CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - HOPE (Healthy Outcomes for Personal Enrichment) is a local nonprofit organization that offers affordable counseling services to the community. They rely on fees for services as well as community donations to keep costs low for their clients. HOPE is hosting their second annual Hops for HOPE fundraiser, which will be held at River City Brewing Company on October 4, 2018. The event is from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 per person and include appetizers and two drink tickets. River City Brewing Company (which is located in Milagro Center at 6241 Fair Oaks Boulevard in Carmichael) generously donates wine, beer, and staff for the event.

Community donations are especially important because HOPE’s mission is to offer affordable sessions to those in need. Darlene Davis, executive director of HOPE, explained that there is a group of people who do not qualify for Medi-Cal but also do not have access to affordable counseling through traditional insurance. The goal of HOPE is to serve this segment of the community by offering counseling on a sliding scale depending on what the client is able to pay. Typically, $40 per session is the lowest rate, but HOPE does occasionally offer sessions for $20 to those in the greatest need.  

The experienced licensed therapists of HOPE not only work with clients to improve their well-being, but they also work in a supervisory capacity to train new therapists. To become a licensed therapist, it requires a master’s degree and 3,000 hours of supervised therapy sessions. It is an extremely intensive process, and HOPE is proud to support the next generation of therapists who will serve the community.

One of the reasons HOPE is able to offer such affordable rates is because graduate students who are working toward becoming licensed therapists volunteer as trainees. As part of the training process, HOPE offers clients an eight-week counseling program known as the One-Way Mirror. During this program, trainees conduct counseling sessions in a room with a one-way mirror that allows supervising therapists and other trainees to watch the session in real time. The trainee wears an ear-piece so the supervising therapist can offer immediate feedback and suggestions. Davis explained that it is like having eight therapists at once. The cost is only $25 per session, and clients sign up for this program knowing that they are getting the help they need while also giving the trainee valuable hands-on experience.

The supervising therapists at HOPE work hard to train people with integrity who are eager to serve the community. Davis takes great pride in the work they do and in their dedicated trainees and associates. Davis said, “We all work in our communities, and it’s so important to us that we’re building healthier communities by building healthier families.”

To better serve all those in need, HOPE offers many specialized forms of therapy such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which helps people understand and address harmful thoughts and actions; Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), which offers strategies to accept, destigmatize, and live with mental illness; Active Parenting of Teens (APT), which teaches parents how to talk to their teens and to watch for signs of high-risk behavior; and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which addresses how the brain accesses and reacts to traumatic memories.

Donations to HOPE help pay for standard operating costs as well as to purchase needed equipment for specialized therapeutic techniques. Davis first began operating HOPE as a nonprofit in 2008. She said, “I just wanted to give back to the community and give back to the profession, and it’s grown into what it is today.”

HOPE has offices in mid-town Sacramento, Roseville, and Folsom. For more information, visit their website at www.hope-counselingcenter.org.