So when she started having some challenges with her own family a few years ago, she decided to go to the Family Counseling Service of Northern Utah in Ogden and get some help herself.

There she met Leigh Martin, who is a co-clinical director/counselor and a marriage and family therapist. Guertin described the work as a collaboration to figure things out.

“I was never told what to do,” Guertin said in an interview on Monday. “It’s a discovery of what the options are and what the outcomes might be depending on the choices. In that case, I came to see that it was more about me setting boundaries and not depending on anyone else to be happy. I discovered a road that was OK for me.”

When Guertin more recently got in a car accident and was struggling with the new challenges, she returned to Martin to have her help in working through them.

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

“I felt like she (Martin) understood me as the person I am and she would know things that would help me cope,” Guertin said.

Martin explained that helping people like Guertin is what she loves to do.

“It’s just beyond meaningful to me,” Martin said. “It gives me my life purpose to help others and to see the difference. It’s shocking to me how quickly people can change.”

That mentality defines the objectives of Family Counseling Service of Northern Utah, a small non-profit organization which celebrated its 60th birthday on Monday.

“The way that I describe the center to people who have never been here is that this is community-based counseling,” said Nancy Jones, a therapist who is the center’s President of the Board of Trustees this year. “This is counseling that takes place right here with people who need an affordable place to go to receive therapy. At any other place, they would be waiting or not being able to afford it. Mental health is so important and we need more places like this where people can get that service. To me, that is what’s really exciting about this. And the fact that it has lasted for 60 years as a small nonprofit is really amazing.”

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

The center believes in providing counseling and support to everyone. The organization treats individuals of all ages and from different backgrounds, with more than half of its clients being 25 years old or younger and more than 40% being of Hispanic/Latino or multiracial ethnicity.

Executive director W. Glenn Lanham said that the organization, which has just three full-time counselors on staff as well as administrative staff, sees more than 2,000 clients every year.

“When you walk through the center here, you see where there’s a youth room, where there’s couple rooms, where there’s family rooms, where there’s individual rooms,” Jones said. “I think people, when they hear family counseling, they think, ‘oh, it’s just for families,’ but it’s not. It’s for everybody.”

Martin has come to love being part of the organization and the many opportunities to make an impact in people’s lives.

“I think it’s literally life saving for a lot of people,” Martin said. “That’s what they tell me. They say, ‘if you weren’t here, I don’t know where I would go. I might not be alive.’ It’s a rich community of culture and diverse socioeconomic status, and there’s quite a bit of trauma history that we address here. For those who don’t have insurance or or have like a deductible that’s unaffordable, we can find ways to help them anyway. Our goal is not to turn anybody away. We want everyone who needs access to have it.”

Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner

Jones talked about how helping one individual who is facing challenges can make a big difference for the entire community.

“When you think about everybody who would not have gotten help and now they’re helped, then there is a ripple effect,” Jones said. “From this one little interaction comes all of these changes, and hopefully people will go and talk to their friends or talk to their neighbors about how they saw a counselor and she really helped me quite a bit. I think we do see a difference in that. And there’s so many more people that need help.”

Martin and Guertin both recognize that stereotypes and other constraints can make it challenging, but said that anyone who is considering counseling should give it a chance.

“I would say why don’t you give it a session or two and see how it feels?” Martin said. “You have options when choosing a therapist and it can take a little bit to find the right connection. But counselors are trained to help you make decisions and find what is right for you.”

To meet those objectives, Family Counseling Service of Northern Utah relies on its many partners as well as grants and donations. It will be holding its annual “Share Your Heart” Gala on Feb. 13 at Union Grill.

That support will provide ways for the center to continue to help people for many more years to come.

“I think the future is finding more outlets for our for our counseling,” Jones said. “Going to schools or community centers, different outlets in the community, where we would be there to provide the therapy in the same way that we provided here in this building. I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve lasted 60 years, and that I’m a small part of that. But we have a lot of things up our sleeve for the next 60 years.”

For more information about the center or to get involved, go to fcshealingnow.org.