The centers' clientele reflects the Bay Area's diverse cultural and ethnic composition, and therapists bring sensitivity to multicultural, gender, and sexual orientation issues. The centers fill an important niche in the city's mental health resource system by offering low fees on a sliding scale. Scores of agencies refer people to the center, and it maintains a relationship with a local physician for medical referral and consultation. Doctoral students are trained to use a variety of psychological tests as an adjunct to treatment.
Licensed clinicians provide advanced training and supervision.
Just being in the staff room before or after sessions can be like attending advanced workshops. Training that integrates contemporary psychodynamic, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology is complemented by a strong emphasis on student and staff personal and spiritual development. The group process has been a key factor in my growth as a person and as a therapist. Until very recently, research into the subjective aspects of different states of consciousness utilized only quantitative methods. At the CIIS Consciousness and Physiology Laboratory, studies are being conducted in a new area called 'neuro-phenomenology,' which uses physiological data in combination with specialized qualitative methods to explore the nuances of human experience.