WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – The University of Kansas is in its seventh year of offering free online therapy to adults across the state through its counseling psychology training program.
The KU Positive Psychotherapy Clinic provides weekly telehealth therapy appointments at no cost to clients. The program is staffed by master’s and doctoral students and serves approximately 250 clients per year, with weekly sessions over nine weeks.
Openings are available as early as March.
Program rooted in positive psychology
Elisabeth England, a doctoral student and lab coordinator for the clinic, said the program takes a balanced approach to treatment.
“Yes, we want to acknowledge the areas that you’re struggling, we want to acknowledge the places where you really want to improve, but we also want to capitalize on all of the areas that are going well,” England said.
England said the approach has helped clients become more comfortable with the process.
“It’s fun to be able to see that transformation from very timid, walls up to ‘oh okay, it’s just like I’m having coffee with Elisabeth, and we’re talking about something hard,’” she said.
Growth since 2020 launch
Brian Cole, an associate professor at the University of Kansas, helped launch the program in 2020. He said the clinic has served 400 clients, logged approximately 3,000 hours of free therapy, and trained 60 counselors and psychologists, with 25 more set to begin next month.
“We take time to understand the problems and what’s been going on for folks, but we also really emphasize the need to identify your strengths to try to help you to set hopeful goals and to increase the positive emotion that you experience,” Cole said.
Cole said he views therapy as a practical resource.
“I tend to think about therapy as just another tool in the toolbox — another way that we can try to figure out how we’re moving through the world,” he said.
England said the program has also shaped her professional development.
“Having this balanced approach to therapy is something that I feel like is an invaluable lesson that I learned from the KU program,” she said.
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