“In my summer job, people would just come up to me and tell me stuff that they shouldn’t tell me. So, I thought maybe counseling would be a good thing to get into.”
Jim Hanson is a psychology professor at Grand View, and he’s been here for over 25 years. Growing up, Hanson’s father was a chaplin for the Army, so they were always moving around. Hanson came to Iowa in 1980 to attend Luther College. He chose Luther because members of his family had gone there. Hanson originally was an art major, but later changed his major to psychology.
Hanson became a therapist after getting his master’s in counseling. He eventually went back to school to become a licensed psychologist. He was inspired to be a licensed psychologist by Barry Garfinkel, the head of child and adolescence psychiatry at the University of Minnesota. Garfinkel is a guy who isn’t fazed by much. In Austin, Minnesota Garfinkel and Hanson worked at Gerard of Minnesota a psych hospital for teenagers. If they were working with a more aggressive patient, they would have to hold the patient down, but that didn’t bother Garfinkel at all. He would just go “hmm interesting.”
As he was going through school, the laws on what was required to be a psychologist changed. As he finished school, he got his PhD in psychology but because of the law change, he couldn’t become a psychologist without restarting and getting another PhD.
“I never even thought about teaching until I got my PhD and figured I’d do it for a while,” Hanson said.
In 1993, he started teaching at GV and has enjoyed it ever since. He enjoys seeing students evolve and become adults. Hanson enjoys the academic freedom, faculty and the size of GV. If he were teaching at a large university, he wouldn’t be able to have students come into his office to talk to him and ask questions. Coming from a college like Luther he knows what it’s like to know your professor personally.
“I went to college at a small school like Grand View, you get to know students and the faculty and interact with people,” Hanson said.
Along with working a GV, Hanson works at a private practice. Recently, he got his mental health license. Working at the private practice and being a professor at GV helps with both professions.
“I’m a part of a private practice and I see couples and individuals, and it helps my teaching because I teach marriage and family too. So, what I see in counseling I can bring to class and what I do in class I can bring to counseling, so they play off each other,” Hanson said.
Students have enjoyed Hanson’s psychology class. One of those students is senior, Boris Petrusic. Petrusic enjoyed learning about how we develop throughout our lives. He enjoyed how Hanson kept the class interesting by showing videos and explaining things in detail.
“He is a very open guy, so it makes the class a lot of fun,” Petrusic said. “Jim Hanson did a good job of teaching the class. He was really helpful when I had questions, he would always answer them.”
After taking Hanson’s class he was impacted so much that he knew what type of psychology that he wanted to study. Petrusic is going into developmental psychology. Developmental psychology is a field of study that looks at how everything impacts how we develop. He highly recommends that you take Jim Hanson’s psychology class.
“I definitely recommend this class if you’re interested in this field of work. You have to be willing to do extra work and ask questions … his class isn’t easy unless you’re willing to put in work,” Petrusic said.
Senior Cole Peters has taken two courses with Hanson and he is one of his favorite professors. Peters passion has only grown from taken Hanson’s classes. He’s learned a lot about helping other people and himself.
“He’s a super good dude. He’s always there to help out. I learn better in his classes than other classes. It’s not just pointing at a slide. He is very interactive with kids and he’s kind of funny,” Peters said.
