Psychological Services Center
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) is a community mental health agency affiliated with the Psychology Department of Colorado State University (CSU). PSC offers therapy and psychological evaluation services for children, adolescents, adults, couples and families to members of the Fort Collins community.
Services are provided by advanced graduate students with doctoral-level training in the provision of counseling and psychological evaluation services. Many of our therapists also have experience in the mental health and related fields prior to training at PSC. All of our therapists are supervised by staff psychologists.
Our commitment as an agency is assisting individuals, couples, families, children and adolescents become equipped with the tools necessary to address difficulties that may be affecting their well-being, relationships, and academic or professional functioning. Our staff members strive to create a safe environment in which a variety of such issues can be shared and explored.
PSC values diversity and will not discriminate or refuse to provide services to anyone on the basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status or disability.
The director of PSC is Michael Brinker.
The Graduate Program in Counseling Psychology at Colorado State University has full accreditation from the American Psychological Association. (Committee on Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington DC 20002-424; (202) 336-5979).
For additional information please contact us at (970) 491-5212. The PSC has moved!! We are now located at 700 South Mason Street on the northeast side of the CSU campus. Our offices are in Sage Hall, which is along the Max bus route just south of the Laurel Station. We also have an office at the Gifford Building room 119 on CSU’s campus.
Therapy Services:
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) staff therapists have training and background in providing Individual, Couples, and Family Therapy services with a variety of presenting concerns. Specifically, therapy services are offered in the following areas:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Social Skills Training
- Bipolar Disorder
- Drug and Alcohol
- Eating Disorders
- Self-Esteem
- Family of Origin Issues
- Parent-Child Difficulties
- Relationship Difficulties, including Marriage, Couples, and Family Therapy
- Vocational Development and Career-Related Concerns
- Lifestyle Interventions for Everyone (LIFE) geared toward weight management, smoking cessation, pain management, and other health behaviors
- General Psychological Well-Being and Personal Growth
Assessment Services:
PSC offers a wide range of Psychological Evaluation Services. Psychological evaluations are conducted to assess for the possible presence of a psychological disorder which may be influencing an individual’s personal, professional or academic performance and functioning.
- Emotional Functioning
- Asperger’s and Autism
- Learning Disabilities
- Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
- Neurological Impairment
- Cognitive Assessment
- Personality Assessment
- Developmental Disabilities
PSC also offers Vocational Assessment services, which examine how various aspects of an individual’s work personality match with various occupations and work environments.
For Older Adult Assessment services please visit the Aging Clinic of the Rockies.
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) provides individual, couples, and family therapy services to address a variety of presenting concerns.
Individual therapy
Individual therapy consists of meeting one-on-one with a therapist and exploring issues relevant to your presenting concern. You will be encouraged to reflect on your behaviors, thoughts, emotional expression, and relationship patterns to gain insight into your presenting concern and potential ways to bring about change in your life. You will also be presented with opportunities to make and evaluate changes and provided with tools to maintain these changes.
Couples therapy
Couples therapy involves attending sessions together as a couple with an emphasis on evaluating your relationship concerns. Your therapist will work with you to increase understanding of the dynamics in your relationship and potential changes to increase your satisfaction with your relationship. You can expect to have a chance to practice new behaviors during your sessions and to apply these behaviors to your interactions between sessions.
Family therapy
Family therapy focuses on the relationships between all members of a family with an emphasis on decreasing familial strife and increasing effective communication and interactions. Your therapist will work with you to assess and understand the dynamics of your family and assist you in implementing strategies tailored to addressing your particular needs and concerns.
Child/adolescent therapy
Child/adolescent therapy assists children or adolescents in addressing the emotional or psychological concerns that affect their daily lives and relationships. Your therapist will work to provide a safe and supportive environment in which your child or adolescent can explore their presenting concerns and gain tools for effective communication and emotional expression. Your therapist is likely to recommend strategies to implement at home to provide opportunities for the tools your child or adolescent is learning in therapy to be transferred to other settings. Behavioral modification programs may also be implemented to decrease problematic behaviors and increase effective behaviors.
Our mission is to empower individuals in our community to bring about meaningful change in their lives by providing free substance use treatment services.
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) provides Substance Use Services for adolescents, young adults, and adults aged 21 or older. Substance use evaluations, individual therapy, and group therapy are offered to address presenting substance use concerns. These services are designed to support any goals related to substance use, including sobriety, abstinence, moderation management, and harm reduction.
All services are covered by Medicaid or at no cost through a grant from Larimer County. This grant is currently set to expire on December 31, 2024. Continued free services following this date are contingent upon the renewal of this grant.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Individual therapy consists of meeting one-on-one with a therapist and exploring the issues relevant to your presenting substance use concerns. You will be encouraged to reflect on your behaviors, thoughts, emotional expression, substance use patterns, relationships, and goals to gain insight into your concern and potential ways to bring about desired changes in your life. You will also be presented with opportunities to make and evaluate changes, and develop tools to maintain these changes.
GROUP THERAPY
Group therapy consists of meeting with group facilitator(s) and other people with similar concerns to explore issues together and provide mutual support, insight, and understanding. Groups are offered for both adolescents and adults, and can include elements of processing issues, education about substance use and its effects, activities, and developing coping skills. Walk-ins are accepted for groups, but please arrive at the PSC 30 minutes prior to the group time for a brief check in process. Otherwise, please call the PSC to set up a check in time by phone.
Groups Currently Offered:
- Sobriety Support: for individuals maintaining or seeking sobriety from substances
- Harm Reduction: for individuals seeking to reduce the harms their substance use is causing
Group Dates and Times:
- Adolescents and Young Adults:
- To be announced
- Adults aged 21+
- Sobriety Support: Wednesdays 6 -7 pm
- Harm Reduction: Mondays 6-7pm
SUBSTANCE USE EVALUATIONS
A substance use evaluation is a diagnostic process consisting of meeting one-on-one with a therapist to assess the patterns, severity, impacts, and issues surrounding your substance use concerns.
PSC offers a wide range of psychological evaluation services. Psychological evaluations are conducted to assess for the possible presence of a psychological disorder which may be influencing an individual’s personal, professional or academic performance and functioning. Our evaluations feature extensive psychological testing and culminate in a thorough evaluation report including diagnoses and recommendations.
Learning Disability assessments consist of evaluating your educational history, understanding current and past performance in academic or educational environments, and conducting testing related to cognitive abilities and achievement. The tests conducted will be selected based on your specific concerns. Your counselor may also recommend additional testing to rule out other possible problems that may be contributing to difficulties in the academic or educational environment.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments evaluate attentional processes and their influence on academic, professional, and/or daily functioning. Clients seeking this type of assessment can expect cognitive ability and achievement testing, as well as reports about past and present symptoms and difficulties. Your counselor may also seek information from other individuals (e.g., teachers, caregivers, significant others) regarding educational, attentional, and other difficulties.
Autism Spectrum Disorder assessments focus particularly on social skills deficits with an emphasis on determining whether an Autism Spectrum disorder best accounts for these difficulties. Multiple possible disorders can lead to social skills deficits, and your counselor will collect a detailed history and provide specific testing recommendations. You can expect cognitive and social abilities to be a main focus of this type of assessment.
Child Behavioral/Emotional assessments are conducted with children experiencing complex behavioral and emotional symptoms. After gathering a detailed history, your counselor will make specific recommendations about testing based on possible diagnoses that may account for your child’s specific difficulties.
Cognitive assessment provides information related to intellectual functioning, with a particular emphasis on factors related to various aspects of intelligence. If mental retardation is a potential diagnosis, your counselor is likely to recommend additional testing related to adaptive functioning.
Neuropsychological assessments collect information related to neuropsychological functioning, including memory, cognition, language, learning, and other behaviors influenced by brain functioning. The specific battery of tests conducted will depend on your individual needs. In addition, please note that these assessments are not substitutes for neurological exams, which are likely to include brain imaging and are conducted by neurologists.
Personality assessment consists of evaluating current general psychological and emotional functioning, as well as identifying personality characteristics that are likely to influence long-standing behavioral patterns. Projective and/or objective measures may be employed to obtain a thorough understanding of your personality.
Getting Started
In order to ensure the most efficient services possible, please call ahead and schedule an appointment with one of our staff. Our phone number is (970) 491-5212. Messages left at this number are confidential and will be returned by a member of the Psychological Services Center (PSC) administrative staff. After providing contact information and reasons for your call, you will be contacted by one of our assistant directors who will provide information about our services that relate to your needs, and can answer any questions you may have about the services or process.
Please be aware that we may have a wait list, and that you will be contacted about your status periodically. If we do not have a staff member available within your time frame, we will assist you in finding the service that you need.
As soon as possible, you will be contacted by a therapist trained in your area of concern. This therapist will schedule an initial appointment for you. From that point on, you will work with your therapist to establish and work toward your goals.
The Initial Appointment
When you arrive for your appointment, you will first be asked to spend a half hour completing written forms that will assist us in providing services for you. During the initial appointment, a member of our counseling staff will meet you to discuss how we can help you. This counselor will work with you to set goals and provide recommendations within our agency that best address these goals. If it is determined that an alternative agency would be better able to meet your goals, your counselor will assist you in seeking out the most appropriate services.
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) offers services on a sliding scale fee schedule. This means that the charges for all services are adjusted to take into account the family size and the annual income of clients. Fees are determined during your follow-up phone call from our assistant directors.
Individual, family, and couples therapy fees are charged per session, which is typically a 50-minute session for individual therapy and a 75-90 minute session for couples and family therapy, depending on your individual needs. Payment is expected at the time of service.
Psychological evaluation fees are also determined based on a sliding fee schedule. Fees for evaluations are typically expected to be paid in full by the first testing session.
Full-time students at Colorado State University (CSU) or Front Range Community College (FRCC) interested in therapy services at the PSC would be charged a standard rate of $15/hour.
One of your most important rights as a client involves confidentiality. Within certain limits, information revealed by you during therapy sessions will be kept strictly confidential. It will not be revealed to any other person or agency without your written consent.
You should also know that there are certain times when, as a mental health professional, your counselor is required by law to reveal information obtained during therapy to other persons or agencies without your consent. Also, your counselor is not required to inform you of such actions in this regard. Even so, he or she will most likely discuss with you such potential disclosures before they are made. The times when your counselor must reveal information to other persons or agencies are as follows:
- If you threaten grave bodily harm or death to another person, your counselor is required by law to take reasonable care to protect that other person. This may include telling the intended victim and/or appropriate law enforcement agencies.
- If you indicate a serious intention to harm yourself, your counselor will take steps to prevent such harm from occurring.
- If a court order is issued, your counselor is required by law to provide the information specifically described by the court (unless an appeal is filed).
- If there is reasonable cause to believe that a child or “at risk adult” may be abused or neglected, your counselor is required by law to report this to the Department of Social Services or the local law enforcement agency. “Abuse or neglect” means an act or omission on the part of any person which seriously threatens the health or welfare of the child or “at risk adult”. This includes abuse that is occurring now or that has occurred in the past.
Please feel free to discuss confidentiality and its limits with your counselor during your initial appointment or at any point thereafter.
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) does not provide after-hours or emergency coverage.
If you have an emergency or need after-hours care, please call 911 or Poudre Valley Hospital at 495-7000.
If you are currently experiencing an emergency or crisis please call 911 or The Colorado Crisis Services at 1-844-493-8255.
The PSC has moved!! We are now located at 700 South Mason Street on the northeast side of the CSU campus. Our offices are in Sage Hall, which is along the Max bus route just south of the Laurel Station.
The Psychological Services Center
Sage Hall
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876
Telephone: (970) 491-5212
Fax: (970) 491-3380
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) is located in Sage Hall on the Colorado State University (CSU) campus.
If you have questions, or need more information, please call us at 970-491-5212.
