Access Institute For Psychological Services

I’ve been working with the staff at Access Institute for a couple of years and have found the services they provide to be top notch. They are professional, thoughtful, and well-​trained, and are dedicated to providing attentive care. Highly recommended!

I’m a huge fan of Access Institute. This is one of the few places in the city that provides effective psychotherapy at an affordable price (the cost depends on your financial situation, and slides as low as $ 30).
I know several people who have been helped tremendously by therapists here, myself included. Whenever someone I know is struggling but can’t afford therapy, I always recommend Access Institute. Such a valuable resource for the people of SF!

This is truly a special place! Therapists at this site get top-​notch training, which reflects the work and the relationships they build with clients. Not do they only care about helping you with your problems and symptoms, they deeply care about you as a human being. Finding this kind of quality care is hard (and sometimes impossible) to find in today’s healthcare system. I have been to various places, and I don’t know of any other agencies where they think about clients in such thoughtful and considerate ways. In addition, Access Institute’s therapy fees are VERY reasonable. They work on a sliding scale and will generally go lower than the average psychotherapy fees in San Francisco — and the average therapy fees in SF is cRaZy RiDiCuLoUs and ranges from $ 120 to $ 150 per session! Can’t nobody afford that! I would have no hesitation referring my friends to Access Institute — in fact, I already did! :) So if you need quality and affordable psychotherapy services, you should seriously consider Access Institute. Later down the road, you will be glad that you made this smart and savvy choice.

I’ve been here at Access Institute for almost two years now and I can say that it has been a life-​changing experience for me. I have so many good things to say about the quality of the program. I decided to come to Access because I had heard from friends about the professionalism and rigor of the therapy program and I knew it’s what I needed. What has stood out and made such a difference for me are a few things. One is the fact that the treatment here can be much more intensive — that may not be for everyone– but for me it’s the way to go. I’ve been at other clinics where the treatment is limited both in duration and intensity. Not so at Access Institute. I have found that twice-​weekly treatment can be much more effective at uncovering deeper conflicts and past traumas and gives the therapy more time to explore, work through issues and make changes. I have also appreciated that the therapy at Access doesn’t happen on a time-​limit, that there is not a rush or a strict focus on symptoms and checking boxes, rather, there is more as sense of the healing quality of the therapeutic relationship. I will be finishing soon and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye-it’s been such a special place. Words can’t really convey how meaningful it’s been for me. Gratitude does feel good though.

Wow, just wow. I am so saddened that it has come to this point, that I must resort to airing my feelings online about the terrible business practices of this facility.
I began attending the Access Institute only after my therapist moved here from another sliding scale place. As soon as I started attending, I began to receive intense pressure from my therapist to pay more than I had already told him I could pay. Every time I attended he would corner me into agreeing to a next meeting, even though I told him I didn’t want to go or didn’t think I could make it and telling me each time I would have to pay more if I wanted to continue to go. I’m not sure what the Access Institute was telling my therapist that caused him to change so drastically. We had had such a trusting relationship at the previous facility, that I felt bad to say no.
Finally, one day, I just stopped going. I was called and made aware that I still owed for the session I missed, which is completely reasonable and I would never contest to. I was told I’d be sent a bill for that amount and I figured that was that.
However, I was called again the following week and told that I had missed «two appointments» and therefore owed them $ 120 instead of $ 60. I called and e-​mailed multiple times to let them know I had never agreed to the second meeting and therefore did not owe them that money. They NEVER responded to my questions or statements about the fraudulent charges.
Since then I have received multiple letters accusing me of failing to pay. They have even threatened to put this all on my report me to the credit bureau which is crazy because I never agreed to the second meeting!
I have continually asked to be sent a bill for the proper amount, because frankly I don’t trust these money hungry people to be honest if I just sent them the $ 60. I want documentation and have asked for it again and again only to be sent a CONTINUALLY GROWING BILL (the have charged me 100% in late fees, thats insane! No company charges a 100% fee of the original cost, what is wrong with you people??)
This place’s revenue model prey’s on people in vulnerable positions. I will fight these fraudulent charges and continue to request a bill for the proper amount. I hope no one else makes the mistake I made by trusting this facility with their mental health.

Access is a great place. The people who work there are friendly and helpful. I would refer anyone who needed affordable therapy to them.

a tremendously positive, helpful experience for me. If you’re suffering and don’t know where to turn, trust me, call Access Institute now and they will help you.
That was the short review. Here’s the long version:
Naturally I am reluctant to write a public review for psychological services but after months of incredible care, healing, and growth with my therapist I’ve decided it is important I share my story…
It took me almost a year to realize and accept I couldn’t manage on my own. Then once I made the decision to ask for help I searched another six months (Kaiser, etc) for somewhere I felt comfortable and confident in their care. I avoided calling Access Institute because of JK’s bad review on Unilocal but when a friend recommended them again I called to set up an appointment. An intake nurse contacted me within 48hrs and thoughtfully discussed my symptoms and set me completely at ease. Within five weeks (I’ve been in therapy before and usually it takes 8 – 12 weeks) I met my therapist and we discussed my concerns, symptoms, and set up a (very) reasonable payment plan. Now I’m on the way to recovery and my only regret is I wish I hadn’t waited to so long to get help.
If you have questions or concerns, feel free to message me via Unilocal and I’ll try to get back to you asap. But believe me, you deserve to feel better and the therapists at Access want to help.

affordable psychoanalytic therapy and affordable psychological testing.

very bad experience for me:
(i can’t go into great detail about this because it’s inappropriate for me to name names other than the bad experience i had with this «clinic»)
1.) my therapist seemed inexperienced and i thought out of league in terms of understanding my needs as a client in the program. i’ve been to therapy before and have experienced good therapists and bad therapists and this person is a bad one. i only had experience with this one at access institue and can’t comment on how all the other clients are treated. however, i must say that this person was not good and didn’t seem to listen and seemed programmatic in terms of the type of things articulated to me during the session (more on this later…). i understand that the access institute is a training ground for future psychiatric caregivers and perhaps this explains why the therapist assigned to me was not good.
2.) the programmatic part of this therapist’s approach was that the session kept harping on «the fee». the fee, according to this person is «part of the treatment process… i should understand that this is an investment on my health…». it was also brought up that the fee may go up according to how much money i made in the future. of course, i could also cancel the treatments if i wanted and for whatever reason. on one of the sessions we spent nearly the entire time discussing this fee and at a certain point i became defensive about my financial resources and my ability to remain with the program. frankly, i felt like i was being indoctrinated into some kind of cult where i had to express total dedication to the institute; at a certain point began to feel as if i wasn’t worthy to be at the access institue.
3.) on my last session i felt extremely angry and exploited and frankly, ripped off (this was the session with the fee discussion) and felt horrible for a long time. it made me question my ability to go for counseling and even questioned my ability to be angry — this therapist made me feel awful and all i was looking for has an affordable way to work out some of these bad feelings i’ve been having lately about my life. after thinking about it for a long time i decided to call them back and cancel any future appointments.
4.) it took me a LONG TIME to get an appiontment to see someone at access institute. i would call one day and get a return call sometimes over a week later in order: to have a phone interview to discuss my problem and what kind of help i was seeking; being assigned to a student therapist; getting return calls about questions i left on voicemail for the institute. on one of these calls, the person on the other line referred me to other sources of low-​cost counseling besides their program. i wondered why that person told me this because access institute is, itself (and it is billed on their website) as an affordable means of psychotherapy. everything about the access institute just seemed rinky-​dink to me (even their office which is a converted apartment in a 3 story building in san francisco).
buyer beware! i can’t recommend any other places for low cost psych care in san francisco. i am currently looking right now but my advice is to stay away from access institute and find psych care elsewhere.