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WRC Mental Health Counseling

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What to expect

  • Counseling by licensed professionals and advanced graduate students
  • In-person or virtual appointments 
  • Expertise in psychology of women and gender
  • Year-round support 
  • Individual counseling for University of Utah students
  • Support groups open to students and community members)

 

Feminist Multicultural Therapy (FMT)

The Women's Resource Center has served students at the U since the 1970s. In this trajectory, the Feminist Multicultural Therapy model became its primary mental health framework. FMT stresses client-counselor collaboration in the healing journey and honors the client's expertise in knowing their own lived experience. We believe that people are coping the best they can, often in very difficult and traumatic circumstances. As contexts change in our lives, old coping skills may no longer serve us and part of the counselor's responsibility is to help clients develop new coping skills.

We understand that both client and counselor bring intersecting identities into the counseling relationship and that those identities can and will impact the relationship, and therefore must be talked about openly. We also understand that the political and cultural contexts in which we live impact our lives, not always in the same ways, which makes political analysis a necessary tool of FMT. Perhaps most importantly, we understand that power operates in every relationship, including in the counseling relationship, and power discrepancies must be acknowledged and worked with.

As the WRC continues to evolve, we embrace this legacy and continue the work of serving students through mental health therapy, groups, and serve as a prominent practicum site for counselors who align with our values. Counselors at the Women's Resource Center have special interest and expertise in the psychology of women and gender, and work within a feminist multicultural framework. In this approach to counseling, life experiences and concerns are explored in the context of gender, power, and cultural influences. Collaboration is integral to feminist multicultural counseling, so you and your counselor will work together to determine your needs and goals. Although our specialty is working with women's issues, we also work with men, exploring issues in the context of men's socialization.

Last Updated: 3/13/23