Services

We offer a variety of services extended to persons of all ages from infancy through adulthood. The following is a partial listing of services:

• Array of Individual and Group Psychotherapy Services including specialty services (e.g. Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, Personality Disorders, Developmental Disabilities, etc.)
• Family Therapy
• Couples Therapy
• Stress Management/Relaxation Training
• Behavior Management
• Parent Management Training

The clinic offers some of the most comprehensive selection of Psychological Assessment, Testing, and Evaluation in the area. These services include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Diagnostic
• Neuropsychoglogical Testing (Cerebral Dysfunctions)
• Intellectual Testing
• Psychoeducational Testing (Learning Problems)
• Personality

The clinic offers some of the most comprehensive selection of Psychological Assessment, Testing, and Evaluation in the area. These services include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Diagnostic
• Neuropsychological Testing (ADHD, Concussion and other forms of Traumatic Brain Injury, Dementia, Epilepsy, Stroke, Mild Cognitive Impairment)
• Intellectual Testing
• Psychoeducational Testing (Learning Problems such as Dyslexia/Reading Disorders, Written Language Disorders, and Mathematics Disorders)
• Personality

Psychological Consulting Services (PCS) specializes in providing on-site behavioral consultation and intervention for individuals of all ages with significant cognitive impairment (i.e. mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and head injuries) who have challenging or problematic behaviors or mental health issues which are not appropriate for traditional service delivery. PCS consultants work with both the individuals and their caretakers and the organizations who are involved with these individuals to develop individualized behavior plans and interventions. PCS services address a broad range of difficulties including (but not limited to):

• Mental health issues such as depression, conduct problems or anxiety
• Physical aggression problems related to psychological disturbances
• Ineffective coping strategies
• Interpersonal and social difficulties
• Self-injurious behaviors
• Maladaptive sexual behavior

The Child and Adolescent Services of the Penn State Psychological Clinic is one of the primary providers of School-Based Mental Health Services within Centre County. School-Based Mental Health Services refer to a variety of mental health interventions implemented within the school setting. To date, these interventions have included mobile therapy with children and adolescents; behavioral consultation with teachers, counselors, principals and other school personnel; group therapy with children and adolescents; and in service workshops to school personnel on various mental health topics (e.g. grief and loss, self-esteem, coping with family dysfunction).

PCS consultants work together with the individual as well as the caretakers and organizations that are involved to understand the difficulties and their causes. PCS consultants then make specific recommendations in the form of behavior plans, often focused on recommendations for change at multiple levels. Interventions may be provided to the individual and/or to caretakers and organizations and may include (but not limited to):

• Individually focused interventions such as relaxation training, anger management training, assertiveness and social skills training, sexuality counseling, emotional expression skills, and supportive person-centered therapeutic interventions.
• Family focused interventions such as education and training in parenting skills, development of behavior management skills and plans, family communications skills, family therapeutic interventions.
• Organization focused interventions with school personnel and human service personnel such as education regarding mental health issues, training in behavior management skills and the specific monitoring of these plans.
• Assessment and diagnostic services such as intellectual, psychoeducational and personality testing.

Accurate diagnosis is a prerequisite towards choosing an appropriate treatment.  We work to ensure valid diagnostic information for all patients through use of very detailed and reliable interviews during the first sessions of treatment.  However, not all mental health concerns are clear cut, and certain situations may require additional attention in order to determine the best way to conceptualize a person’s problem.  Therefore, we occassionally get requests from individuals and/or other local mental health providers to help clarify diagnosis.  Depending on the nature of the question, this diagnostic process may range from a single session clinical interview to a more extensive evaluation incorporating clinical interviews, administration of various psychological tests, and gathering information from past providers and/or important individuals in a person’s life. 

The clinic offers adult psychiatric services. These services include, but are not limited to psychiatric evaluation, medication management, and psychiatric consultation.

The Penn State Anxiety Clinic is a specialty clinic housed within the larger PSU Psychological Clinic and is specifically focused on the provision of state of the art anxiety-based assessment and treatment services for both child and adult clinical populations.  The Anxiety Clinic allows children/adolescents and families as well as individual adult clients who experience problems related to anxiety to receive comprehensive assessment and treatment services in a timely and efficient manner. 

For Professionals/PSU Clinical Doctoral Students

The Anxiety Clinic specialty clinic that is housed within the larger PSU Psychological Clinic provides state of the art assessment and treatment services for the entire range of Anxiety Disorders. It also serves as a unique training opportunity for graduate students in the clinical doctoral training program at PSU to receive training with structured diagnostic interviews, provides the opportunity to become part of an assessment and treatment team that focuses on issues related specifically to anxiety disorders (both child and adult), and affords direct training in the provision of empirically-validated anxiety treatment protocols. The Anxiety Clinic provides the Penn State Clinical faculty, Psychological Clinic staff, and doctoral students in clinical psychology with the unique opportunity to collect and analyze data relating to the treatment of anxiety disorders in a community-based mental health setting in order to enhance current etiological conceptualizations of anxiety-based disorders to further maximize the ongoing development of more efficacious psychotherapies.