Santa Barbara City College’s School of Extended Learning Kickstarts Free Mental Health Counseling Program
Mina Wahab
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Yolanda Yturralde is excited for students to get the help they need.
“This is an opportunity for older adults to finally receive services and not have to worry about insurance,” said Yturralde, who is the Mental Health Cancer at Santa Barbara City College’s Wake Center.
On both the Schott and Wake campuses students will be able to access free one-on-one sessions.
“The students who have come to see me, are just in shock that it’s free. They’re grateful and some have said that they’ve done some deep work that they hadn’t done in 25 years,” said Yturralde.
“If students don’t have insurance, particularly, an hour of, your counseling session could cost more than $100. And that is out of reach for many of our students,” saidthe School of Extended Learning’s Vice President and Assistant Superintendent Carola Smith.
Smith says the new services will help students identify roadblocks toward academic, career, relationship, and personal success.
“Oftentimes we see that our adult learners are kind of juggling many different responsibilities. They may have family responsibilities. They may oftentimes have different more than one job. so it’s really important to create a welcoming and nurturing environment so that they can succeed,” said Smith.
The services help with stress management skills, emotional support, and general life management skills.
“Therapy is for everyone. And I always tell people if they come in because of specific trauma and they resolve that, they usually go on to start to dream about how they want to make their life better. And we end up doing a few sessions just to expand on what’s already good. And sometimes people end up going in a totally different direction with their work or recreational or social and emotional issues,” said Yturralde.
Students can make an appointment by calling the school of extended learning mental health counseling.
“It’s just a way to expand your life and have more of what you want,” said Yturralde.