Bio

Rhea Banerjee is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Online Clinical Coordinator in the Counselor Education program at NC State, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Counseling & Development.

Dr. Banerjee’s path into this work began in Chennai, India, with early training across psychiatric, de-addiction, disability, and community mental health settings, and then as a school mental health counselor. Her first thesis, completed in India, examined why people underuse mental health services, and stigma emerged as the barrier that mattered most. Those years shaped a conviction she carries into every classroom: culture shapes not only how people experience distress, but whether they believe help is available to them at all.

That insight became the center of Dr. Banerjee’s doctoral work at Penn State, where she examined attitudes toward seeking mental health services among international migrants and U.S. citizens, with stigma as the variable that so often determines who walks through the door. She spent five years in Penn State’s Biofeedback Lab, where she built a foundation in neuroscience that now shapes her work on bringing neuroscience into counselor training, including a co-authored textbook on neuro-integrated multicultural counseling. Underneath that work is a conviction that counseling should be grounded in evidence.

During her doctoral training, Dr. Banerjee served as a community and student liaison with the Racial Trauma Task Force, and co-created a school-based mental health partnership with a rural school district, supervising master’s interns who served students in grades 7 through 12. Out of that supervision came the 4R model (Recognize, Respect, Rapport, Role Play), a framework for culturally responsive supervision with international counseling students, and one she continues to draw on in her work with students today.

As an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, Dr. Banerjee taught across the psychiatric rehabilitation and counseling curriculum, led the development of a biofeedback and neurofeedback lab, and saw clients in the university’s counseling clinic. Her clinical practice, grounded in psychodynamic, Internal Family Systems, and cognitive behavioral approaches, continues to shape how she teaches.

At NC State, Dr. Banerjee teaches in the master’s program and coordinates clinical placements for students in the online program. What she hopes students take from her courses is not a script but a stance: authenticity with the people they sit across from, humility toward those they serve and toward themselves, and the conviction that good counseling meets people where they actually live.

Publications

• The “invisible” work of becoming a counselor educator , Becoming: PhD Alumni Talks (2026)
• Cultural nuances in mental health: Addressing stigma and acculturation beyond the pandemic , Emerging Professionals Summit, American Counseling Association (2025)
• From surviving to thriving: Teaching cultural resilience in counselor training , Biennial Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) Conference (2025)
• Supporting minority supervisees in challenging times: Creating safe spaces and leveraging social media for connection , 2025 Annual American College Counseling Association Conference (2025)
• The 4R model: Culturally responsive supervision for Asian international counseling students , Supervision in Counseling Virtual Summit (2025)
• The Mental Health of Asian International Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic , Journal of Asia Pacific Counseling (2025)
• Virtual connections, real impact: Implementing a remote counseling program to enhance youth mental health and break stigmas , IAPC World Conference (2024)
• Attitudes Towards Seeking Mental Health Services Among International Migrants and US Citizens: The Role Of Stigma , (2023)
• Preferences , Moments of Excellence in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Learning What Works for Relationship Building and Increased Effectiveness (2023)
• Religion/Spirituality , Moments of Excellence in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Learning What Works for Relationship Building and Increased Effectiveness (2023)