WALK-IN COUNSELING CENTER INC

Our mission is the same today as it was in 1969: to provide free, easily accessible mental health counseling to people with urgent needs and few, if any, service options.

1) We help people stabilize during a time of crisis and resolve problems before they become so severe they require expensive hospitalization or police involvement, or result in tragedy or major life changes.
2) Our services ameliorate the impact of complex personal and family problems on people’s ability to cope and help them function more effectively in their families, jobs, school and community.

Professional volunteer clinicians provide quality mental health services to clients during scheduled walk-in clinics in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, and after the initial walk-in, by appointment for brief treatment (5-6 or more sessions if needed).

We do not diagnose (many of our clients already have multiple diagnoses). Instead we support the client in addressing the issues they are experiencing when they access our services. We ask our volunteers to use their skills and experience--including listening--to help the client address the issue(s) they bring. We do not direct them, but we support them on their journey.

When a client is not "ready" to jump in, we reassure them that we are here when they are ready. (A client's readiness for change is critical for this work to be effective).

If a client comes only once, we assume: 1) they got what they needed; 2) they are not ready to "jump in", since therapy can be challenging; 3) they began their journey with that first walk-in therapy session, and will continue when they are "ready".

Walk-In Counseling Center has provided these services for 51 years. The services are provided entirely by volunteers. Some 140 volunteers (masters and doctors of social work, psychology and marriage and family therapy, advanced graduate students in these fields, and lay volunteers) are active during the year, 85 at any time. The value of their volunteer services varies, but is over $1M a year.

Walk-In has become a highly desirable place for volunteer clinicians to work. We have a very diverse client population who bring a broad range of issues/challenges. Local universities recommend Walk-In as a field placement for students, or as a place to volunteer at the end of their educational program. Likewise, many people who have retired or are close to retiring choose to "give back" at the end of their careers.

The volunteers work in teams: several counselors, a team consultant and a receptionist. They see clients for 2 hours, then go into team consultation for another 2 hours to discuss and strategize the issues clients presented, and to support each other.

Volunteers find Walk-In an excellent place to work. In our 2020 volunteer satisfaction survey, 100% indicated they would recommend Walk-In as a place to volunteer.

And in 2019 Walk-In celebrated our 50 year anniversary of providing this service, and we look forward to 50 more!

Our annual client satisfaction survey indicates we're doing it right. We are available, accessible, non-intrusive, and free. That's what people need when they come here, and the client satisfaction survey indicates that we are providing what they need