COUNSELING & GROUPS SERVICES
SARC’s mental health and healing services welcome survivors with warmth, kindness, and an understanding that taking the first step towards healing can be difficult. Our counselors have expertise in providing trauma-specific care to help survivors of sexual assault heal.
We offer no-cost individual counseling to individuals who:
- Are 15 years or older
- Live in Washington County (requirement for individual counseling only)
- Have been sexually assaulted in their adolescence or adulthood
- Wish to focus on sexual trauma recovery in their mental health treatment
To access our services:
- Please call the 24-Hour Support & Resource Line at 888-640-5311 for more information.
We believe people are not defined by our past events or experiences. We provide culturally responsive trauma informed care in a safe, healing environment for gentle exploration to help individuals find hope and decrease the impact of trauma. SARC’s mental health and healing services are dedicated to helping folks feel empowered and reconnected with their core selves.
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
Individual counseling is typically weekly for 50 minute sessions with your designated counselor. Together you will develop a treatment plan that fits your needs. The recovery of trauma is our primary goal, and we understand that interpersonal trauma can affect many areas of a survivor’s life. Our treatment approach is holistic, it emphasizes your strengths and choices, and strives to be culturally sensitive.
Intake Process
Beginning counseling at SARC starts with a phone conversation. A SARC counselor will talk to you on the phone to discuss the type of counseling that we provide here and to gather needed information from you. At the end of the phone intake, if you and the SARC counselor collaboratively agree that this program is a good fit, you will be placed on the waitlist for an available counselor.
Our Waitlist
Due to the holistic, trauma-specific care that we provide, our waitlist can be lengthy at times. It is difficult to provide an estimate for wait times, but a SARC counselor can help you find alternate resources or referrals if you need support in the interim or choose to pursue other options.
Initial Session
The first counseling appointment at SARC is usually 1½ hours to allow for time to go over paperwork and discuss treatment options. We allow ample time to provide a gentle approach for a comprehensive trauma assessment and collaborative treatment plan. Assessments include understanding how the sexual assault has impacted you, which trauma symptoms you may be experiencing, what types of coping strategies you have been using and which coping strategies you might want to try, which trauma-reprocessing and integration techniques might be helpful, and what your goals are for counseling.
Intake forms:
Treatment Authorization
Consent, and Acknowledgement Form
Symptom and Medical History Form
Client Information Sheet
SUPPORT GROUPS
SARC’s Mental Health Program offers a variety of groups. Support groups can be an important part of healing for survivors as they decrease the sense of isolation that many survivors feel and can be helpful in working through interpersonal challenges. SARC’s group program offerings may vary throughout the year as we try to provide a combination of ongoing process-oriented support groups and time-limited topic-specific groups.
About the Ongoing Process-Oriented Groups
These groups meet weekly and are two hours in length comprising of no more than 10 clients at a time. These groups are divided into two different parts. The first part is “check in” where group members bring to the group what they would like to talk about that week. It can be anything that relates to the assault, healing or how it is affecting your life. The second part of group is “topic”. This is an educational portion developed by the co-facilitators to address topics that relate to sexual assault in hopes that it will add to the understanding of trauma and the healing process. At this time one of our support groups will be in person and the other will be online
We currently have two types of process-oriented groups available:
Adult Groups
We currently provide two Support Groups for adults 20 years and older. Both groups are ongoing, taking in adults from our group wait list as openings become available.
Time-Limited Topic-Specific Groups
It is our goal to offer a variety of time limited, topic specific educational groups. The topic specific groups are typically meet for 10 weeks. At this time we offer two different topic specific groups that are offered at different times throughout the year:
Intimacy Group
This group addresses sexuality and intimacy needs for adult survivors
Friends & Family Group
This group is for friends and family of those who have experienced sexual assault. It is our hope to provide both support for the loved ones & help them be able to provide appropriate support for the victims of sexual assault.
How to Join a Support Group
Please call our intake specialist at 503-626-9100 ext. 234
Many times this line will go to voicemail. Please let us know your name, contact, what group you are interested in, and if it is safe for us to leave a voicemail.
You will be notified of the waitlist status or the next upcoming group you have chosen and become involved in the intake process for that group.
Mental Health & Healing Professionals
Mental health services are provided by staff and/or volunteers who are Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Qualified Mental Health Professionals, and pre-licensure professionals or advanced graduate students under the direct supervision of professional clinical staff.
We welcome licensed clinical professionals as volunteer therapist and/or groups facilitators. For licensed mental health professionals interested in volunteering, please complete the volunteer application and email it to volunteer@sarcoregon.org.
SARC’s counseling intern program is currently on hold and not accepting any new applicants until further notice.
Fees
All services are no-cost and confidential.