River Valley Counseling Center, Inc.

Today's Featured News

Boston Bombing Injuries 'Like a War Zone'

3 dead, more than 170 injured by explosions near Boston Marathon finish line. More...

Many More Doctors Using Electronic Health Records

Rate doubled among family physicians between 2005 and 2011, study finds. More...

Sleep Apnea Tied to More Brain Damage in Women Than Men

Areas involving decision-making, mood appeared most affected, study found. More...

Marijuana Use Rising Among High School Seniors: Report

Teen usage of some other drugs declining, U.S. officials say. 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,

Anne Marie Martineau
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. Addiction is the repeated involvement with a substance or activity, despite the substantial harm it now causes, because that involvement was (and may continue to be) pleasurable and/or valuable. 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 and Personal Development. 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

Featured Articles

JOIN US FOR THE 2ND ANNUAL 5K RUN/1 MILE WALK FOR RIVER VALLEY!!!
Register for the 5K race or the 1 mile walk to support the important work of River Valley Counseling Center, Inc. Award ceremony & festivities following the race at the Holyoke Elks. Join us for fun, food, & entertainment!!! More...

Helping Children Make Sense of the Senseless
Tragedies like the Boston bombings require a loving, shared response, experts say. More...

Gun Violence, Crime and How We Raise Our Children
The nation was shocked after the horrific shooting of 20 young children and 6 adults in the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. This has not been the first or only mass shooting in the United States. According to Mother Jones, a leading news organization on the Web, there have been at least 61 mass shootings since 1982. More...

Non Prescription Pain Medications, SSRI's and Depression
Michael Wolf, PhD, a researcher and Associate Professor of medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, conducted a study in which he found that people know little about the ingredients of the non prescription pain medications they take and the dangers they pose. For example... More...

Experiencing Feelings is a Skill
Understanding our emotions can be difficult. Why do we have them? When? What are the subtle differences between one and another and how do they impact our daily life? More...

Resentment, Like Holding Onto Hot Coals
Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous. I have no desire to make my own toxins. ~Neil Kinnock According to the Oxford American Dictionary, resentment is defined as "bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. The definition includes the fact that people can harbor resentments going back many years." Resentment has also been called the experience of a negative emotion, such as anger or hatred, felt as a result of a real or imagined wrong done to them. More...

Recovery from Codependency
Codependency is often thought of as a relationship problem and considered by many to be a disease. In the past, it was applied to relationships with alcoholics and drug addicts. It is a relationship problem; however, the relationship that's the problem is not with someone else, but the relationship with yourself, and that is what gets reflected in your relationships with others. 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