COUNSELOR:
Gail Malsin, M.Ed.
SCHOOL:
Plainfield School
School Counseling (Guidance)
SCHOOL PHONE:
603-469-3250
This is my second year at Plainfield as the school counselor. My being here is the completion of a
varied career in education. Before becoming a professional school counselor I worked as a junior
high and high school world language teacher, as a social work intern at the VA hospital in White River
Junction, as a full-time mother, as arts coordinator at Plainfield School, as arts-in-education
outreach coordinator at the Hopkins Center, as director of ArtCare at the Koop Institute at
Dartmouth, and as community relations director in the Lebanon School District. I’ve worked as the
school counselor at the White River (VT) School and the Mount Holly (VT) School.
My undergraduate degree was in French Literature; I graduated from the University of Rochester in
1973 following a year at Swarthmore and a semester in Paris, France. I’ve taken graduate work in
education, psychology, social work and counseling at numerous public and private universities and
was proud to complete my master’s degree in school counseling at Plymouth State University in
2006.
My professional belief system is based on the understanding that children do well if they can. I use
an eclectic but basically strengths-based, solution-focused approach to counseling. This philosophy
includes a very basic premise: if something works we should do more of it; if it doesn’t we need to
try something else.
I live in a log house in Hanover with my husband Peter who is a teacher, writer and consultant. Our
daughter Mikaela who attended grades K-5 at Plainfield is a now a senior at Emory University in
Atlanta and very active on the college debate circuit; our son Jared (PES '99) is a 2007 Yale alumnus
working abroad as a news editor.
In free time I like to dream landscapes and grow flowers, read professional literature and good
fiction, take pictures and share them, attend arts events, and travel. I love technology, the ocean, and
using my hands to create. My husband and I volunteer regularly at Northern Stage as ushers and we
like to contra-dance.
The Plainfield School Guidance program works closely with the Health program
and, in alignment with the NH standards, follows the American School Counselor
Association (ASCA) national model with goals in the academic, personal/social
and career exploration domains.
Plainfield School's comprehensive guidance program includes school-wide
programs, classroom lessons, small group sessions, and individual counseling.
