Offering low-cost counseling to the public

CSUB in the Community: University Counselor Training Clinic

By California State University, Bakersfield

June 9^th, 2022

This story is part of an ongoing series titled CSUB in the Community, which highlights various programs and organizations on campus that serve the community through their programming.

Members of the community in need of low-cost therapy can take advantage of a program located right on the California State University, Bakersfield campus.

The University Counselor Training Clinic (UCTC) — located in Education Building Room 200 — offers individual, couple, family and group counseling services to the public. Services are provided by student clinicians and supervised by a licensed therapist.

The clinic, which is open during the school year, offers confidential counseling relating to issues such as stress management, career changes and relationship problems.

“We serve a range of people, from those adjusting to a new job to people with severe mental health issues who have experienced real trauma in their life,” said UCTC Director Dr. Richard Zamora. “The clinic is a great resource for the community. It’s hard to find high-quality, low-cost therapy like this.”

The clinic serves up to 100 clients at any given time, Dr. Zamora said. The first session costs $25 and subsequent sessions are $15 each. However, the clinic will not decline services if someone is unable to pay.

The UCTC typically has over a dozen student clinicians as well as a handful of student managers who help operate the clinic, in addition to serving clients. Students work in the UCTC as part of the requirements to complete the counseling psychology graduate program.

“They get real-life counseling experience in how to deal with crisis situations and other things their clients bring up,” Dr. Zamora said. “It’s great to see how they handle the difficult types of situations people talk about in therapy.”

One of the student managers this spring was Sarah Rhodes, who graduated from CSUB last month with her master’s degree. Rhodes said she struggled with mental health issues as a child and received a lot of valuable counseling. Those experiences inspired her to pursue a career as a therapist herself.

“For me, it’s a lot about giving back to the community and helping people like I was helped,” she said.

Fellow clinic manager Vanessa Mota, who also graduated this spring, said one of the things she enjoyed most about working in the clinic was being able to provide therapy services in Spanish.

“It means a lot to me that I’m able to provide services not only to English-speaking clients but also to Spanish-speaking clients,” she said. “It’s a way for me to serve my culture and my community.”

Like Rhodes, Mota said she also personally benefitted from counseling services in the past.

“Going through my own therapy and seeing the outcomes through that has definitely motivated me to provide that for other people as well,” she said. “I think a lot of therapists have struggles in their own lives. We see how it is being on rock bottom and having little to no support. I want to provide that safe space for clients to share their story and be along with them in their healing journey.”

Coping with COVID

The past few years have been challenging for the UCTC due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After campus transitioned to virtual instruction in March 2020, the clinic also had to switch to virtual counseling sessions.

“We weren’t offering virtual services before that, but the students needed the experience and there was a need,” Dr. Zamora said.

Rhodes began serving as a student clinician after the clinic went virtual and had to grapple with serving clients for the first time in a way she hadn’t expected.

“That was very tricky at first, and very nerve-wracking,” she said. “The more I did it, the more comfortable I felt.”

Mota already had experience as a clinician when COVID hit, but she said the transition was still a significant one.

“It’s different because there’s so much more you can do in person to build rapport with a client. You can’t just offer someone a tissue over the computer,” she said. “There’s more of a disconnect with telehealth and a larger chance of having distractions.”

One of the other difficulties in doing counseling sessions from home was that it was harder to separate work from their home life.

“I felt like I didn’t have space to decompress,” she said. “This year felt so much smoother. Now that we’re at the clinic again, we can talk amongst each other more easily and I can leave my work at the office and decompress.”

Not only did the clinic have to deal with the logistical challenges of transitioning to virtual counseling, it also had to meet an increased demand for services due to hardships brought on by the pandemic.

“This whole experience has helped people be more aware of the importance of prioritizing their mental health, but also more issues have come up,” Dr. Zamora said. “Families and children have really been impacted.”

The clinic returned to in-person sessions last fall, and since then, it has been working on expanding its offerings. One of the first priorities was offering group therapy.

“Since there aren’t a lot of group therapy services available in the community, we want to fill in the gaps,” Dr. Zamora said. “We feel there’s a strong need for this in the community.”

The clinic began offering group therapy during the middle of the spring semester. However, they were unsuccessful in forming a group due to a lack of interest and limited time.

“Groups are hard to get going, so it’s been a slow start,” he said. “We’re hoping it will be more successful when we offer it again next school year.”

Dr. Zamora also hopes the clinic will be able to stay open during the summer in the future, but said it is contingent on funding. The public is welcome to donate to the clinic online at give.csub.edu.

Despite some bumps along the way, both Rhodes and Mota said the clinic has been very beneficial to them and that it’s been a great learning experience.

“It taught me a lot about how to take care of myself and how to replenish my energy,” Mota said. “There’s so much that you’re hearing and it can be very draining. If you’re giving all your energy to one place, you go home all empty and it’s harder to function.”

The clinic helped Rhodes realize the importance of making sure issues you may be having in your personal life don’t bleed into your sessions with clients.

“You’re uncovering layers within yourself as well as your client when you’re doing these sessions, so it’s very important that you don’t impart any bias in your therapy,” she said. “You have to respect the work, because people are trusting us.”

Rhodes hopes to open her own private practice in Bakersfield in the future and said being a manager has helped give her an idea of what it would be like to run a clinic. While she is sad to leave CSUB, she is excited about the future.

“I’m becoming more of the person I want to be — as a therapist, as a parent, as a person,” she said. “This is an experience I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else. I can market the skills I’ve developed and use them to continue serving the community.”

Mota is moving soon to Southern California and, like Rhodes, hopes to open her own clinic after she becomes a licensed clinician.

“It’s been such a great experience,” she said. “The relationships we’ve developed with our clients is so hard to let go of, but it’s been such an honor to have an impact on someone’s life and be able to see them grow.”

For Dr. Zamora, being able to see his students improve during their time in the program has been one of the highlights of being director, a job he started in 2019.

“It’s really rewarding to see the students grow from the time they see their first clients to the day they graduate from the program,” he said. “The big goal is to give them real-life experiences so they are prepared to provide services outside of the program. I think they’re well on their way to becoming licensed therapists.”

The UCTC will reopen in August for the fall semester. Click here to learn more about the clinic.

An unforgettable experience

Despite some bumps along the way, both Rhodes and Mota said the clinic has been very beneficial to them and that it’s been a great learning experience.

The clinic helped Rhodes realize the importance of making sure issues you may be having in your personal life don’t bleed into your sessions with clients.

Mota is moving soon to Southern California and, like Rhodes, hopes to open her own clinic after she becomes a licensed clinician.

For Dr. Zamora, being able to see his students improve during their time in the program has been one of the highlights of being director, a job he started in 2019.