Today's Featured News

Support Is Key to 'Coming Out' Process for Gay People: Study

The long-term impact of this step often depends on local community, researchers say. More...

Optimism Is Good for Your Heart

A bright outlook helps heart disease patients live longer, study finds. More...

Alcohol Use Down, Pot Use Up Among U.S. Teens

Drinking at historic lows, but fewer kids seem to think marijuana is dangerous, survey finds. More...

 
Welcome to River Valley Counseling Center, Inc.

Thank you for your interest in River Valley Counseling Center, Inc.  Since 1953, RVCC has been changing lives and empowering communities in the greater Holyoke/Chicopee/
Springfield area. 

Very few of us go through life without encountering serious challenges at some point or another.  Whether it’s a teen in crisis, an episode of depression, new stress on the job or having to cope with serious illness, these difficulties can happen to any of us.

When concerns such as these arise, people in our community know they can turn to River Valley Counseling Center for help.  The comprehensive services and support provided by our dedicated and talented team make a difference to thousands of people every year.

Please accept my invitation to use this website as a resource to learn more about the important work of River Valley Counseling Center, Inc.  It is intended to be a source of information for consumers and their families, behavioral healthcare providers and policy makers. 

Please call our offices if you need information, if you'd like to schedule an appointment for services, if you're interested in employment, or if you wish to discuss opportunities to show your support by making a contribution.

Best regards,

Matt Haas
Executive Director

 
Featured Topics
Abuse. Abuse occurs when people mistreat or misuse other people, showing no concern for their integrity or innate worth as individuals, and in a manner that degrades their well being. More...
Addictions: Alcohol and Substance Abuse. People who become addicted to alcohol/drugs are gradually introduced and desensitized to them over a period of time. More...
Alzheimers Disease and other Cognitive Disorders. This topic center provides information on Alzheimer's Dementia, other forms of dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and other cognitive disorders such as Delirium, all of which cause problems with thinking, memory, attention, judgment and emotion regulation. More...
Anger Management. Anger is a basic and normal emotion, but one that can easily become destructive and lead to health and social problems. Explore information in this topic center on the nature of anger, and anger management therapy and techniques. More...
Child & Adolescent Development: Puberty. This article provides an overview of puberty and the physical, mental, emotional and social changes that occur during this time. More...
Childhood Special Education. This center focuses on the educational challenges that children face. Special needs children are children who, due to significant medical, physical, cognitive, emotional, or learning issues, require different, usually more intensive accommodations from schools and learning environments than do typical children. More...
Depression: Major Depression & Unipolar Varieties. This topic center is a comprehensive overview of the unipolar mood disorders with an emphasis on the causes of and treatments for depression. More...
Elder Care. One of the biggest decisions a family may have to make is to determine how to provide care for elderly parents/relatives when those elders are no longer able to live independently. More...
Emotional Resilience. This topic center surveys Emotional Resilience: that collection of skills, characteristics, habits and outlooks that make it possible to remain maximally flexible and fresh in the face of stress. More...
Family & Relationship Issues. Family and personal relationships and friendships can be very difficult to handle. We've gathered resources to help you learn about and better manage relationship problems you may be experiencing. More...
Relationship Problems. Our aim here is to educate the reader about the nature of marriage or marriage-like relationship problems and what can be done to solve them when that is possible. More...
Retirement. Retirement is essentially a life transition; just one of many life transitions that people must make throughout the course of their lives. Life transitions involve a passage from one state of affairs to another. More...
Wellness. Wellness is a broad topic that includes disease prevention, stress reduction, and even personal, social and spiritual growth. Until quite recently, very little attention was ever paid to helping people who are not ill, disordered or diseased in some way learn how to further enhance the quality of their lives, or prevent the onset of future illness. More...

View All Topic Centers

 
latest news

People May Lie More When Texting: Study
Researchers suggest it's easier to deceive than when in person or during video chat. More...

Acupuncture May Boost Pregnancy Success Rates
Centuries-old therapy can help men and women alike with fertility issues, experts say. More...

Health Tip: Preparing for a Stress Test
To check heart function  More...

Long Working Hours Linked to Increased Risk of Depression
Working 11 or more hours a day is associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of a major depressive episode among British civil servants, compared with working a seven to eight hour day, according to a study published online Jan. 25 in PLoS OneMore...

All Current News  

Featured Articles

5 Tips on How to Keep New Years' Resolutions
Why bother to make resolutions and then feel disappointed or guilty for breaking them? Do you get excited and resolve to change, but within days or weeks lose interest and can't motivate yourself? Wonder why you get sidetracked by distractions or become easily discouraged when quick results aren't forthcoming? The problem is threefold: More...


Taking in The Good
Scientists believe that your brain has a built-in "negativity bias." In other words, as we evolved over millions of years, dodging sticks and chasing carrots, it was a lot more important to notice, react to, and remember sticks than it was for carrots. More...


An Interview with Ellen Walker, Ph.D., on Childfree Living
Psychologist Ellen Walker, Ph.D. is the author of the book, "Complete Without Kids: An Insider's Guide to Childfree Living by Choice or by Chance", written in reaction to her own decision to forgo having children and consequent awareness of many people who have made the same choice. Social pressure to have children cause this choice to be stigmatized unfairly. In response, she uses the term "childfree" rather than "childless" to emphasize that the choice to not have children can be a deliberate decision and not an absence. More...


Three Surprising Facts About Happiness
If you're stuck in a bad mood, anxious and ruminating or simply feel that your emotions are beyond your control, these 3 surprising facts might give you one or two strategies to try to alter some of those negative feelings and keep positive feelings around. More...


It's About Relationships, Not Food!
Beginning in infancy, relationships, food and feeding become intertwined. Think about it: Baby cries and baby gets fed. Someone has to do that feeding, and that someone is usually holding the baby and relating to him or her. So, from our earliest memories, food and being fed is one of our first ways of connecting to one another. As we grow and develop, social events often revolve around mealtimes; whether it is family dinner or a social gathering with friends, we are enjoying the nurturing that food and company can provide. With the eating-disordered population, however, the connection between food and relationship can become a troublesome link. More...





River Valley Counseling Center, Inc.

To Schedule an Appointment
800.286.8221 

Administrative Offices
413.540.1100
319 Beech Street
Holyoke, MA 01040

CONCERN/EAP

413.534.2625

Affiliated with Holyoke Medical Center

A member of Valley Health Systems

A United Way agency

 


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