Therapy center that gives support even if clients can’t pay gets some support -- $10,000 worth

When Marianna Thomas began her practice as a marriage and family therapist in 1982, she was struck by the number of people who would walk into her office in need of counseling but without the money to pay for it.

At first, Thomas would see as many clients as she could for free, but she soon realized that wasn’t enough, she said.

“I wanted to create a place that offered affordable counseling to help all the people who had been calling me in private practice needing services but not being able to pay,” Thomas said.

In 1994, the Living Success Center — where anyone could receive counseling, regardless of ability to pay — was born in Thomas’ small, second-story office at 445 E. 17th St. in Costa Mesa.

Over the past decade, the nonprofit center has grown from two rooms with a handful of patients each week to an expanded space with seven therapy rooms — each with a unique color scheme and an obligatory box of tissues — and a waiting list for hourlong sessions.

Unlike a private practice, which can cost upward of $100 per session, prices for services at the Living Success Center are based on a patient’s income and household size. But if people can’t pay, the center sees them anyway, and not just once. Patients are encouraged to return until they decide they no longer need the center’s services, which include couple and child counseling, parenting classes, support groups and family and individual therapy for mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

“I’ve found that people really want to be able to pay something,” Thomas said. “But if they can’t, we still want to help them.”

Donations and an annual fundraiser — to be held this year on Nov. 7 at The Center Club in Costa Mesa — help offset the center’s costs. South Coast Plaza recently donated $10,000 to help put on the event, becoming the center’s first platinum-level sponsor.

In addition to providing low-cost or free therapy for hundreds of people each year, the center provides a training space for graduate students who have completed their studies but need to fulfill required hours toward a marriage and family therapy license.

Ellen Gordon, a marriage and family therapist with a private practice in Newport Beach, completed her training at the Living Success Center from 2010 to 2012. To Gordon, the most significant aspect of the center is that it offers counseling to people who wouldn’t be able to receive help otherwise.

“It’s such an important resource in the community,” she said. “We’re seeing more and more how people who are struggling with mental illness can impact the community. It plays out in all kinds of ways. We see it in violence, homelessness and, unfortunately, addiction.”

A stigma associated with mental health conditions often makes people reluctant to seek treatment, experts say. The problem can be intensified when those who should seek treatment go without because of their inability to pay.

In any given year, about 57.7 million Americans suffer a diagnosable mental health condition, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. However, less than a third get treatment, data show.

In recent years, an effort to destigmatize mental health issues often has been led by those who have suffered themselves, Gordon said.

“I’m hoping that effort continues. It makes it so much easier for people to speak out,” Gordon said. “The problem then is having treatment available. Places like Living Success Center are so important for that reason.”