Valley Community Counseling Clinic Newsletter

Fall 2020

Adapting to COVID-19

We dove into incorporating virtual platforms to seamlessly allow the work to continue with our current patients. The "Hollywood Squares" experience of our Clinic meetings allows our community to stay connected and strong. When lockdown began, new referrals dried up, but two months later we had an upsurge and a waitlist. Covid was the catalyst for many people to seek help who were in very difficult life situations. It exacerbated any mental health issues that they were managing before by themselves. We took on many more patients, offered free therapy to front-line workers, and created a Covid-19 support group.

Currently, the Clinic provides around 800 therapy hours per month — providing an essential contact and space that has allowed many to not just endure during challenging times, but to also find emotional growth and healing.

Black Lives Matter

Our VCCC community had an important awakening brought about by the tragic death of George Floyd. We dove into studying the intersection of race in the therapeutic space, the undercurrents of racial tensions in our work, Whiteness, and our need to examine and own the ways in which we have unknowingly contributed to the many layers of systemic racism.

A Psychoanalysis & Culture Lab grew from these discussions — a reading and process group that meets weekly now. Together we are continuing to explore and deepen our understanding as we engage and think more deeply about race, culture, psychoanalytic theory and practice.

Our Growth Continues

Nine new interns began this Fall, along with a handful of interns who have reached their goals with us and left us to begin their next chapter—always a little bittersweet—we hope they will remain connected to our larger VCCC community. Our Clinic community of learners has delved deeply into 1) pandemic anxieties 2) racism in our work 3) the understanding and value of making an interpretation 4) therapeutic work with couples 5) understanding and working with suicidal patients, and 6) reparation (our psyches and our country need this!). We continue to enjoy “diving deeply” into a subject for a month or so, reading different authors and discussing to enrich our understanding.

Thanks Goes To…

Generous teachers have contributed to all of this growth—growth in ourselves as clinicians, and growth in the many people we work with in therapy. Our wonderful supervisors bring weekly containment and wisdom (PLEASE see a complete list of these extraordinary individuals on our website!). We have also benefitted from guest speakers who stimulated our minds with their expertise— in person, Dr. Joy Schary; by video, Albert Mason and Christopher Bollas; and on a virtual screen, Dr. Diane Fletcher, and Dr. Lynne Jacobs.