Kittitas County awards second two-year contract to CWU mental health clinic

The Community Counseling Clinic at Central Washington University will continue serving the local community through at least December 2027 after Kittitas County awarded CWU a new two-year contract in the amount of $497,000.

After reopening the clinic in late 2024 and enjoying two successful years, the Department of Psychology reapplied for the grant, which is funded by the county’s one-tenth of 1% Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Tax.

County commissioners voted in the fall of 2023 to contribute approximately $334,000 from the tax to reopen the Community Counseling Clinic, which temporarily closed the previous year. The clinic, located on the first floor of the Psychology Building, reopened in October 2024 after receiving the initial two-year contract.

Under the original agreement, the clinic started out by serving children between 12 and 17 years old, but it now works with kids as young as 6. Director Michele Gurtler said she would like to see services expanded to adults as soon as later this year.

“Looking ahead to this fall, when the Master’s in Mental Health Counseling program graduate students start seeing individuals for counseling, we will have the capacity to bring in more clients,” said Gurtler, who was hired in July 2024.

After building up a caseload of between 60-70 clients and families, the clinic has more than proven its value to the local community in the eyes of the Kittitas County commissioners.

Gurtler noted that the CWU Psychology programs provide well-trained employees to many local agencies that often have trouble filling counseling-related job openings. She and her colleagues believe the clinic is filling a critical need in the community because it provides a no-cost, in-demand service to children and families who may have limited access to mental health resources. As an added bonus, there is no waiting list.

“If you try to find services elsewhere in the community, it can be expensive and you might have to wait a long time to be seen,” Psychology Department Chair Heidi Perez said. “The availability of services is a big part of the problem, and what we are trying to do is help solve the workforce challenge by producing more skilled providers.”

Keeping mental health providers in the area after they graduate was one of the main reasons Kittitas County Commissioner Brett Wachsmith got behind the funding resolution for the clinic. He said in a 2025 Crimson & Black magazine story that he hopes the county’s investment will help lay the groundwork for long-term success.

“It’s exciting to see the possibility of teaching and educating students here, and hopefully having the ability to retain them and their talents here locally, as opposed to just educating them and then they move on to different parts of Washington state or elsewhere,” Wachsmith said.

The Community Clinic  receives referrals from many different community partners, parents, and individuals.  One specific referral source is the Ellensburg Police Department and its “Handle with Care” program, which gives notice to schools if a student has had any contact with law enforcement. 

Upon receiving a referral from the EPD, clinic staff reaches out to the parent or guardian to tell them about the free services CWU offers.

“We do an initial call to tell them about our services and support, and then if we don’t hear back, we’ll send our clinic flyer describing our services and how to contact us,” Gurtler said. “We tell them that it’s totally free and that we’re here to support them if they would like. But if they aren’t interested and tell us not to call again, that’s OK, too.”

The clinic figures to get a lot busier in the fall with the ongoing relaunch of the Mental Health Counseling master’s program and the introduction of a Behavioral Health bachelor’s degree.

Mental Health Counseling expects to have 8-10 students enrolled for its next cohort, Behavioral Health can accept as many as 16 students, and the popular School Psychology master’s program typically has 10-12 students at one time.

“Our vision for this clinic was to help facilitate the whole clinical experience for the graduate students and for the clients,” Perez said. “And based on the support we’ve been receiving from the county, I believe this model is working.”