About Us
A Brief History
Several years ago, couples and families from the community in need of counseling were invited to be seen by students in post masters classes. Because the formation of a clinic was not official, we saw this as simply piloting an idea. Very quickly, this idea blossomed into much more then a pilot.
In our work with families, the classes came alive in powerful and wonderful ways. The students left each week having not only discussed, but also having actually witnessed the theory and techniques of couples/family counseling. The families we saw were carefully screened and showed tremendous growth and adjustment as a result of the counseling.
After continuing this piloting for several semesters, we moved to get formal approval from the University for a community-based counseling clinic. This process took some effort and patience. We persisted and the Growing Edges Community Counseling Clinic was born!
The Official Start
Prior to the start of the spring 2008 semester, we were granted official approval by the University to start the community clinic. This allowed Growing Edges to start to really grow. One of the clearly defined objectives of our clinic was to better connect real life counseling practice with program courses. Having developed our standard operating procedures, documents, and policies, we announced the clinic to area organizations.
Early in the process, we found some area organizations wishing to meet the needs of the community through partnering with our services. We started discussing and creating programs that reached out more fully into the community. Through these partnerships, we have been able to help better meet the needs of our community.
Our Goal
Our goal throughout has been to start small, build appropriately, and complete each session, each task and each process as well as possible. Through the combined efforts of the students and faculty who volunteered to help us get the clinic started, we met the goal of "doing things really well". As we continue forward, our goal remains to serve our community with excellence and complete each step with greater growth and quality.