Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette Smith.
Annette, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
The Living Success Center has been in business for 27 years. It was started by Marianna Thomas who realized there was a need in the community for affordable psychotherapy, that mental health should be affordable to everyone. Marianna’s two priorities were providing quality psychotherapy while being affordable to each individual.
She realized that master-level students, who were working towards their state licensure requirements (3000 hours of supervised therapy) to provide less expensive therapy. After contacting the local universities, she brought in 2 pre-licensed therapists to begin working with clients. Marianna closely supervised these clinicians by talking with them about their cases each week, ensuring the clients were receiving the best treatment possible.
As for the fee for this service, Marianna decided to simply ask the client what would be affordable to them to come each week. Whatever they could afford, she accepted. In the beginning, 75% of the clients never paid a dime for their services and many stayed for years. In fact, Marianna was often seen opening her own wallet to give a client bus fare or money for food. We carry Marianna’s philosophy today with a couple of changes. We ask for a minimum $15 per session fee, but if the client is unable to pay that, we see them anyway, for as long as they need and want support.
The Center has continued building its presence in the community through the years. We now have 20+ pre-licensed therapists who provide therapy to over 600 people each month, over 7,000 hours of affordable therapy each year!!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been easy. We’ve never been able to obtain financial support from our local governmental bodies by way of grants, etc. However, when they call us for support, we are there to help as we can. The Center also does not take any insurance as most of our clients can’t afford their deductible or co-pays. If we took insurance, we would have to use it. So we are completely dependent on whatever fees we can bring in and the generosity of other like-minded people, foundations, organizations, etc., that believe everyone should have access to mental health care.
As you know, we’re big fans of Living Success Center. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Center provides individually affordable mental health care, psychotherapy. It is known for providing quality mental health care to anyone who wants/needs it for as long as they want/ need it, regardless of their ability to pay. Continuing affordable long-term mental health care is what sets us apart. We are most proud of this service to the community and also the thousands of high-quality clinicians we have trained over the years. We would like others to know if they are struggling with mental health, they are not alone, call us, we’ll help.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
We love our cities, love the community of it and want to continue being a positive factor in it!
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@livingsuccesscenter.org
- Website: www.livingsuccesscenter.org
- Instagram: LivingSuccessCenter
- Facebook: LivingSuccessCenter
- Youtube: LivingSuccessCenter
Image Credits
Taken or developed by the Center
