The Manzanita Counseling Center allows students and residents alike in the Albuquerque metro area to receive professional counseling services at no charge.
Director Rhonda Neswald-Potter said Manzanita has the CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs) accreditation, which is the highest standard for a counseling supervision program.
"Other counseling centers across the country would aspire to the standard we hold here,” she said. “There is so much need in our community for free or reduced fee care.”
The clinic sees students, children, families, couples and even people who are not currently on insurance plans and cannot afford payments, Neswald-Potter said. Many have insurance co-pays that are prohibitive for weekly sessions at other sites.
“When a potential client wants to come for services they call and complete a brief screening,” she said. “That screening is generally done by a graduate student or a doctoral supervisor who determines if the individual is appropriate for the clinic. If the level of severity is not appropriate for this clinic we then refer them to a different level of care.”
The clinic sees cases of all kinds, she said, including parenting therapy, depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, addiction, adjustments to New Mexico and anger management.
The clinic currently employees fourteen graduate students to tackle the active 60-80 cases they have, she said. The clinic includes a conference room, three private counseling rooms, a few offices and a children’s/family play room that contains toys, puzzles and many other games.
Unfortunately, with the small space they have, Neswald-Potter and the students sometimes have to wait-list patients and cannot offer the fullest potential of service, she said.
“Our three rooms run concurrently,” she said. “One more therapy room would definitely not hurt, but with our amount of services, we only grow larger."
Aside from the services the center provides, the clinic is also beneficial to doctorate students who gain practical experience. Gene Crofts, a graduate student studying counselor education, said, “The clinic has provided me the education as a practicum student, an intern during my masters, and now as a doc student.”
The clinic provides students in counseling the experience, growth and confidence they would not be likely to receive and enjoy as much in another in another setting, he said.
“Manzanita therefore provides great opportunities for both master’s and doc students in the counselor education program, but the most important benefit that I see is the community service of seeing clients who may not otherwise receive counseling," Crofts said.
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Brochures for the clinic are readily available around campus. Manzanita, according to the brochure, is open for both the fall and spring semesters.
“We would like to be open during the summer and we will eventually get the funding to do so," Neswald-Potter said.
The sessions are 50 minutes. Those interested in scheduling an appointment can call 277-7311 or email ifce@unm.edu.
"I’m certainly proud of what we do, and UNM as a whole should likewise take pride in our work,” Croft said.
William Longenbaugh is a staff reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @dailylobo.
