The stresses of life can affect anyone, even people of religious
faith. When that happens, the first recourse is usually to one’s
pastor, rabbi or other spiritual leader. But often clergy lack the
specialized training or time needed to meet the individual’s
needs.
The stresses of life can affect anyone, even people of religious faith. When that happens, the first recourse is usually to one’s pastor, rabbi or other spiritual leader. But often clergy lack the specialized training or time needed to meet the individual’s needs.
An important resource exists here in South County to provide help to Christians of all denominations with emotional-relational problems. For the past five years, South Valley Christian Therapy Associates has been serving local residents in need of such support.
SVCTA has a board of directors made up of respected community members with connections to local businesses and churches. Sherrill Anderson Nielsen, founder and director, calls her job “a dream come true” because her nonprofit agency is able to serve people in need of therapy at sliding-scale fees.
There are a couple of reasons for this. As a nonprofit, they receive charitable contributions from caring donors. But the agency also has several different kinds of professionals: fully licensed therapists (who charge market-rate fees), as well as interns (who have completed their M.A. degrees in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling but who are engaged in the required 3,000 hours of supervised practice) and trainees (who are completing graduate degrees while practicing under supervision).
Nielsen came to this career through a traumatic experience in her own life. While a teacher in San Jose’s Evergreen Elementary School District, she was a victim of rape in her own home. Seeking a therapist, she discovered the shortage of Christian-based therapists and entered a program at Azusa Pacific University to earn a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.
She says that Christians suffer the same problems as the general population (like sexual abuse, rape, addictions) and at approximately the same rate of incidence. But treatment by a Christian therapist is helpful because therapist and client “speak the same language” which provides a “comfort zone” for the patient. But she emphasizes, “We don’t proselytize: we don’t save souls but heal souls.”
SVCTA has several locations for meeting clients, but headquarters is in Morgan Hill at 17705 Hale Avenue, suite I-5. In addition to comfortable rooms for meeting patients, there is a new state-of-the-art “trainee room” for observing trainees’ sessions.
It looks like a normal office except for a sand tray and coat tree with several hand puppets (both for treating children). But the room also has a one-way window, videotaping and audio systems for monitoring purposes.
Individual therapy is available for a range of topics like trauma resolution, relationship issues, crisis intervention and mediation. In addition, six-week couples’ premarital counseling, a therapeutic support group for healing from rape/sexual abuse, and support groups for dissociative identity disorder are offered.
Each year in October, SVCTA offers a free Pastoral Roundtable, when local clergy are invited to a luncheon where the group’s programs are explained and guests are invited to ask about or discuss any concerns.
This year it is scheduled for Oct. 6, and interested clergy may contact the agency for more information by calling the number below.
Although the staff numbers nine currently, Nielson hopes to expand to offer even more services to residents, including a psychologist, psychiatrist and career counselor.
For more information call 408-778-5120 or check the Internet at www.sv cta.org.
