IPFW Community Counseling Center
Our approach
As counselors, we are dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families deal more effectively with their concerns. We respect the rights of clients and adhere to a strict ethical code. A central tenet of our ethical code is maintaining client confidentiality as mandated by law.
Indiana law requires all counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to report child abuse. We must also tell authorities if clients become a danger to themselves or others.
We extend services to everyone, regardless of race, sex, religion, gender preference, or national origin. We believe that individual growth and development are best nurtured in the context of environmental and family relationships.
For more information write to: Ethical Standards, National Board for Certified Counselors, #3-D Terrace Way, Greensboro NC 27403.
Services
The IPFW Counseling Center offers help for individuals (adults and children), couples, and families experiencing personal problems, adjustment reactions, or career-counseling concerns. Typical client issues include:
- Relationships issues
- Self-concepts enhancement
- Time management
- School problems
- Family and martial counseling
- Depression/anxiety disorders
- Assertiveness training
- Career counseling
- Parenting and child discipline
- Coping with loss
- Remarriage and step-family issues
- Stress reduction
- Life adjustments problems
Fees
Sessions are free of charge. The IPFW Counseling Center is the primary training center for graduate students-in-training. Most sessions are observed by a faculty supervisor and another student. Each evening, the professional team discusses how to provide the best services possible. In the last decade, IPFW faculty and counseling students earned two national and nine statewide awards for excellence. The program has both state and national accreditation.
Who should attend?
Parents/guardians must accompany children on their first visit. A determination will be made during the first session regarding who will attend counseling to best serve the child’s needs.
Appointments
To arrange an appointment or make a referral to the IPFW Counseling Center, call 260-481-5405. Sessions are available by scheduled appointment, Monday 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. All inquiries are treated confidentially.
Location
The IPFW Counseling Center has recently moved to the Dolnick Learning Center on the State Developmental Center campus.
IPFW Community Counseling Center
Client Information
Services
The IPFW Community Counseling Center offers help for individuals (in individual, couple, and family settings) who are experiencing personal problems, adjustment reactions, or career counseling concerns. Typical client concerns include the following:
- Personal problems
- Relationship issues
- Family/Marriage relationship problems
- Parenting needs/Child discipline problems
- Remarriage and stepfamily issues
- School problems
- Life adjustment problems
- Depression/Anxiety disorders
- Difficulty managing stress
- Difficulty coping with loss
- Low self-esteem
- Career counseling concerns
- Poor time-management
- Lack assertiveness skills
Fees
Sessions are free of charge. The IPFW Counseling Center is the primary training center for graduate students-in-training. Most sessions are observed by a faculty supervisor and another student. Each evening, the professional team discusses how to provide the best services possible. In the last decade, IPFW faculty and counseling students earned two national and nine statewide awards for excellence. The program has both state and national accreditation.
Making Appointments
To arrange an appointment or make a referral to the IPFW Counseling Center, call 260-481-5405. Sessions are available by scheduled appointment, Mondays 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. and Tuesday - Wednesday evenings between 5:30 and 8:00 p.m. All inquiries are treated confidentially.
Who Should Attend
Parents/guardians must accompany children under the age of 18, on their first visit. A determination will be made during the first session regarding who will attend counseling to best serve the child’s needs.
Our Approach
As counselors, we are dedicated to helping individuals, couples, and families deal more effectively with their concerns. We function within the guidelines of our professional code of ethics and maintain a focus on the rights of our clients. We do not discriminate against anyone for any reason, including race, sex, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin. We believe that individual growth and development are best nurtured in the context of environmental and family relationships.
For more information about code of ethics, client rights, and/or confidentiality contact the IPFW Community Counseling Center, the American School Counselors Association (www.schoolcounselor.org) or the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (http://www.aamft.org/index_nm.asp).
Confidentiality
As counselors, we respect the rights of clients and adhere to a strict ethical code. A central tenet of our ethical code is maintaining client confidentiality as mandated by law. Any information you share cannot be released to anyone without your written consent. The only exception that may occur is where Indiana law requires counselors, psychologists, psychiatrist, marriage/family therapists, and social workers to break confidentiality. These areas include when clients are a danger to themselves or others, or when there is evidence of child abuse. Counselors are also required to break confidentiality when required by court to release information. For more information you may contact the American School Counselors Association or the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
Policies
Cancellations and Missed Appointments
As a client at the IPFW Community Counseling Center, it is important that you attempt to keep all of your scheduled appointments. There is a high demand for our free services and we often have a significant waiting list. If you need to cancel, please call your counselor or the clinic manager. If you do not show up for a scheduled appointment and your counselor cannot get in touch with you to confirm your next appointment, your time slot may be given to someone else on the waiting list. Therefore, if you miss an appointment, please contact your counselor or the clinic manager to confirm your next appointment. If you miss three appointments, we must give your appointment time to someone else on the waiting list. Counseling has the best results when a client consistently comes to his/her appointments. We hope we can work together to make this a beneficial experience for you.
Contacting Your Counselor
If you need to contact your counselor to cancel an appointment or if you have an emergency, call (260) 481-5405. To leave a message for your counselor, follow the prompts:
- Press 1 to leave a message for the clinic manager.
- Press 2 if your appointments are on Mondays.
- Press 3 if your appointments are on Tuesday nights.
- Press 4 if your appointments are on Wednesday nights.
If you have an emergency that cannot wait, you can call St. Joseph Behavioral Health at (260) 425-3606 or Parkview Behavioral Health at 260-373-7602.
Clients Who are Minors
Clients under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a legal guardian for the initial session. The legal guardian must sign the “Consent for Treatment" and "Custody Addendum" forms before counseling can begin.
Video Camera
A video camera is used to record counseling sessions. A supervisor (a licensed counselor or therapist) monitors the sessions either live via a television in a different room, or by viewing the recorded session. This is a teaching tool used to help train the counseling student. The recordings are not viewed by anyone outside of the counseling team and are never taken out of the clinic. Recordings are always destroyed in less than 2 weeks.
Parking
Free parking is available at the Dolnick Learning Center. Please feel free to park in the areas marked “college parking”. Handicapped parking is also available.
Possession of Drugs, Alcohol, or Weapons
IPFW policy prohibits the possession of drugs, alcohol, or weapons on its property.
Faculty Supervisors
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James Burg, Ph.D., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Mental Health Counselor. Associate Professor and Chair of Professional Studies Department.
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Kerrie Fineran, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Coordinator of School Counseling track.
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Stephanie Furnas, M.S., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Adjunct Professor in the Counselor Education Program.
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Benjamin Houltberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Marriage & Family Therapy track.
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David Jolliff, Ph.D., Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Adjunct Professor in the Counselor Education Program.
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Amy Nitza, Ph.D. Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Associate Professor and Director of Counselor Education.
Contact Information for Client Services
Community Counseling Center
Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne
2101 E. Coliseum Boulevard
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805-1499
Clinic Manager: 260-481-5405, ext. 1
Contact your counselor: 260-481-5405
Location
The clinic is in the Dolnick Learning Center on the former Fort Wayne State Developmental Center campus. Free visitor parking is available. For a map of the location, click here.
IPFW Community Counseling Center
Program Philosophy & Systemic Approach
IPFW Marriage and Family students are immersed in systemic approaches, which target the relationships in and among family members. These approaches provide our students with a heightened sense of awareness regarding the impact of the "system" on the individual family and vice versa. Such approaches have many practical advantages for helping families in need.
How Clinic Hours Benefit Students
The IPFW Counseling program provides ample opportunity to practice and prepare for implementation of learned approaches. School Counselors participate in two semesters of practicum and the Marriage and Family students participate in practicum throughout the entire second year of training, amounting more than 100 hours of individual and group supervised experiences from a licensed instructor.
Through this process students are provided the opportunity to interact with "real life" clients in a highly structured, closely supervised environment.
Closed circuit video and state of the art technology provide our students with mechanisms for viewing and reviewing live sessions as well as receiving "real time" feedback while working with clients.
IPFW Community Counseling Center
Donor Information
Clinic Donations
At the IPFW Community Counseling Center, therapy is provided at no charge, an average of 120 client families, representing more than 200 individual clients a year for the past six years.
Seventy percent of our clients are children. Typical childhood issues treated are poor self-concept, divorce, death of a parent, suicidal tendencies or threats, poor parent-child communication, difficulty in forming friendships, previous sexual abuse, and difficulty in adjusting to a new school.
Adult issues treated are coping with terminal illness, adjusting to retirement, career counseling, marital issues, post traumatic syndrome, alcoholism and sexual abuse.
The Need
The IPFW Community Counseling Center is in the Dolnick Building on the former Fort Wayne State Developmental Center campus. The current condition of the building is very sterile, institutional and requires a transformation into a warm, comfortable and professional setting making it more conducive to successful therapy.
The Solution
Students from the Interior Design Program and Counselor Education will collaborate and perform the necessary work to transform each of the clinic’s 13 counseling rooms, hallway and waiting room. The collaboration will provide credit opportunities for Interior Design students and real life learning opportunities. This proposed solution maximizes the limited resources available for the community counseling center.
Estimated Expenses
- Waiting Room: $300
- Counseling Rooms (13 @ $169/ea.): $2,200
- Classsrooms (2 @ $250/ea.): $500
- Total: $3,000
Sponsor A Room Program
For a donation of $1,000, you can sponsor a “makeover” for one of the counseling rooms. The room will be transformed from a sterile, institutional décor, to a warm, comfortable, home style décor that will help clients feel at ease and impact the therapy process.
The room will be named by you, and a plaque with your name will be posted.
Smaller donations are also welcome and help us to maintain our supply of therapeutic books, games, and play therapy supplies.
All gifts are tax deductible.
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd.
