We Are Advocates for Mental Health

SCCC believes that mental health care is a right, not a privilege. Anyone who needs counseling should have it.  It is a belief we have lived for almost 60 years by providing affordable, sliding-scale counseling to people in need for as long as they need care.

See what moves us:  Mission, Vision, Values

Then and Now

SCCC was founded in 1966 by a group of dedicated individuals, lead by Psychologist Hans Hoffman and Dr. Ben Weininger, Psychiatrist.  We began by training caring members of the community who were able and willing to volunteer as paraprofessional counselors.  Homemakers, retirees, professionals in other fields—a wide range of compassionate, concerned people trained and served at SCCC, providing affordable counseling to anyone who needed it.  Inspired by Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip, Dr. Ben would to set up a ‘dialogue in the streets’ stand and charge $0.50 for a brief therapy session, to draw attention to the great need for affordable talk therapy services.

Today, we are a non-profit counseling center and training facility where pre-licensed therapists provide counseling under the supervision of licensed professionals.  In their two to four years with us, they experience multiple specialties and diverse psychological modalities as they earn their clinical hours, build their skills, and define their professional practices.

Our Unique Model: Affordable Counseling

Our therapists-in-training and their licensed supervisors provide over 30,000 hours of accessible, affordable counseling each year.

Join us in our work and donate today.