Church program offers low-cost counseling

Anyone in Corpus Christi, Kingsville or Falfurrias who would like Christian-based counseling but doesn’t have the means to pay for it can now get treatment.
Church Based Counseling Services is a program offered by Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas. The new program offers confidential counseling and psychotherapy to individuals, families and couples.
Services are specifically for people who don’t have health insurance coverage for counseling.
Counseling is offered also to people who might have health insurance but don’t have counseling as a benefit, have exhausted their allocated visits under a managed-care plan, have no counseling providers on their insurer’s panel in the community or have mental-health coverage but whose financial circumstances make the co-payment a burden.
The counseling is provided by experienced, licensed professional counselors and licensed clinical social workers. The objective is to offer a variety of counseling/psychotherapy services that are person-centered and solution-focused, with a cognitive/behavioral orientation. Each participant receives a goal plan to assess progress in treatment.
Counseling, psychotherapy and psychoeducation may be useful in helping people with
> Depression.
> Anxiety.
> Crisis because of economic or personal problems.
> Anger management.
> Problems of adjustment.
> Unresolved grief because of loss of a loved one.
> Substance abuse.
> Addictive behaviors.
> Low self-esteem.
> Communication patterns with a marriage or family.
Counseling also provides emotional support.
Church Based Counseling Services are available to all people within the community regardless of faith, religious affiliation, ethnicity or heritage. You don’t have to be a member of The United Methodist Church to participate. The program is offered in the church to allow accessibility within the community, to promote the values of holistic health care (mind, body and spirit to help create wellness) and to provide a secure, noninvasive place to receive mental health counseling.
At the first session, counselors go over the program. This meeting is a time to address any questions or concerns someone might have about counseling. That first session is free.
Participants who decide to continue counseling will be asked to pay a small fee tied to income and household size. The fee ranges from $1 to $15 and is based on federal poverty income guidelines.
In the Rio Grande Valley, where the program was initiated in June 2003, the average client pays $2. No one is denied service because of an inabililty to pay.
Sponsoring sites are First UMC, Corpus Christi; First UMC, Kingsville; and First UMC, Falfurrias.
For more information or to make an appointment, call Carlton Harrison, LCSW, at (361) 548-3801 or George Phillips, LPC, at (361) 442-3670.