FAQ List

PSC stands for Psychological Services Center. The PSC is the training clinic for Ph.D. level graduate students in the Clinical Division of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The Psychological Services Center (PSC) is the training clinic for Ph.D. level graduate students in the Clinical Division of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. By law, all individuals studying to become psychologists must engage in clinical practice for a set number of hours before they can attain their degree. The PSC is the clinic where students perform many of their training hours.
Please access our 'CONTACT' page on this website or use one of the options provided below. By phone, please call 413-545-0041 to connect to the PSC main office. By fax, please fax to: 413-577-0947 By email, please direct inquires to: psc@psych.umass.edu Our website url: http://www.umass.edu/psc Our address: Psychological Services Center University of Massachusetts 135 Hicks Way, Tobin 123 Amherst, Ma 01003-9271
The PSC is a full-service mental health clinic open to UMass students, staff and faculty as well as members of the community. We provide adult and child individual therapy. Our child therapy services can include parenting skills and techniques. We also provide couples and group therapy options. The PSC provides a comprehensive list of assessment services to include full neuropsychological assessments, learning disabilities testing, a streamlined ADHD assessment, and school admission testing. Our therapy groups can vary throughout the academic year and we encourage visitors to view the Home page of this website to see which groups are currently being run. The PSC also has specialized outreach program including our SCHOOL OUTREACH TEAM which provides services for area schools. Please see our New Services page on this website for a full description of our school outreach services.
The PSC is a training clinic for Ph.D. level students. Our services are provided by our advanced-level students supervised by licensed psychologists who are either on the faculty in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and/or who are working in the community as licensed psychologists. Our supervisory staff has a wealth of experience in both direct provision of therapeutic services, psychological assessment, and in supervision of advanced-level students.
Yes, the PSC Clinical Supervisors are all licensed psychologists with many years of clinical experience. Each of our students is a member of a Clinical Team headed by a licensed Clinical Supervisor. Our Clinical Supervisors are legally responsible for all work completed by a student on their team. All reports and clinical documentation are signed by a licensed clinical supervisor and meet all necessary legal standards and requirement for psychological assessments.
Therapy services are provided on a fee-for-service basis, payable at the time of service. A therapy-hour (50 minutes) normally is charged at $25. Our assessment services vary in price based on the service being requested: full neuropsychological assessments carry a charge of $1,000 with a possible reduction to $500 depending upon income; an ADHD streamlined assessment carries a charge of $250*; school admission assessment carries of charge of $250. Streamlined ADHD assessment is a service specifically designed to determine the presence of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
We accept cash, personal checks, credit cards (Mastercard, Visa, Discover), debit cards with a Mastercard, Visa or Discover logo and some limited health reimbursement account debit cards. All services are payable at the time of service.
Unfortunately we cannot accept any form of insurance, private or state-subsidized. The reason for this is that our Clinical Staff is comprised of advanced-level students in training and we are not allowed to accept insurance payments for these providers. This limitation is based on federal and state laws. Insurance payments may also be referred to as "third-party payments".
We are required by law for purposes of supervision, to record each face-to-face interaction between a non-licensed clinical staff person and a client. These recording are completely unobtrusive and while we disclose this requirement to each client at our clinic, most clients aren't even aware that the taping is going on during a session. These recording are used for supervisory purposes only. They are viewed by the student and the supervisor only and are securely destroyed once the supervision cycle is complete. These recordings cannot be used for any purpose other than clinical supervision without obtaining separate and specific consent from the client.
These recordings have only one purpose: supervision by our licensed Clinical Supervisors. Our "Consent for Services" specifically states: "Video/audio records are reviewed for the purposes of clinical supervision or case consultation, and remain confidential. Video/audio recordings do not become part of your clinical record and ARE NOT used for other purposes without your written authorization." All video recordings are kept securely locked when not in use and are securely destroyed when the supervision cycle is complete. We cannot use these recordings for any other purpose than described above without your separate and specific written permission. They are NEVER used for any type of public demonstration or presentation.
The first step is to contact our main office at 413-545-0041 Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The PSC secretary will review all necessary information with you regarding services at the PSC and begin the appointment process.
You may feel free to call the main office at 413-545-0041. Clinic staff will be happy to take a message and forward it to your clinician. You may also ask your Clinician for their UMass email address and use this method to contact them. However, since email communication is not considered confidential even though it is directed at a specific email address, we ask that you LIMIT YOUR EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE TO THE SETTING OF APPOINTMENTS ONLY. No confidential therapeutic information should ever be conveyed by email. Clinicians are instructed to ask that you not use email communication for non-appointment matters. Appointment cancellations can be made directly to the PSC clinic staff by calling the number noted above. Please review our FAQ item: PSC cancellation policy to avoid session cancellation charges.
The PSC's appointment cancellation policy requires that appointment be cancelled at least 24-hours before they are set to occur. Appointments canceled within 24-hours of the appointment time will be charged a session fee.
Yes. We have parking available just outside Tobin Hall where the PSC is located. All of our spaces are reserved parking spaces which by University rules require you to have a valid parking permit at all times that the space is being utilized. A parking permit will be provided to you when you come in for your appointment. Parking in any University reserved parking space without an appropriate pass, even after normal working hours, will subject you to possible fines and/or towing.
CCPH stands for Center for Counseling and Psychological Health. CCPH is the official University mental health service. CCPH offers brief psychotherapy, groups and workshops, psychiatry services, psychological assessment (testing), and 24/7 crisis services. You must be a current UMass Amherst student (graduate or undergraduate), part of the University community (student, staff member, family member of a staff person), and covered by health insurance accepted by CCPH in order to access mental health services through CCPH. More information about CCPH can be found at www.umass.edu/counseling.
The Psychological Services Center can provide service to any community member regardless of their affiliation or non-affiliation with the University of Massachusetts. CCPH is the official University Health Services mental health service for students and University-affiliated individuals (staff and family members of staff) who have University Health Services accepted insurance coverage.
Research studies are conducted from time to time in the PSC. Prinicipal investigators, normally faculty members or students of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, identify the areas they wish to study and develop study protocols and tools which will be utilized to administer the study to participants. You may be asked, while receiving services at the PSC, whether you are interested in participating in a research study. You are entitled to decline participation in any study and your decision not to participate will not affect any services you receive or your eligibility for services in the PSC. You are entitled to ask any questions about participation in the study that you may have and you are entitled to decline further participator in any study even if you have already participated in some portion of a particular study. You should always feel free to discuss your participation with those administering the study and can request to speak to the Principal Investigator should you feel the need to do so. The PSC also administers an evidence-based outcomes assessment protocol to all adult therapy patients, and to the parents of minor clients where applicable. This protocol consists of a series of questions regarding the progression of therapy in the PSC. This is not an optional research questionnaire, but one that is meant to directly impact and improve therapy outcomes. Please direct any questions you may have about our evidence-based protocol to the front office staff. They will forward your inquiry to the correct clinical staff person.