DeKALB | David Valentiner, director of the Anxiety Disorders Service at NIU, is working to increase awareness about anxiety disorders and the way psychologists treat them.

Valentiner, also an associate professor of psychology, founded the service in 1996 when he came to the university. Although the Psychological Services Center had been around for many years, they did not have a special anxiety disorders service before he arrived.

“The reason that we created it was really because I am here and I am trained in doing anxiety disorders and I needed to train our graduate students in the clinics,” Valentiner said.

Prior to Valentiner’s founding of the service, there was no one else providing the recommended types of treatments. Originally, the service focused on panic and obsessive compulsive disorders, but it has since grown to include all types of anxiety disorders.

Not only has the service’s offerings expanded, but so has their clientele. Valentiner said he has noticed an increase in the number of clients who visit the clinic with anxiety disorders.

“Before we were getting one, maybe two OCD or panic disorder cases a year and I would say now we are getting at least 20 a year,” he said. “[I think] people who need these services have identified us as a place to go.”

One reason for this may have to do with the fact that the Anxiety Disorders Service at the clinic is one of only a limited number of places that offers treatments supported by the most recent practice guidelines. There is a major discrepancy between recommended treatments, which have been on record since 1991, and what is actually being practiced now.

“Part of the problem that we [psychologists] have is in the field we have developed effective treatments but we have done a very poor job of training people to do them,” Valentiner said.

He went on to say that part of the problem is that Illinois does not require continuing education once someone becomes certified. The result is that only a fraction of the psychologists practicing in the community know anything about the currently recommended treatments. This means many sufferers of anxiety disorders go years without receiving the appropriate treatment, said Valentiner, which is unfortunate because many symptoms can be corrected quickly.

“We have people who come in who are typically having these random, out-of-the blue panic attacks and at the end of 12 sessions, 80 percent are panic free,” he said. “That’s not to say every person is changed by it, but most people see a dramatic reduction in problems.”

While the Psychological Services Center, including the Anxiety Disorder Service, offer their services to students free of charge, it isn’t to be confused with the Student Counseling and Development Center, located in the Campus Life building. The Counseling and Development Center is available to students only and on a walk-in basis, while appointments are required at Psychological Services Center. There is a small amount of overlap between the two however, as counselors at the Counseling and Student Development Center are able to make referrals to the clinic.

“It depends on what their concerns are and if the clinic would be better able to meet their needs,” counselor Liz Garcia said.