The Rainbow Clinic addresses needs of LGBTQ individuals

The Rainbow Clinic’s clientele is growing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The clinic, which services the needs of LGBTQ individuals and their families, has seen an increase in clients in the last year and a half as people have become more aware of their services. It was added to the UNL’s Psychological Consultation Center about three years ago and partners with Outlinc, a nonprofit organization that encourages the wellbeing and advancement of the LGBTQ community, to bring awareness of the clinic and its services to campus and Lincoln.

Its services include couples, family and individual therapy, which are available to UNL students and the Lincoln community.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality found in a Jan. 2014 National Transgender Discrimination Survey that 41 percent of transgender people have attempted suicide, as opposed to 4.1 percent of the overall U.S. population. A study conducted by the advocacy group Campus Pride indicated that about one-fourth of lesbian, gay and bisexual students and university employees have been harassed because of their sexual orientation. One-third of transgender students reported being harassed.

The clinic is intended to be safe place where individuals can receive confidential affirmative psychology.

“Because of the historically difficult relationship between psychology and the LGBTQ community, it is important to have a clinic where people can come to safely express their identity,” said Peter Meidlinger, a clinical psychology graduate student and therapist at Rainbow Clinic.

The therapists at The Rainbow Clinic are students in the clinical psychology doctoral program at UNL.

Debra Hope, a psychology professor at UNL and a licensed Clinical Psychologist, directs The Rainbow Clinic. She ensures that all therapists complete additional training before they work with Rainbow Clinic clients.

“I think it is important to have high quality services that are affordable,” Hope said, “We are affordable for everyone.”

The cost for The Rainbow Clinic is $10 for intake and $25 for therapy sessions, with the possibility of a sliding fee based on a person’s ability to pay. This ensures that even those without insurance can afford care.

The Rainbow Clinic began about three years ago as a way to offer specialized services for the members of the LGBTQ community. The center had already been seeing the needs of members of the LGBTQ community and decided to open a specialty clinic. Since its start the clinic has gradually seen more referrals and has become more well known, Hope said.

The first resources are the counseling and psychological services, but The Rainbow Clinic is also available to friends and family of the LGBTQ community, Hope said.

If an individual is interested in The Rainbow Clinic’s services, he or she can contact the PCC at (402) 472-2351 and request The Rainbow Clinic. If personnel are not available to talk to at the time of the call staff will take a message and the individual will be called back as soon as possible. Day and evening appointments are available year round.

“The clinic exists in the sense that we are a safe place where members of the LGBTQ community can receive affirmative psychology,” Meidlinger said.

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