CIIS Counseling Centers Serve More Than Two Thousand Each Year

Through its six neighborhood counseling centers, CIIS provides psychotherapy to more than two thousand people each year who might otherwise not have access to mental health services. Named "The Best of the Bay" for reasonably priced therapy by the readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the counseling centers have, for twenty-seven years, provided high-quality mental health services at low cost.

"Very few of the clients have health insurance that covers therapy," says Jessica Wallace, director of the Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center. "We base the fees on a sliding scale that takes into account the person's income."

The therapists at the centers are primarily advanced-level graduate students at CIIS, completing their clinical training. The staffs also include experienced alums who are fulfilling internships to learn a particular type of therapy and earn licensure. All of the therapists-in-training are closely supervised by licensed mental health professionals. None of the graduate student trainees are paid, and each volunteers hundreds of hours a year. "I find it moving to see the students become so dedicated by working with people in need," says Director of Field Placement and Clinic Sites Becky McGovern.

The centers are located in communities around San Francisco. Each center is directed by a licensed marriage and family therapist or clinical psychologist. Every one has a unique approach, all grounded in the Institute's holistic view. "For our students and for the clients, it's important to offer different modes of therapy," notes McGovern. Therapy is available for adults, children, couples, and groups, and is offered in English and in several other languages, which vary over time and often include Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, and Hebrew.

The counseling centers first evolved out of the Integral Counseling Psychology (ICP) program. According to an article written in the 1970s by Ann Marie Berlin (ICP '78), one of the first interns, "The Counseling Center began as a desk and a telephone
in the reference room of the Institute's library in 1973." The centers have now developed into one of the main hubs for counseling in the Bay Area. In any given week, they see more than five hundred clients.

The Six Counseling Centers

Center for Somatic Psychotherapy is one of only a handful of somatic psychotherapy clinics in the country. Located on Market Street near Civic Center, the clinic has been open for more than fifteen years. Advanced-level students and graduates of the Somatic Psychology program staff the center. "In both our theory and our methods, we start from an appreciation that all that is experienced and expressed is done bodily," says Clinic Director Steuart Gold (SOM '00). "We view the body not only as central to how we organize our experience, but as an enormous resource in the process of healing. The center has a very diverse clientele that comes from all over the Bay Area, as well as a rich diversity among our clinicians." In addition to its regular clients, the center has provided services to the homeless and to inmates at San Quentin.

Clinic Without Walls is the newest center. It started offering services in spring 2010 at Valencia Gardens public housing in San Francisco. Next year, the clinic hopes to expand to at least one other site. "We follow the model of Doctors Without Borders, taking services directly to clients," says Clinic Director Fernando Castrillon (CLN '09). The clinic provides psychotherapy, but also such innovative services as "therapy on the margins" (informal sessions in a variety of settings) and community-wide interventions (the use of psychotherapy interventions and sensibilities on a community-wide level). "The clinic is community-driven," elaborates Castrillon. "We focus on what the residents ask for." They use a wellness model where psychotherapy is part of a broad approach that includes linking the clients to resources to help with nutrition, parenting, exercise, transportation, and other needs. The trainees are all students in the Community Mental Health program.

Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center is staffed by ICP advanced-level master's degree students and alumni interns who receive additional training toward licensure. "Our context is always transpersonal," says Director Jessica Wallace. "Though therapeutic techniques vary by practitioner and client, we always hold a view of each person as inherently good and whole. The center is very community oriented, and it has the feel of a strong and adaptable family where students can grow to their potential." The Golden Gate Center opened in 2007, thanks to seed money generously provided by the J.C. Kellogg Foundation.

Integral Counseling Center at Church Street was the first of the counseling centers, founded in 1973. Church Street is staffed by advanced-level graduate students from the ICP program and interns who are completing an additional year of training. The center's focus is Gestalt and humanistic psychotherapy. "Gestalt therapy involves a high level of self-responsibility and choices," says Clinic Director Lu Grey, who has been with Church Street for more than twenty years. "The client sets the pace." The vast majority of those receiving therapy come from the neighborhoods south of Market Street, including the Mission and the Castro.

Integral Counseling Center at Pierce Street was founded twenty-two years ago by CIIS Professor Emeritus Michael Kahn, who envisioned a training facility where students could learn about the evolving relationship between therapist and client. About two-thirds of the trainees are currently advanced-level graduate students from ICP, and one-third are interns who are alums of that program. Says Clinic Manager Susan Weiss (ICP '87), who has served in that capacity for almost twenty years: "There is room for students to explore their strengths and to touch the places within themselves that are most challenging, in an environment of deep acceptance." Adds Clinical Director Dan Gottsegen (ICP '93, CLN '03): "We work with a relational perspective toward healing the whole person. The clients are as diverse as the city itself."

Psychological Services Center is located in the Fox Plaza building on Market Street. "One thing that's unique about the center is that all the trainees are doctoral students in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program," says Clinic Director Lani Chow. "We work from a psychodynamic or relational framework." In addition to providing short- and long-term therapy to individuals and couples, the center offers psychological assessment services for adults seeking personality and cognitive testing; as well as academic, vocational, and diagnostic assessment. The assessment services, like the therapy sessions, are offered on a sliding scale.

For contact information and more detailed descriptions of the counseling centers, visit www.ciis/counseling.