By Charlene Crothers, Ph.D.
Conejo Counseling Center
About Conejo 'pioneer,' Mary Margaret Thomas
Recently the Ventura County Star published an article on the Community Counseling Center at California Lutheran University (CLU) and its outreach to the Conejo Valley.
To have this resource in our community is more than good fortune. I want to tell you how it began and about the person who initiated it as part of the master's degree program in marriage and family therapy.
In the late 1970s Dr. Mary Margaret Thomas, a faculty member at CLU, developed a graduate level program to meet state licensing requirements and to provide a superior professional education for those wishing to become marriage and family therapists. This highly selective program combined academic excellence with a strong theoretical component and research-knowledge. In addition, there was strong emphasis placed on the significance of communication and emotional patterns learned in families as a resource for healing.
By 1980 a university-based counseling center designed to provide low-cost counseling to the community was included as an integral part of the program. The Center began with a single counseling room in one of the original campus buildings and soon moved to a campus house. Dr. James Schmidt was clinical director of this program until 2002. Advanced students at CLU spend their final year at the Center under professional supervision providing low-cost counseling to the community. Supervision is by full-time and part-time counselors, thus the students are exposed to a wide range of perspectives and specialties.
Over the years the Center has provided more than 100 hours of counseling each week. The Center's clients include families, children and individuals. Services are provided at minimum cost based on the client's needs and ability to pay. Clients are referred by a variety of community agencies and institutions as well as many word of mouth referrals by clients themselves.
In no way does the center compete with established professionals in the community. Many states licensing boards require students to have a moderate amount of on-the-job-training, very few marriage and family therapy programs in the United States provide this integrative experience within the academic program. The CLU student therapists have an intensity of experience rarely available at this level and the community has the benefit of this important resource.
Bringing a program of this quality and developing it for more than 25 years is the work of Dr. Mary Margaret Thomas. Thank you Dr. Thomas for your vision, perseverance and hard work.