UTSA Sarabia Family Counseling Center provides top quality counseling services to San Antonio community

The Sarabia Family Counseling Center is a working clinic that trains the counselors of tomorrow | (Photos credit: Deborah Silliman)

(Jan. 20, 2016) -- Every day, the UTSA Sarabia Family Counseling Center provides top-tier mental health and counseling services to the San Antonio community – free-of-charge.

The center is a working clinic and on-campus training facility located on the third floor of the Durango Building (DB 3.304) on the UTSA Downtown Campus. Graduate counseling students learn how to provide personalized counseling services to hundreds of individual, couple and family clients over the course of a semester. They work under the supervision of a diverse faculty specializing in mental health.

Catherine Somody, clinical assistant professor and a licensed professional counselor, is the director of the UTSA center. She’s there each weekday ensuring that clients receive the highest quality of care and that the students are learning only the best practices as they interact with clients.

“At the Sarabia Family Counseling Center, we are working with a diverse clientele of different economic backgrounds who are dealing with a variety of life challenges that can include grief and loss, relationship concerns and post-traumatic stress,” Somody said.  “There is a great need in the San Antonio community for the services that the center offers, and it’s a privilege to be able meet those needs.”
 
The center has six specialized counseling suites – including three suites for individual counseling sessions, two group session suites and one fully equipped play therapy room – for use by students and faculty conducting counseling sessions.

The center is also home to one of the few certified neurofeedback training centers in the country. The UTSA Neurofeedback Training Program teaches graduate students how to control the brainwaves linked to certain mental health conditions, including anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Led by UTSA lecturer and adjunct professor Mark Jones, a highly regarded neurofeedback practitioner with more than 12 years of experience, the neurofeedback training is the only U.S.-based program of its kind accredited by both the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance.

“The Sarabia Family Counseling Center is doing all sorts of cutting edge things to better treat our patients and train our students,” Jones said. “I’m glad that we’re able to bring in a diverse range of practices under one roof.”

The Sarabia Family Counseling Center actively collaborates with several community agencies. Students often work with the Juvenile Justice program at San Antonio Municipal Court to provide counseling services for adjudicated youth and their families. The center’s staff and students provide AVANCE, a local non-profit that aims to strengthen families in at-risk communities, with free parent education seminars and educational outreach programs relating to mental health and wellness.

In 2015, Somody and her staff trained 99 students and worked with nearly 300 clients. This year, the center is expanding the scope of its services and number of students enrolled in the program. This expansion is designed to allow for more students to benefit from in-clinic training and for more clients to take advantage of the services the center offers.

“We’re very excited to be able to offer both our clients and students even more opportunities to benefit from the expertise that Sarabia Family Counseling Center offers,” Somody said. “Every day that I go into the office I feel excited about what it is that we do, which is provide a valuable service to the community.”

By Jesus Chavez
Public Affairs Specialist

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Learn more about the UTSA Sarabia Family Counseling Center in the College of Education and Human Development - Department of Counseling. For information about its services or neurofeedback training, call 210-458-2055.

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