The Fresno Family Counseling Center, a low-cost provider of counseling services run by Fresno State’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development, moved into a new space in northwest Fresno to offer expanded mental health services to the Central Valley.
Since 1985, the center has given graduate students an opportunity to gain clinical experience in marriage, family and child counseling. The sessions are videotaped and monitored by licensed supervisors, enhancing the quality of counseling for patients and providing immediate and intensive training for student therapists.
The center, now located at 5151 N. Palm, Suite 200, in Fresno, is 4,400 square feet and features 14 meeting rooms that will allow for additional counseling sessions. The previous location on First Street and Dakota Avenue had 12 counseling rooms.
The center provides nearly 10,000 therapy sessions each year, with services in both English and Spanish. Faculty estimate that two-thirds of the clients are considered impoverished and cannot be served by the local mental health system because of county budgetary constraints or other barriers to access.
According to the center’s director, Dr. Christopher Lucey, the new facility will significantly enhance the services offered to the community. “This work is vital for our students who receive an incredible clinical experience, but it’s also for the community because many of our clients have nowhere else to go,” he said.
While clients are expected to pay for their sessions, the fees are on a sliding scale. Lucey said that contributing financially to treatment, even if it’s as low as $10, encourages ownership and accountability.
The Fresno Family Counseling Center is open seven days a week, providing individual, family couples, group and child therapy. The Western Association of Counselor Education and Supervision recognized the center as an exceptional training facility and community service provider, and it has inspired similar university-sponsored counseling centers in Kentucky and Canada.
In 2014 the center received a $200,000 gift from alumnus and retired dentist Dr. Harry Moordigian, who passed away in November 2015.
For more information, contact Kathleen Schock, director of media and development communications, at 559.278.2756 or kschock@csufresno.edu.
