Our mission is to prepare people recovering from mental illness to improve their quality of life. We strive to attain and maintain excellence in all of our work. We provide flexible and personalized care, engage in collaboration, and use innovative approaches to meet our clients' needs.
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Services Offered
Counseling - Many clients struggle with issues that can be explored with a trained therapist. Often, these issues deal with trauma, conflicts in relationships, and other troubling concerns. Appointments with a therapist are usually scheduled one time per week and, because our therapists come to the CSA specifically for these appointments, the client must keep all scheduled appointments in order to continue with our therapy services.
Day Program - McClendon Center is certified as a Day Services program through the DC Department of Behavioral Health. The Day Program identified different learning levels for clients, who are grouped according to their cognitive ability and degree of motivation. These learning levels, or tracks, include substance abuse recovery groups as well as early recovery groups for those individuals who are beginning to consider the process of recovery. The Day Program offers a morning session and an afternoon session.
Program tracks:
Expressive Arts Therapy - Our expressive therapy activities facilitate self-awareness and connections between clients. Through dance, drama, yoga, music, drawing, and painting, clients find a greater ease in expressing themselves through these non-verbal activities. Often, clients who initially tend to be unresponsive to group discussions soon find that they are able to identify their concerns and interact with other group members through expressive therapies.
Substance Abuse Recovery - According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, half of those who are diagnosed with some type of psychiatric illness have additional diagnoses of drug or alcohol addiction. At McClendon Center, a special emphasis is placed on serving people with co-occurring disorders of substance abuse through our Rebuilding and Recovery Program.
Rebuilding and Recovery - Our Recovery program focuses on clients who have a dual diagnosis and are in one of the five stages of recovery: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Groups are conducted daily that focus on such areas as Recovery, Making Healthy Choices, Self Esteem, Mental Health Awareness, Breaking the Cycle, and Double Trouble, to name a few.
Trauma Recovery - The Trauma Recovery program helps clients to rebuild their lives after trauma. Clients can expect to participate in groups that include psychotherapy and expressive arts therapies. Some of the topics that are addressed include: maintaining safety, coping skills for PTSD, self-care, avoiding re-traumatization, grounding skills, emotional regulation, anger management, grief work, re-building trust, and relationships, as well as the link between trauma and substance use disorders.
Expressive Arts Therapy - Our expressive therapy activities facilitate self-awareness and connections between clients. Through dance, drama, yoga, music, drawing, and painting, clients find a greater ease in expressing themselves through these non-verbal activities. Often, clients who initially tend to be unresponsive to group discussions soon find that they are able to identify their concerns and interact with other group members through expressive therapies.
Mental Health/ Counseling - MCCHS offers treatment to a variety of patients with mental health problems. Incidents of mental health issues are high among immigrants and there are very few charitable clinics offering mental health services. MCCHS is one of the few clinics to offer these services. Majority of patients seen in our clinic are suffering from depression and stress related anxiety. Marital and Premarital counseling is also provided as a part of mental health services.
Fees and Payment
We're a private not-for-profit agency, check our ABOUT us page for more information.
Services Offered To: Adults Couples
Special Groups: Bilingual
Payment: Sliding Scale Medicare Medicaid
If You Call, Please Let Us Know How it Went:
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One quick last question. Who was seeking counseling today?
Do you know the reason they are not accepting clients?
Qualifying for assistance from District of Columbia's program usually depends on the severity of your condition and financial circumstance. Read our full guide to District of Columbia's program.
A community counseling agency is a group therapy practice that offers affordable mental health services. Most are independent non-profit agencies, state agencies, or publicly-funded agencies. A few may restrict who is eligible for services, so it is a good idea to check when you call.
Community counseling agencies are generally more affordable than other therapy providers, but how much more affordable they are will depend on whether you qualify for a discount or sliding scale fee (or if they accept your insurance). Many, but not all, have a policy that they won't turn away anyone due to inability to pay. You should ask about their fees when you first call.
Expect to talk to kind people who want to help you find the care you need. Most community agencies strive to connect you with a live person within 24 hours, if not immediately. If you're asked to hold or leave a message, don't give up; just leave a message and wait. You should hear back pretty quickly.
Most agencies try to set up an initial assessment appointment within a week (some do within 24 hours), though the waitlist to start therapy is usually longer—about a few weeks on average. If you're not eligible or if the agency is not right for you, it's usually still worth it to call or drop in, because staff are knowledgeable about local options and can often refer you to one.