‘We care about you’…Givner’s mental health counseling services expands in Wilkinsburg

ERICA GIVNER, RIGHT, recently held the soft opening for Vision Towards Peace’s new space at 613 Wood St. She’s pictured with Emma Lucas-Darby and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. 

by Renee P. Aldrich, For New Pittsburgh Courier

Through sheer grit, effort, push-pull, passion and determination, through the COVID pandemic and working through the rigors of academic requirements, “Vision Towards Peace” counseling services’ (VTP) new spaces at 613 Wood Street in Wilkinsburg have become a reality.

Erica Upshaw Givner, LCSW, owner, lead clinician and counselor of Vision Towards Peace and co-owner of “A Peace of Mind,” the nonprofit 20-hour daycare center located directly across the street, ushered in the soft opening of the space designed to be an extension of the VTP Psychiatric Mental Health Clinic. That clinic is currently at 711 Penn Ave., where Givner has been for eight years. They have the same label as UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, in Oakland, but it’s situated in an African American neighborhood, serving a predominately Black community.

Hundreds of guests, many of them patients, potential patients, vendors, neighbors, friends, staff and supporters converged on the brand new facility on Saturday, June 11.

Althea F., a guest and patient, was on hand for the momentous occasion. “I am here because my therapist, Dr. G (Givner), has opened a new building. When you walk in you instantly feel so safe and loved; and I just cannot wait to continue being seen here in this amazing environment, it makes me feel so great and fuzzy.”

Each room is uniquely designed to give patients a sense of well-being, even before being seen by a therapist. Visitors entering the space were met with pale lavender walls, with the words “Support,” “Empow erment” and “Encouragement” sprinkled in deep purple on the walls. There’s also a phrase, “You’re Safe,” strategically placed directly above the entrance into the reception area.

Onika Reigns, LCSW, a clinician who has been working for VTP for three years, said the new space “will provide more comfort for clinicians as well as clients. Open and filled with warmth, one immediately sees that Erica has gone through great effort into making sure the entire office is esthetically pleasing.”

Reigns said the aura of the new space is welcoming and says to VTP’s clients, “‘We care about you,’ thus removing the stigma and intimidation associated with mental health, and ensuring clients are more likely to keep appointments.”

Givner called the new space a labor of love, a “God-size dream,” which has been in the works for the past five years. In speaking with the New Pittsburgh Courier, Givner said expanding the facility from the current space at 7ll Penn Ave. to the buildings she acquired on Wood Street has long been a vision. “Vision Towards Peace is 10 years old. When I opened business in 2012, it was with a goal to just do outpatient therapy. However, I soon began to realize that clients were facing many barriers, often preventing them from optimizing their treatment,” Givner said. “I understood there needed to be a shift in the goal—it needed to address the barriers with intentionality; most specifically providing access to clinicians that looked like the population we are serving—predominantly African American, that complex, vulnerable population who often gets weighted down by issues that block their efforts to seek treatment. Consequently, our therapists and clinicians are Black and brown, and our psychiatrists identify as brown—thus meeting the unique needs of this community.”

Givner clarified that the current space at 711 Penn Ave. isn’t going anywhere. It’s just that the new Wood Street location is wheelchair-accessible, thus, Intensive Outpatient Care (IOP) will be offered at Wood Street, not Penn Avenue. Outpatient and tele-psych services will still be an option at the Penn Avenue location.

Vision Towards Peace services include outpatient mental health services, psychiatric services (tele-psych), and Intensive Outpatient Care (IOP). IOP comes in the form of three groups per week for patients in severe crises. 

Acquiring the property on Wood Street was no small task. The heavy back taxes, the financial hole Givner found herself in with the borough of Wilkinsburg…she even said the Wood Street location was “on the list to be taken by the borough.”

“But our commitment, determination and the passion were larger than what we faced,” Givner told the Courier. “We stuck to the process and worked through it as safely as we could keeping all the protocols—and here we are. I’m certain that the pandemic added another year and a half to the project.”

Givner said there never would be any type of opening if not for her husband. The building “was in awful shape, but he was able to prepare the space for the new construction,” she said. “By doing all the gutting out,” it allowed the workers to come in with a clean slate. “His skill in this area was a great economical boost to this entire project. This was important because the building required everything brand new; from the roof, to the electrical, even to new phone wiring. New underground wires had to be installed before we could even get a phone system. These renovations began in 2019, taking three years to complete. We’d pay and work and pay and work as we went along just to keep the building out of debt. By the grace of God the work is completed, and it is currently completely out of debt, owing no more back taxes,” Givner told the Courier.

Carla Adams, LPC, a national certified counselor who is certified in domestic violence, was recently hired as clinical director for the new space. She’s the point person for the clinicians, including onboarding new clinicians and conducting weekly supervision of the clinicians. She also sees her own clients.

Now that the soft opening is complete, the official opening will be in late July or early-to-mid August. Givner, who is also pursuing a Doctorate of Social Work, is more than excited about that big opening day.

“God gives us our gifts, at an early age, before life interrupts the process which is why we must not stop, we must keep going, digging deep inside to discover the gift we all have,” Givner said, quoting Paolo Coelho’s best-selling book, “The Alchemist.”

Givner added: “I believe I’m doing what I was brought here to do in this place and in this point in time.”

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