all souls: filling a void
by lisa horak

On a small side street minutes from downtown Asheville stands a gray and white Victorian house. Its front porch is wide and broad, and a wooden swing beckons invitingly. The inside is equally charming. Rich hardwood floors shine and a broad staircase leads to six cozy rooms that offer comfortable chairs and fireplaces. Sunlight pours in through wide windows. This is a place where people instantly feel at home. This is a place where people feel comfortable and can reveal their pain.

At a glance, this could be one of Asheville’s many bed & breakfasts. But it is not. This is the All Souls Counseling Center which provides affordable mental health care to individuals, families, and couples. All Souls was formed in May 2000 to meet the needs of people without health insurance or who are underinsured, meaning that their mental health benefits do not kick in until an exorbitant deductible is met. Many who come pay just five dollars for their sessions; others pay merely what they scrounge from their pockets. Everyone is encouraged to pay something, however nominal it may be.

All Souls Counseling Center, located at 33 Orange Street, was the creation of Drs. Stephanie Citron and Michael Penland, two clinical psychologists who were parishioners at The Cathedral of All Souls. Both were dismayed by the closure in the late 1990s of two mental health facilities: the Family Services Center and Charter Asheville. The only other mental health care option in the area was Blue Ridge Mental Health Center, which due to diminished funding was able to offer less and less outpatient services for individual psychotherapy.

Penland, who has since joined the seminary to become a priest, was moved to create a way to benefit the community while furthering the ministry of the church. Penland and Citron talked to Rev. Todd Donatelli, rector at All Souls, about combining their professional abilities with their desire to fill Asheville’s mental health care void. They decided to form a site-based center modeled after the St. Luke’s Training and Counseling Center in Atlanta, where Citron had previously worked.

In early 2000, they formed a non-profit organization and created a board. They crafted a mission aimed at providing quality outpatient psychotherapy to people of all faiths, and developed a sliding fee scale to accommodate anyone seeking therapy, regardless of their financial status or whether they had health insurance. All Souls Counseling Center provides financially accessible mental health services to people who can benefit from counseling but whose lives are in enough control that they can function in society and do not require hospitalization. The board further defined the Center’s mission by what it could not provide: psychological evaluations, crisis intervention, case management, 24-hour coverage, or services to anyone wishing to use their health insurance.

By October 2000, Citron and Penland began seeing clients at the offices at All Souls Church. The word spread quickly. The response was so overwhelming that Citron and Penland quickly enlisted some of their colleagues to lend a hand.

“There is a lot of passion around the Center,” says Citron. “We all know someone or have ourselves been in a tough, dark place before. I meet a lot of folks who can’t afford individual therapy. Now we have a place we can refer them to. All Souls offers a safety net—a way to help people before a situation becomes a crisis.”

Citron, 53, has been in private practice as a clinical psychologist for 25 years, and has worked in Asheville for the last 14 years. In addition, she teaches behavioral medecine to OB/GYN residents at MAHEC. She has been amazed by both the growth and the tremendous enthusiasm for All Souls Counseling Center. Today 20 part-time therapists and 2 clinical psychologists see more than 400 clients a month. Most of the therapists volunteer between 5 and 15 hours a week at All Souls.

In addition, the philanthropic community has been eager to help. The Center has received grants from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Mission/St. Joseph’s Foundation, United Way, and most recently the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation. These grants allowed the All Souls to hire an Executive Director, Sue Brooks, in June 2001, along with a full-time administrative assistant. A further measure of success is that the Center, which has been in its Orange Street location for a year, may soon need a larger space to meet the burgeoning client demand.

Executive Director Brooks credits Citron and Margaret McKeel, the organization’s first board chairman and current board member, with the Center’s success. While Citron is the guru on the counseling front, McKeel is her counterpart on the administrative end. McKeel, 67, was a registered nurse with Asheville’s St. Joseph’s Hospital for 13 years, and for two more once it merged with Mission. She was also a Vice President of Surgery, clearly having what it takes to juggle patient needs, medical scheduling, and working with a multitude of personalities. Furthermore, she has been a nurse with Church of the Advocate, a program of All Souls Cathedral that ministers to homeless people.

“Margaret has such compassion and works tirelessly to make sure things run smoothly,” says Brooks. “We have to keep reminding her that she is retired.”

“My work with the counseling center is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” says McKeel. “I’m so impressed by how generous the therapists are with both their time and their services. They are experienced, licensed professionals who could easily be making four times what they are paid at All Souls. Most are in private practice but work part time at All Souls at discounted fees as a way to give back to the community.”

This generosity has impressed Citron too. “Creating All Souls was like ripe fruit falling off the tree. It was so easy to find therapists who wanted to be a part of this. Even the funding has fallen into place. We have received nearly every grant that we have applied for. We have a dedicated, talented board of directors. And we know we are helping people who otherwise couldn’t afford high-quality mental health care.”

Brooks agrees. “We want our clients to know that we care about them. This is a wonderful, nurturing place that reflects the spirit of those who give so much to it. If people are comfortable here and we can help them deal with their troubles, then we are truly helping our whole society.”

And so people come. They curl up on couches and talk to caring mental health professionals about their problems. They pay what they can. They are treated with dignity. They heal. They are grateful. They move on.

 

Lisa Horak is a stay at home mom raising two young daughters, Molly and Isabel. She has written for non-profit organizations and is the co-editor of Heart of the Land and Off the Beaten Path, a ficton and non-fiction anthology of nature writing for The Nature Conservancy. She recently moved to Asheville from Washington, D.C., and is currently working on her first children’s book.