Individual - 1 hour/week on-site during program hours with CLC Clinical Coordinator, an MFT CAMFT Certified Supervisor.

Group- 2 hours/week with CLC Program Director, an MFT CAMFT Certified Supervisor.

In addition to regularly scheduled individual and group supervision, supervisors and other clinically licensed staff members are available on site for consultation as needed.

The CLC field placement meets the California Board of Behavioral Science requirements for Marriage and Family Therapist trainee and intern clinical experience.

Program Site: CLC meets in space provided by the First Congregational Church of Berkeley at 2340 Durant St. (corner of Dana and Durant).

For more information:

Please contact the CLC Clinical Coordinator at 510-548-2269 or e-mail: clc@bonitahouse.org.

Program:

The Berkeley Creative Living Center (CLC) is a unique client-centered program based upon the needs of the members who attend it. While most of CLC's members have been diagnosed as having a mental illness, they vary greatly in background and ability. Some are homeless; some have graduate degrees. While some members are very articulate, others have symptoms which interfere with their ability to sustain a coherent conversation. Most are somewhere between these extremes. All, as a result of their mental illness, belong to one of the most disenfranchised, impoverished, and misunderstood segments of society.

CLC is a community in which people are accepted for who they are. The program structure is relatively open and requirements are minimal. This allows individuals to be involved with CLC in the way that best works for them. The goal of the CLC program is not to "cure" its members but to support them in more effectively living their lives with the greatest possible degree of independence. What matters most is how well a particular approach, whether traditional or non-traditional, meets the needs of the individual.

Staff counselors (MFT trainees and MFT interns) are an important part of the CLC staff. There are up to five positions available for a twelve month commitment with the possibility of extension (conditional upon the approval of the Program Director and Clinical Coordinator) for a second year. Openings occur at different times during the year, with most positions available during summer or fall.

Staff counselors do intake assessments and screenings, treatment planning, individual, group and milieu psychotherapy, and clinical record keeping. They may be involved in the CLC art therapy program. The flexible program structure offers opportunities to pursue special interests, create new groups, etc. It also requires that staff counselors be self-motivated, as well as able and willing to work with on-going ambiguity.

No matter what the population with which one may plan to eventually work, clinical experience with people who have severe and persistent psychiatric disabilities is invaluable. CLC offers a unique opportunity for learning from the very basic issues and psychodynamics present in major mental illness. Being on staff at CLC is also a constant challenge in terms of personal as well as professional concerns that continually arise. It is a good place for learning about boundary and role issues, and who one is as a therapist.

People living with major mental illnesses often have experienced being poorly treated by an impersonal system supposedly established to care for them, in addition to being misunderstood and rejected by society. Closely working with people facing such overwhelming difficulties can evoke feelings of anxiety, helplessness, depression, and self-doubt in would-be caregivers.

Individual and group supervision, staff meetings, and monthly inservices at CLC are designed to support exploration of these issues as they arise. It provides an appropriate place to work with the counselor's own process that gets stimulated by the work. Staff counselors are encouraged to view their experience at CLC in terms of personal as well as professional growth. Personal psychotherapy is encouraged as a very useful adjunct to CLC field placement. While this work is challenging, it can also be profoundly rewarding and transformative. Our interns have consistently told us their placement at CLC was one of the best parts of their graduate education.

The Berkeley Creative Living Center is a program of Bonita House Inc., a non-profit corporation founded in 1971 providing effective alternatives to psychiatric institutions.