Turning Point Center For Families

Our mission is to inspire hope, improve lives, and strengthen the community by providing quality, affordable, and bilingual mental health services to youth, individuals, couples, and families. We address barriers such as cost, language, and access by offering sliding scale fees and training future therapists to expand our reach and ensure inclusive, accessible care for underserved populations.

Turning Point Center for Families was founded in April 1995 when local therapists and public-school teachers recognized a critical need for affordable mental health services in the community. What began as a small community clinic in Santa Ana, CA, offering individual and family education and counseling, quickly evolved to meet growing needs. We partnered with the Orange County probation department to provide counseling groups focused on anger management and substance abuse education for youth and adults. Over time, we expanded to offer pro bono individual and group counseling in public schools, forming lasting partnerships that continue today through contracts with school districts across Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Today, Turning Point serves more than 1,500 clients annually, providing bilingual therapeutic counseling to children, teens, adults, couples, and families on a sliding scale fee structure. Beyond individual therapy, our clinic offers a wide range of prevention and intervention groups, including anger management, parenting, substance abuse education, and teen life skills. We are proud to provide onsite individual and group counseling to K–12 students at over 45 school sites. To ensure the sustainability and quality of our services, we’ve also developed a robust training program. Each year, we serve as a primary practicum site for more than 40 graduate students in psychology, offering comprehensive education, hands-on experience, and clinical supervision. Through this model, we are not only meeting immediate community needs but also preparing the next generation of mental health professionals.

In the past year, Turning Point Center for Families continued its mission to provide accessible, affordable, and culturally responsive mental health services across Orange and Los Angeles Counties. We supported the mental health needs of over 2,200 individuals, couples, and families through bilingual counseling and group services. More than 1,500 K–12 students received on-site therapeutic care at over 45 school campuses, addressing emotional and behavioral needs in real time where they learn and grow. Our commitment to workforce development remained strong as we trained and supervised over 60 therapist trainees and associates, helping shape the next generation of mental health professionals. We expanded our prevention and intervention programming to include anger management, parenting education, teen life skills, and substance abuse education groups—responding directly to the evolving needs of our diverse community. We maintained our sliding scale fee structure to ensure that services remained equitable and accessible to underserved and low-income populations, removing financial barriers to care. Looking ahead, Turning Point is focused on several key goals: Expanding capacity to meet rising demand by hiring more clinicians and increasing service availability, Strengthening school-based mental health services through deeper partnerships and early intervention initiatives, Enhancing our clinical training program with updated curricula and supervision practices that reflect current best practices and community needs,
Upgrading our infrastructure—including technology and data systems—to better support service delivery and outcomes tracking and Broadening outreach efforts so more individuals and families know where to turn for help. Through these efforts, we remain deeply committed to building a healthier, more resilient, and more connected community—one client, one school, and one family at a time.

Turning Point Center for Families provides accessible, affordable, and culturally responsive mental health services across Orange and Los Angeles Counties. To meet growing community needs, we seek support in these key areas:
1. Unrestricted funds for registration fees so no client is turned away due to cost.
2. Flexible funding for program development to expand counseling and prevention services.
3. Operational support to sustain our staff, facilities, and technology while serving over 2,200 clients annually.
4. Community partnerships with schools, providers, businesses, and nonprofits to build a healthier, more connected region.
How you can help: Donate to support individuals and families in need, Volunteer and gain real-world experience while making a difference and Refer those in need—we are here to help.

Turning Point Center for Families operates a community counseling center in Costa Mesa, CA, where we provide individual and group mental health services for women, men, children, couples, and families. We also offer on-site counseling services to K–12 students in schools throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties.

Turning Point Center for Families was founded with two goals: 1) to provide affordable, multilingual mental health services to children, teens, and their families in schools and community settings, and 2) to train the next generation of mental health clinicians. We have achieved both. Our clinicians and interns have delivered individual, group, and family therapy to countless youth in crisis. At the same time, our trainees received supervision, experience, and insight to continue serving those in need. We sustained our clinical programs despite budget cuts, offering pro bono services to many schools and institutions. It has been an honor to lead Turning Point for over 30 years. I thank our dedicated staff, trainees, and volunteers who continue to care for children and families with compassion and commitment.

Raising four children has given me a deep appreciation for the importance of strong family connections. Serving on the executive board has allowed me to support the mission of Turning Point: helping families in need and at risk. I consider it both an honor and a privilege to contribute to this important work, and I hope to continue serving in this role for years to come.