For nearly 34 years the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic has been running an open clinic for not only students and faculty, but to members of the Monroe community.

The clinic is free to students of the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Louisiana Delta Community College along with veterans and active military members.

They have a very broad spectrum of calls they deal with, and if they cannot meet a pateints’ needs, they will gladly refer them to another source.

All services are open to the public at affordable prices.

If a patient cannot meet the standard fee, then the clinic will work out a payment while concerning situations with fixed incomes.

The clinic is ran by a staff who contain mental health licenses to work in the state of Louisiana as well as educational degrees going as far as masters or doctorate studies.

The staff happily welcomes interns to work along with them with requirements to work in the clinic and externship work.

In order to complete the externship, they must work with patients in other therapeutic agencies outside of campus, whether that is another school or clinic.

The interns must complete a specific number of hours and have an observation done by their supervisors.

The faculty of the staff always tries to be active in the community.

They go to local events to promote the clinic and to educate people on all of the options they offer.

This past week they participated in the, Monroe City Health Fair to reach out to local residents by providing brochures and information on all the services their clinic offers.

Dr. Van Frusha of The Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic is alumni of ULM and works at the clinic with interns and other supervisors.

Dr. Frusha works with groups such as,” the Freed Man.”

They are men who have been recently released from prison who want to work out their problems.

He also works with groups of juveniles and parents who might have difficult relationship problems based off the child’s behavior.

The clinic’s goal is to strengthen families and friend’s relationships by solving their individual problems through therapeutic sessions.

“We are open to starting any kind of support group as long as there is enough members to support the topic,” frusha said.