What's New in the Clinic?

• Continuing Education Opportunities

What is the GSU Psychology Clinic?

The Georgia State University (GSU) Psychology Clinic is a training facility for the GSU Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, which is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association. The Psychology Clinic offers psychological assessment, prevention, and treatment services to the GSU and metropolitan Atlanta communities. In addition to service delivery and clinical training, the Clinic provides clinicians and faculty with opportunities for supervision and clinical research.

What Clinical Services are Offered?

The Psychology Clinic offers high quality, psychological treatment and assessment services to the community provided by doctoral and postdoctoral level clinicians supervised by licensed psychologists. The clinic provides confidential and personalized services that are sensitive to issues of diversity. Treatment is provided within a range of theoretical orientations including cognitive-behavioral, humanistic-existential, psychodynamic, and systemic.

Therapy services include:

• Individual Psychotherapy
• Couple Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Child Services
• Parent Training
• Group Therapy

Assessment services include evaluations for:

• Learning Disability
• Intelligence/school achievement
• Neuropsychological functioning
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Emotional/interpersonal functioning
• Behavioral problems

Who is Eligible to Receive Services?

Assessment and treatment are available for adults, adolescents, and children. Members of the metropolitan Atlanta community as well as Georgia State University’s students, staff, alumni, and faculty are eligible.

What is Psychotherapy?

The term "psychotherapy" is used in many different contexts, and its implied meaning often reflects the values and beliefs inherent to a specific setting or may suggest a particular philosophy or theoretical orientation. In general, however, psychotherapy attempts to help clients develop more awareness of their interpersonal style and behavioral patterns, and then actively design explicit strategies for making desired changes. For example, sometimes psychotherapy focuses on how one’s current behavior is influenced by thought patterns as well as previously learned behavior. Other times, psychotherapy helps bring unconscious thoughts, feelings and motives into awareness in order for the individual to experience a more integrated sense of self, engage in more purposeful behavior, and feel less controlled by external circumstances.

Most forms of psychotherapy emphasize the importance of the relationship between the client and the therapist in influencing important interpersonal change and personal growth. Thus, the concepts of trust, confidentiality, and empathy are important components of the therapeutic relationship. The common goal of most types of psychotherapy is to help the client resolve those issues that might interfere with the client’s ability to live life more fully and to achieve greater life satisfaction.

What Kinds of Difficulties Often Lead One to Seek Psychological Services?

Many people seek services when they are highly distressed and their ability to cope has been greatly challenged by stressful situations or by symptoms/behaviors that are problematic. Thus, conditions such as depression, anxiety, excessive fears, eating disorders, and chronic sleep difficulties suggest the need for psychological consultation. Also, strained relationships, school failure, parenting difficulties, loss of a parent, or other stressful occurrences often suggest the potential usefulness of psychotherapy.

Sometimes, individuals seek therapy to learn to cope with feelings associated with long-term issues such as childhood abuse, psychological or physical trauma, parental divorce, school achievement problems, or the lack of affection and nurturance during childhood.

Others initiate therapy when they become aware that their current relationships may be affected by ineffective communication and interpersonal styles. Also, many individuals find psychotherapy helpful in increasing their self-awareness or life satisfaction by clarifying their goals, becoming more aware of emotional needs and feelings, and addressing developmental tasks of life through the support of a therapeutic relationship.

What is Group Therapy?

Many of the personal problems individuals face stem from both past and current relationships with others, and how they feel about those relationships. The quality of one’s relationships often directly affects one’s life satisfaction and adjustment. Group therapy gives participants an opportunity to sort out questions and concerns about their relationships in a supportive and highly interactive setting.

What Services are Offered for Children, Families, and Couples?

Services for children experiencing behavioral/achievement difficulties at school or at home may include individual therapy, family counseling, parent training, psychological assessment, consultation, and other interventions. Family therapy is offered for such issues as ongoing family conflict, sibling competition, concerns of blended families, unique demands experienced by single parent families, and adjustment to divorce. Couples therapy is available for relational partners working on communication issues, conflict resolution, sexual dysfunction, and intimacy concerns. This type of therapy is often a helpful mode of intervention for pre-commitment couples.

What are the Fees?

Individual, couples, family, and group therapy services are offered at a low cost to all members of the metropolitan Atlanta community. GSU students, faculty, staff and alumni qualify for special fees. Specific fee information for therapy services may be obtained by contacting the clinic at 404-413-6229.

Comprehensive psychological evaluations to assess learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and cognitive and emotional concerns are offered for $700.00. If total family income is less than $30,000.00, the charge for a comprehensive evaluation is $500.00 (documentation required.)

How Does One Initiate Services?

Therapy services. If interested in therapy services, a potential client should contact the clinic at 404-413-6229. (Because of confidentiality, the Clinic does not accept referrals via e-mail.) The caller will then receive some information about the clinic’s services, and will be asked to leave their name and telephone number so that an intake counselor can call the potential client back to discuss the suitability of the clinic’s services for the caller’s needs.

If it appears that the clinic can provide the needed services, the potential client is scheduled to go to the clinic to complete initial paperwork which includes a treatment consent form, application, and psychological questionnaires. The potential client is then scheduled for an intake interview with a clinician. The cost for the intake is $30.00.

Approximately 1 week after the intake, the potential client is notified as to whether the clinic will be able to provide the services needed by the potential client. If so, the client will also be notified of his/her assigned clinician, and an initial appointment for therapy services is determined. If at any point during this process it is determined that the clinic cannot meet the needs of the potential client, appropriate referrals are provided.

Assessment services. For assessment services, potential clients may contact the coordinator of the Assessment Service at 404-413-6229 to inquire about the availability of and their suitability for assessment services. (Because of confidentiality, the Clinic does not accept referrals via e-mail.) Due to the high demand for this service, there is often a waiting list.

Persons interested in assessment services must complete an application, which may be mailed to one’s home address or obtained in-person at the Clinic. Completed applications must be returned to the clinic with a deposit check of $100.00. If one has undergone previous psychological testing, copies of these reports may be enclosed with the application for services. (Current students in the University System of Georgia should contact the Regents Center for Learning Disorders).

Clinic staff contacts a potential client to review the application for services. Subsequently, a clinician contacts a potential client to schedule appointments for the assessment. Typically, assessments take approximately 8 hours and are conducted over 2 to 3 consecutive appointments.

Approximately 2 weeks after completion of the assessment, the clinician, as well as the licensed psychologist who is supervising the case, meet with the client(s) to provide verbal feedback about the testing results.

A written copy of the assessment report is available approximately 2 to 3 weeks following the feedback session.

Where is the Clinic?

The Psychology Clinic is located on the 10th floor in the Urban Life Building, Suite 1053. The Urban Life Building is at the corner of Decatur Street and Piedmont Avenue across from the GSU Sports Arena. There are several commercial parking lots around the campus.

What are the Hours of Operation?

Monday, Tuesday: 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Wednesday, Thursday: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
First Friday of the month: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Clinic is closed on university holidays, and has limited hours of operation for clinical services during semester breaks. The Clinic does not offer after hours services.

How to Contact the Clinic?

Telephone: 404-413-6229

Mailing Address: Psychology Clinic, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University; POB 5010; Atlanta, GA 30302-5010

Psychology Clinic Links

Regents Center for Learning Disorders
Counseling Center