At the Relational Center in Beverlywood, therapists aren’t just trying to get clients to move from a state of suffering to a place that’s tolerable.
The center was founded in 2007 by Mark Fairfield, a licensed clinical social worker and community organizer. He felt that too often, mental health settings isolated people and made clients feel as if there were something wrong with them. “A majority of the time, people are responding to stressors in the environment — violence, the pandemic, misogyny, racism,” Fink said.Pandemic stress, traumatic events and economic uncertainty have upended our world.
Unlike many sliding scale counseling centers, TRC does not emphasize cognitive-behavioral therapy. Instead, therapists incorporate relational gestalt therapy, which promotes self-awareness and relationship-building between the client and therapist. “We focus on lived experience and why you’ve adapted in certain ways, rather than strategies to avoid bad feelings,” said Jami Winkel, the center’s clinical director.