Evaluating the Single-Session Consultation Service at the Krasner Psychological Center and Putnam

The Stony Brook University (SBU) clinical psychology doctoral program is currently ranked 4th among the top clinical psychology doctoral programs in the country (2016, U.S. News and World Report, Best Graduate Schools) and is accredited by both the APA Committee on Accreditation (APA CoA) and the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS). The Krasner Psychological Center (KPC) is a psychology training clinic housed in the Department of Psychology and associated with the doctoral program in clinical psychology at SBU. The mission of the KPC is twofold, namely, (a) to provide high quality experiential training in the delivery of psychological services to trainees in the associated 3 doctoral program, as well as to externs, doctoral interns, and post-doctoral residents; and (b) to provide evidence-based mental health services to the nearby communities. All supervisors at the KPC are doctoral-level psychologists. Psychotherapy services at the KPC are based on Cognitive-Behavior Therapy models and include weekly, outpatient psychotherapy for a wide range of problems in children and adults; therapy is designed to be short-term, personalized, and effective in empowering clients to manage their symptoms and distress.

Similarly, the Mind Body Clinical Research Center (MBCRC) bases their interventions on evidence-based practices that address multiple factors associated with health impairments. Additionally, they focus on providing comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and assessments to aid in the creation of adequate treatment plans. The MBCRC specifically focuses on using mind-body to help identify risk and resiliency factors associated with mental health outcomes in their clients. This technique works in support of the scientific link that has been shown to exist between our mental/physical health with overall wellness and quality of life. Using this technique, the MBCRC is able to help individuals make changes early on that can help to prevent worsening symptomology of mental illness, preserve physical health, and make improvements in overall wellness.

The single-session consultation, a one-time service provided to adolescents and adults on the clinics' waitlist (which may extend from 2 to 6 months), includes components of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). SFBT lends itself naturally to the single-session format in that it focuses on the present and future, targeting the desired outcome of therapy, a future in which the primary problem is absent or less influential. Importantly, SFBT providers focus on the factors that maintain/underlie solutions rather than the factors than maintain/underlie problems.

GENERAL SCREENING PROCEDURES

When individuals seeking services at the KPC and MBCRC express interest in scheduling an appointment with a clinician, they are first instructed (by phone) about the clinical and research aims by the clinic's clinical research coordinator. The clinical research coordinator is a trained, independent staff member and is not involved in the provision of psychotherapy or single-session consultation services. The clinical research coordinator conducts a standardized, structured phone screen with the individual to identify primary reasons for seeking mental health services and to assess the appropriateness of presenting concerns for treatment at the KPC or MBCRC. If the individual is eligible to receive services at one of our clinics (i.e., if their concerns fall within the scope of clinical problems treated; if the individual/family is English-speaking; and if problems are not so acute as to require immediate hospitalization, in which case they are referred to the nearest emergency room), the client is placed on the waitlist for psychotherapy services.