Going through school, the question most on Rose Gamino mind was, “How can I change the system?” After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Fresno Pacific University and a master’s degree from Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary in Marriage and Family Therapy, she now operates a counseling ministry that employs nine people who, together, are working to be that change.

Gamino was first introduced to FPU as a young person by her neighbor who was then a Sunbirds soccer coach. It wasn’t long after graduating high school that she became a student at first the university and later the seminary.

A month before Gamino’s graduation from the seminary, a permanent job offer came her way from Alliant International University, where she was completing the 500 hours of clinical counseling she needed to complete her degree. “Due to the seminary placement, I was able to get my career started pretty fast,” she says.

So Gamino began work with a program called Students Targeted with Opportunities and Prevention (STOP). She helped junior high school students in high-risk environments who had the potential to enter the system. Later Gamino moved to the Wrap Around program, where she worked closely with six kids and their families, doing group therapy, visiting the kids at school, engaging school staff and many other activities to help kids who would normally be in foster care.

Later Gamino accepted a new position at the Fresno County Department of Behavioral Health working with low-income families in the Parlier Unified School District. Here her experience in the STOP and Wrap Around programs led to an opportunity she wasn’t expecting. A former colleague had recognized Gamino’s aptitude for doing therapy with kids and offered her some young clients on a part-time basis.

That evening and weekend counseling has grown into the Gamino Family Therapy Group. Gamino and her associates use Traditional Talk Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing (EMDR), BrainPoint-Neurofeedback, Guttman Method, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Play Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

In addition to her private counseling practice, Gamino has been actively involved with FPU and her local church. At the seminary she has served as a clinical supervisor for 12 graduate students, providing individual or group supervision as a new generation of students obtain the hours they need for graduation. At Grace Place Church in downtown Clovis, she has been involved in music ministry for 12 years.

With a team of trained staff and many tools at their disposal, the Gamino Family Therapy Group is working to change the system as its founder dreamed of doing. FPU was the beginning and source of much of this fruitful ministry. “I love FPU, the seminary and their heart for mission,” Gamino says.

That heart for mission is seen in Gamino’s faith and work she lives out each day.