The Counseling Place

Our mission is simple, and our tactics are powerful. We strive to disrupt and help people heal from intergenerational trauma, restore and strengthen mental health, and cultivate resilience in individuals of all ages. We’ve been committed to this work since 1979. 

The Counseling Place provides crisis intervention, short- and long-term mental health and advocacy services. Our clients include children, teens and adults affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, suicide, and other traumatic incidents. Our services are free or fall on a sliding scale, based on ability to pay.

Our Victims' Assistance Program services help victims of violent crime and other tragic events recover and avoid repeat victimization. Under our Victims' Assistance Program, clients receive free professional therapy and advocacy services. Victim advocates assist survivors with crisis intervention, accessing resources, safety planning, and emergency services. Advocates also help victims apply for Crime Victim Compensation, understand Victim Rights, and receive updates on the status of their cases and offenders. Therapy is available for children, teens, and adult victims of violence, and all therapists are trained in EMDR.

Our Youth Programs services help young people strengthen mental health. Often, our Project Positive course helps young people manage the stress brought by poverty, family addiction and mental illness.  Some of our participants hold full-time jobs while attending high school and completing the program. Often, our course facilitators identify the need for and provide additional assistance, such as individual therapy and the meeting of basic needs, like food and clothing.

In our efforts to combat the stigma of mental health illness and services, in 2020, we launched our podcast: Slay the Stigma. Each episode focuses on mental health, challenges perceptions, dispels myths, and offers solutions and hope. 

Our Needs

We need support for emergency services for survivors of trauma and children & teens facing adverse conditions. These services include crisis intervention, short-term therapy, and providing for basic immediate needs, such as relocation efforts, clothing and food. 

Examples follow.

Pictured left: Victims' Assistance Program Director Ashley Akers with a truck with donated furniture for a family who fled domestic violence. Ashley and victim advocate Ali Piepenbrock hit the ground running to help the family break free of an unusual and unpredictable situation.

Together, Ashley and Ali provided crisis intervention, safety planning, and relocation services. This included acquiring enough furniture for an apartment, beds for mom and her children, and a starter kit of personal care needs. Ashley and her husband Manny even helped move the furniture into the survivor's new apartment. 

Lorjon Ali, our Youth Programs Director, has a passion for helping young people. Lorjon meets one-on-one with Project Positive participants, so they get the greatest value out of the content. Lorjon not only teaches mental health strategies but also notices when families are in need of basic items, like clothing, personal hygiene products, and food. When she learned that a family of six slept on the floor and the lighting in their apartment didn't work, she collected donations to remedy the problem. Lorjon filled her SUV with lamps, bedding, and clothes. A donor provided air mattresses for the living room, where three people slept on the floor. Pictured right is one of the five children, wearing new clothes and a smile. 

When Lorjon noticed how teens tend to be overlooked during the holiday season, she launched our Good Tidings to Teens program. Lorjon shops, assembles each package, and personally delivers them to every Good Tidings to Teens recipient. All recipients have graduated from Project Positive, a five-week course designed to strengthen mental health. Packages contain items the teen needs (bath & hygiene products, socks and shoes), gift certificates to places where they'd love to eat, a mental health support item (such as a gratitude journal or weighted blanket) and something to support a hobby (art supplies, sports or music items). She also throws in their favorite snack. Evidently, teens love snacks!

Throughout the year, The Counseling Place encounters unpredictable needs for clients. While most obtain assistance from churches and other nonprofits, sometimes their situations are extraordinary and require a swift and creative response. Donations through NTGD will help us meet the mental and physical health needs for these clients.