Heartstrings Counseling, Inc

The mission of Heartstrings Counseling is to provide high quality, affordable counseling and educational services to residents of Placer County and surrounding areas, with an emphasis on those who cannot afford regular therapy. Established in 2013 in Loomis, Heartstrings Counseling encourages positive change and personal growth that will brace and sustain the hearts and lives of individuals, couples, families, teens and children, and allow our clients to lead healthy and fulfilled lives.

Heartstrings Counseling is led by CEO and founder Darla Lynn Gale. Darla graduated from Brandman University and has a Master's Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Our organization is guided by a four-person board of directors who are passionate about improving access to mental health services in Placer County.

All of our therapists are trained to treat a wide range of serious clinical problems including: depression, marital problems, anxiety, individual psychological problems, and child-parent problems. Services are provided by a team of nine highly trained and supervised counselors. Counselors either have their Master's degree in psychology or are in their last year of their Master's program working towards the required 3,000 hours of training and experience to become licensed by the Board of Behavioral Sciences

Our services provide clients with the tools to manage stress and anxiety, process trauma and traumatic events, navigate grief and loss, and develop the tools to leave abusive relationships, as just a few examples. We serve individuals, couples and families, teens and children with counselors specially trained in individual and group counseling.

In 2018, Heartstrings Counseling served 607 unique clients, a 45% percent increase from the previous year, and provided 4,856 counseling sessions. Forty-two percent of our clients are under the age of 18. Eighty-five percent of clients are from Placer County.

Our organization has established strong partnerships with schools and youth organizations in the region, including Del Oro High School, Koinonia Family Services, Newcastle School District, as well as with Kaiser and Sutter. We also receive regular referrals from elementary schools in the region to help meet the mental health needs of children unable to be served by school counselors. In addition, we partner with organizations like Lighthouse Counseling and Hope Counseling to refer clients and receive referrals, as well as regularly seeking opportunities for joint staff training.

Heartstrings Counseling monitors our impact by tracking the number of clients served on a monthly and annual basis. With the addition of new counseling rooms, scheduled to open March 2019, we anticipate an increase in the number of clients served, allowing us to better meet the mental health needs of the Placer County community. We also track the number of clients that are turned away on a monthly and annual basis due to lack of space or limited resources. We expect that this number will decline as we increase our ability to serve the local community and continue to secure resources to offer more free counseling sessions.

Additionally, during initial therapy appointments, counselors work with clients to identify their personal goals. This helps to inform the counseling plan and sessions and allows both clients and counselors to track their success. Seventy-eight percent of clients in 2018 achieved their personal goals for therapy. Remaining clients were unable to continue due to finances or for personal reasons.