much easier for all of us.”
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