Meet Emma Rava of Epworth Center for Counseling

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Rava! She and her team share their story with us below:

Emma Rava, LISW-CP, is the Director of the Epworth Center for Counseling. Emma is a native of Northern Virginia and a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She earned her Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of South Carolina. Emma has served as a supervisor for licensed clinicians and has worked in a variety of clinical, behavioral, and mental health settings.

For 125 years, Epworth has been serving vulnerable families across South Carolina. In 2019, Epworth decided to take a proactive approach by serving mental health needs in the community, regardless of socioeconomic status. For the past two years, we’ve been serving clients of all ages across the spectrum of need and providing access to affordable, quality mental health care in the community.

It has not always been a smooth road here at Epworth Center for Counseling (ECC). As a new program, the COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for us. However, our team was able to quickly begin providing telehealth services so our clients could continue receiving therapy sessions from home. Today, we still offer telehealth appointments in addition to in-person appointments.

Epworth Children’s Home Center for Counseling serves the Midlands. We provide outpatient counseling for children, teens, and adults by licensed and trained therapists who specialize in treating mental, behavioral, and substance use concerns. All therapists are trained in trauma-focused therapy. We also offer parenting classes as well as individual, family, and group therapy.

Something we’re passionate about is removing as many barriers as possible to accessing care. Therefore, our center provides a continuum of care for our clients by partnering with local schools, Department of Juvenile Justice, Department of Social Services, Primary Care Doctors and Pediatricians, housing services, along with lawyers and the court system. Since 89% of our clients are from a low-socioeconomic background and are Medicaid recipients, we help those who are uninsured apply for Medicaid services and connect them to community-based non-profits. Our center is working towards providing bilingual services to reach the growing Latino community in the Midlands and mediate the barrier to services they experience. We are also able to offer evening and weekend sessions to reduce scheduling barriers for those working. We believe that providing a continuum of care allows us to offer the best care to our clients.

Therapy doesn’t always have to take place in a cozy office, where you talk about your feelings. Here at ECC we provide a variety of therapy techniques. One of those is called experiential therapy. When working with kids, we often draw upon their creative abilities and use art therapy and play therapy to help them process their emotions and engage in healing.

Testimonials from our clients:

“Epworth is a one of kind center and my children are in a better place emotionally, socially, and mentally.”

“As soon as I walk in, I feel like I don’t have to hold anything back and can fully express myself.” “I highly recommend this counseling center.”