News Center

Published August 6, 2019

The University of Louisiana Monroe Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic offers services to members of the campus and the community for help with issues ranging from stress to relationships to mood disorders and more. 

Founded in 1983, the MFT Clinic is a teaching facility where graduate student interns pursuing a master’s or Ph.D. work with clients while under direct supervision from a licensed, an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy-approved supervisor or supervisor candidate.

The MFT Clinic is under the direction of Dr. Van Frusha, Instructor and Interim Clinical Director, and Dr. David Hale, Assistant Professor and Interim Director of Marriage and Family Therapy programs.

What’s in a name?

 Frusha and Hale agree the name of the clinic limits common perception of the services that are provided.

“That term (marriage and family therapy) came out a long time ago when they didn’t know where to put folks thinking like us because we don’t see just a problem within an individual,” Frusha explained. “We see the larger context that the human being lives in. There’s relationships and there’s interaction and we take that into account.”

“We’re not marriage counselors. We don’t go in with two people and say we’re going to do marriage counseling. We do everything that anyone with any other mental health degree does other than prescribe medication. And we wouldn’t want to. Quite often we’re the ones they send them to when the medication stops working. Because what’s going on is not a medication thing, it’s a human relations thing,” Frusha said.

“In my 31 years of experience, I have seen more individuals than I’ve seen couples or seen families,” Hale added.

A training clinic

There are approximately 72 agencies in the immediate area which provide mental health services. Many of the mental health professionals at these public and private agencies trained at ULM, which has the only on-campus MFT Clinic in the state.  

“They have to have 500 direct client contact hours to graduate. That’s actually in the room for an hour, face to face,” Hale said. “We are the only MFT accredited program of this kind in the state of Louisiana. One of only a few of its kind in the South like this.”

“One of the things that really sets us apart is because we are a training institute. We’ve got one person doing therapy and three students and a supervisor behind the (one-way) mirror,” Hale said. “It’s literally a team effort as opposed to an individual one-on-one.”

A variety of issues are treated at the clinic, including but not limited to depression, anxiety, infidelity, grief and loss, family conflicts, communication problems, abuse issues, school-related problems, and other concerns. 

All client information is confidential in accordance with Louisiana law and the ethical standards of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the American Counseling Association. HIPAA guidelines are in place, as well.  

I need to talk …

Yet, people are often reluctant to see a therapist.

“I think it has something to do with the fact that going to a therapist is still not acceptable. Still, people have to feel comfortable taking that step and saying ‘I need to go see a therapist.’ That’s not an easy decision,” Hale said.

 “Quite often people don’t understand therapy,” Frusha said. “We change lives through conversation, through talk. We’re trained very intensely on what we do in there. We’re not just having a little chat.”

“When our students graduate, they feel competent and confident that they will succeed,” said Dr. Jana Sutton, Interim Dean of the College of Health Sciences. 

 “We are the best kept secret on the bayou – at the university that’s the best kept secret on the bayou. I think the reason is – maybe because people say, ‘Oh you’re a training institute and I’m getting somebody who doesn’t have any experience.’ But the thing is, you’re getting a ton of experience because there’s a supervisor behind the mirror and there’s a supervisor that meets every night with students throughout the week.”

The MFT Clinic is free to ULM and Delta Community College students, faculty and staff. Clinic services to all military and veterans and their families are also free.

The clinic is also available to the community. The standard fee is $25 for the first session and $20 for the following sessions. Adjustments can be made on an individual basis. Each session lasts approximately 50 minutes. 

The MFT clinic is located in Strauss Hall, room 112. Regular fall/spring hours are 12–8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m.–12 p.m. Friday. The clinic reopens for Fall 2019 on Monday, Aug. 19.

For more information about the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic, visit https://www.ulm.edu/chs/mftcs/clinic.html or call 318-342-5678 to make an appointment.