JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Clemmer College at ETSU is reopening its free counseling and mental health support to students, faculty, staff and community members.

The Community Counseling Clinic (CCC) will offer individual counseling for adults, adolescents, children and couples/family therapy.

“Our team has been hard at work to get the doors to the CCC back open following the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’ve finally re-opened our doors last semester,” said Christy Oaks, director of the CCC. “Now, we are able to offer counseling services to community members who might not be able to access services otherwise.”

Kristie Hammonds, CEO of Frontier Health told News Channel 11 the organization has collaborated with ETSU to bring the CCC clinic to the community. Hammonds said that pre-COVID pandemic, Frontier was seeing around 50,000 people for mental health services, and within the last year, that number has risen to 65,000.

“Our staffing hasn’t changed either. So we’re serving that many more people with the same amount of team members,” said Hammonds.

The clinic is staffed by master’s level counselors in training that are supervised by faculty with the Department of Counseling and Human Services department.

There a no limits on the number of sessions people can attend; however, counselors-in-training may rotate after 1-3 semesters, resulting in the client being transferred to a new counselor, a release from ETSU stated.

“Over the course of the last few months, I have been able to witness the team effort it took to get the clinic reopened after being closed for over 2 years,” said Dakoda “Koda” Goodwin, graduate assistant with the CCC. “Having the clinic reopened allows our community to receive free counseling services and helps bridge the mental health gap that we see within the Tri-Cities region.”

The CCC is located on ETSU’s main campus at Warf-Pickle Hall in room 327. Parking is available on John Robert Bell Drive, David Collins Way and lots 21A and 21B.

Individuals can call (423) 439-7679 or email ccc@etsu.edu to make an appointment and leave a message. The CCC asks people to include any questions, availability and if the clinic can return a call or speak to other individuals in the household regarding services in their message.

More information about the CCC can be found on its website.