Authorities participated in the opening ceremony [Photo Courtesy of the South American Division]

South America

UNASP opens Psychology clinic for the community

The site will be a practical study center and will provide services to residents of cities neighboring the Engenheiro Coelho campus, in the interior of São Paulo.

Brazil | Thainá Reis | Edition: Theillyson Lima

The UNASP Psychology clinic was inaugurated at the end of August in Engenheiro Coelho, in the interior of São Paulo, on the same date as Psychologist's Day, August 27th. The space will be a practical study center for students in the course and will offer free services to the community.

The celebration was broadcast live by the São Paulo Adventist University Center (UNASP) channel on YouTube and was attended by the institution's authorities and the city's Vice Mayor, Adesio Dias. In addition, teachers, students, and employees of the educational entity were also present.

The dream of bringing a course to the interior of São Paulo to take care of people's mental health began to materialize in 2017. A year later, the Ministry of Education (MEC) approved the Psychology course, which now has 300 students, and the clinic represents a large part of this wish being fulfilled.

Now, students will be able to participate in the activities developed at the Clinic-School of the course under the guidance of masters and doctors. Student Kassandra Vargas is curious to discover the new space. She explains how the installation will be a great opportunity for teaching. “The Psychology course here at UNASP has a great difference from other institutions because the internship is usually offered at the end of the course, but here we can start interning from the beginning. We will be able to use our own clinic!”, she pointed out.

The professor and coordinator of the course, Ivana Casali, highlighted the importance of the space. “The clinic will allow students to do internships, hold group dynamics, observations, interviews, and, in the future, individual consultations. This not only favors their training but also helps to help people in the municipality and in agreements with other city halls.”

Clinic-School

The Clinic-School will serve children, teenagers, young people, adults, and the elderly, offering individual and group psychological care, according to the needs of each patient and institutional and municipal demands. To this end, agreements will be maintained with municipalities in the region (including the city of Engenheiro Coelho) and partnerships with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whether at the local, regional, or national level, especially to assist schools, daycare centers, churches, health and social centers.

The Dean and Director of UNASP of the Engenheiro Coelho campus, Dr. Martin Kuhn, revealed his feeling of this achievement: “The feeling of the professors and collaborators is one of joy, gratitude, and fulfillment of their duty. By doing this, we feel that we have fulfilled our mission: to educate and serve”, he emphasized.

Ingryd Mayara, a Psychology student, points out the academic and social contribution of the space. “Through it, we can have a closer contact with people, which is the focus of our profession, and through this interaction, we will learn what it is to be a psychologist.”

The place also has rooms for individual and group care, as well as a Mirror Room, intended for the observation of clinical care by students during internships, and specialized and private environments related to the implementation of guidelines/supervisions, to child and adolescent care and adult, to the study and application of different types of psychological tests and use of different modalities of playful material.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site

arrow-bracket-rightCommentscontact