Meet the Team

 

Layne Hitchcock, MA, LPC, ALPS

Layne is a Behavioral Health Clinician for the Health Sciences Center students at WVU. She has been working with traditional and non-traditional, college aged students since 2010. Since that time, her therapeutic career has included providing short term counseling, consultation, outreach, crisis intervention, risk assessment, group therapy, as well as case management and referrals to longer term care for students at WVU.

Before becoming a counselor and pursuing mental health as a lifelong passion, Layne was a D1 athlete, playing volleyball for Marshall University. She is a strong believer that coaching volleyball closely resembles her clinical work. There is not a "one size fits" all approach to counseling. Ideal counseling is a collaborative approach. It involves approaching therapy with a cultural humble mindset, establishing a warm therapeutic relationship, and tailoring treatment to meet the needs and readiness of the individual. Layne values consideration and open discussion of intersecting cultural identities, all the while being mindful to re-evaluate the effectiveness of therapy and making adjustments as needed.

Layne would describe her style as integrative, warm, and based on empirically supported treatment. Her orientation draws from humanistic, cognitive behavioral, third wave CBT, and interpersonal theories. She has a wide range of experience with many different presenting concerns, such as, but not limited to, depression, anxiety, trauma, interpersonal-relational difficulty, suicide/homicide, self-injurious behavior, grief and loss, along with gender, spirituality, sexual orientation, and identity concerns.

In her free time, Layne enjoys spending time with her family, walking, visiting the beach, boating, listening to music, and connecting to her spiritual side. Layne is passionate about self-care, resiliency, efforts to improve mental health, and self-compassion. She enjoys teaching, educating, and supervising others, something she hopes to continue as BeWell plans to expand.

Seth Haxel, MA, NCC, LPC

Seth Haxel

Seth is a behavioral health therapist for the Health Sciences Center students at WVU. He has been working with the students at WVU through the Carruth Center since 2018 and transitioned to BeWell in the summer of 2021. Seth obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Virginia before working in a wide variety of settings that include management, options trading on Wall Street, inpatient mental health, and community mental health. He began graduate school at WVU in 2017, graduating with a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2019.

Seth is a longtime athlete, having played basketball (he is 6’8”), soccer, baseball, and numerous other sports his entire life. He currently spends much of his free time enjoying West Virginia by hiking with his wife and two young children. He is an avid reader and will talk your ear off about fantasy books if you let him. He also loves to travel, and to date has visited 15 countries and 40 states (but who’s counting).

Seth describes his counseling style as laid back, warm, and relaxed. He loves to help clients feel comfortable by getting to know them and allowing them to get to know him. His primary theoretical orientation is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and he enjoys using CBT to help his clients identify how their thoughts, actions, and feelings are all interconnected. He finds that this allows them to identify places where they can make changes to improve their lives. Seth also strongly believes in the importance of self-care, both personally and professionally. He has experience working with depression, anxiety, substance use, academic concerns, and stress management. He has expertise working with obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, and panic disorder.

Abby Wellings

Abby Wellings

Abby is a master’s level trainee and graduate assistant for WVU Health Sciences students. She is currently a second-year student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. Abby received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Frostburg State University, studied abroad in South Korea and is a first-generation college student.

Abby describes her counseling style as collaborative and multisensory. She mainly adheres to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Transactional Analysis (TA), which she believes allow individuals to examine their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. This helps individuals gain insight into how they impact each other and allows them to challenge their irrational thoughts and shift them into more rational thinking. For TA, she enjoys the concept of examining the different states of mind that can inform emotions and experiences, as well as helping others gain awareness of these states of mind. Although she likes serving a wide population, she is especially interested in working with first-generation college students.

Abby believes having a work-life balance is essential. In her free time, she loves to read, listen to music, exercise and catch up on Netflix binges and sleep. She also always makes time for her spirituality and spending time with family, friends and her two dogs, who make her a proud dog mom.