The Ministry of Health awarded the Salesian Pshycological Center "Padre Emilio Gambirasio" a certificate which validates its operation as a rehabilitation center to provide health services.

 

Up to October 2017 the center has treated 1732 patients, it has also jointly worked with UPS research groups related to this field. This center was created thanks to Father Emilio Gambirasio and Father Jose Espinosa, who in 1964 started this project in the "Salesiano Don Bosco" high school. It is currently located in the Abya Yala Cultural Center in "El Giron" campus in Quito. 

The center has a multidisciplinary team of professionals that provide medical attention to the university community and the overall public. There are 27 professionals, most of whom are UPS professors in the psychology undergraduate program.

The Center offers the following services:

• Individual psychotherapy
• Couple psychotherapy
• Family psychotherapy
• Academic recovery
• Language therapy
• Practical teaching activities
• Psychological and Psychopedagogical Assessments
• Vocational and professional orientation
• Group and advisory therapies
• Intervention in crisis,
• Supervision of cases
• Selection of personnel and promotion

The Center has a training room with capacity for 20 people, a play therapy room for children, a care room for families, as well as 14 offices for attention, an area of psychometrics, a psychomotor room and a Gesell Camera.

Students and members of the university community can access the services with different prices: $ 6.00 individual appointment, $ 10.00 couple appointment, $ 12.00 family appointment, $ 25.00 psychopedagogical evaluations, clinics or vocational guidance. Cases assigned by the Student services department or by Human Resources have no cost. For the overall public the prices are: $ 10.00 individual appointment; $ 12.00 couple appointment; $ 15.00 family appointment,; $ 50.00 in case of psychopedagogical evaluations, clinics or vocational guidance. 

Irene Lema, director of the Student services department in Quito, points out that there is attention to students with problematic diagnoses or who need vocational guidance. In February 2012, they published the book "The Salesian Psychopedagogical Medical Center", which compiles the work done by those who preserve the work and memory of Fr. Gambirasio since the 1960s.