NEW YORK, NY -- Our Collective Mental Health , new community mental health agency, offers therapy in New York with additional therapists in Vermont. Our goal is to address a shortage of effective and affordable therapy in NYC as well as to Vermonters in and around Windham County.
Dr. Michael DeMarco, OCMH Executive Director, began his private practice in Manhattan in 2002. In 2009 he reformed the practice to offer affordable therapy to under represented populations, gearing most of his outreach to members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) community. In December 2010, he again reformed as a non-profit, now with additional locations in Vermont and entirely staffed by clinical volunteers.
Our Collective Mental Health currently has four office locations. Our therapists in New York see a variety of clients in both our Brooklyn and Union Square offices, attracting clients from all around the NYC area. Our Londonderry, Vermont therapy office plans to offer weekend (or longer) creative wellness retreats, including, but not limited to: couples therapy, music and creative arts therapy, pet assisted therapy, etc. with hopes of engaging a wide variety of clients in addition to regular therapy sessions. Our Bellows Falls, Vermont office is opening soon and is accepting volunteer and clinical internship applications.
In New York City and Windham County, VT there is a need to offer affordable mental health services, which are not contingent on length of treatment, insurance reimbursement or cultural sensitivity. Our Collective Mental Health is working to fill that niche by offering effective therapy to people that would otherwise go without mental health care who may be working on sexual identity (LGBT) issues, gender identity, immigration issues, issues and conflicts related to incarceration in addition to those working on relationship conflicts, stress, anxiety and sexual dysfunction issues. We are working to make therapy in New York affordable and effective (unlike psychoanalysis) with adding Vermont therapists to address a critical lack of affordable therapy in rural as well as urban areas.
DeMarco and his staff of therapists use a variety of methods to demystify mental health therapy, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and local radio. "People have this idea that all therapists are psychoanalysts and that they're going to be coming to us three times a week for ten years. We want to do what we can to get the word out that cognitive behavioral therapy, and more specifically rational emotive behavior therapy, or REBT, is an effective way for clients to learn to depend on themselves, not on psychiatrists' pills, and not on psychoanalysts' couches." DeMarco says.
OCMH has plans to expand fundraising and apply as a site for the National Health Service Corps in 2011. DeMarco, a previous NHSC grant recipient says he envisions engaging new professionals in community mental health as a way to increase access to affordable therapy and counseling.
