LEXINGTON, Ky. — The cost of receiving mental health care services can be a barrier for many people. The University of Kentucky has a mental health clinic that gives doctoral students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience while offering high-quality and low-cost care to patients.
The Harris Center is a clinic where second- through fourth-year psychology students in UK’s doctoral program work with clients.
“My goal’s really been to increase the breadth and depth of training that the students get so creating new training opportunities for students, like, different group therapies, but also expanding the services that we’re able to offer to the community,” said Amber Billingsley, the director of the Harris Center.
Billingsley has been at the clinic since Aug. 2023.
Each student has a caseload of one to five patients depending on experience, and this is under the guidance of licensed psychologists.
“It’s been a really great learning experience,” said Nicole Stumpp, the assistant director of the Harris Center and a fourth-year student. “I get to interact with patients in a much higher threshold than I would just being a therapist here and I get to see a lot of, like, the behind-the-scenes decision making as assistant director.”
While most patients do in-person sessions, the clinic also offers telehealth. This helps Kentuckians in rural areas, like eastern Kentucky, get access to low-cost mental health care.
The Harris Center offers a sliding scale fee. Appointments range from $10 to $50. Billingsley says that they don’t turn people away who can’t afford care, so sessions have been charged as low as $1.
Services include group and individual therapy, along with a mental health crisis after-hours call line.
The clinic has started up five new group therapy sessions that it’s trialing this semester, which include support for social anxiety, coping with depression, and parenting skills.