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 What is your position at DSA and what does a typical day look like? I'm the Mental Health Counselor at DSA and I meet with students about their social, emotional, and personal challenges and successes in and outside of school. I communicate with students, teachers, coaches, administrators, and parents to ensure I am meeting the needs of our students to the best of my ability.
During a typical day at Delta Streets, I meet individually with students. I meet with all students individually every month! The students know each time they meet with me I have the same “ice breaker” question for them to make our time together meaningful, productive, and to make it easier for them to communicate with me. They tell me two positives and one negative since we met last. Also, twice a month I teach whole group guidance lessons to our elementary students (4th-6th) on subjects such as; having a growth mindset, how to take responsibility for your actions, how to communicate with adults and peers, the importance of making choices and in return the consequences and rewards. My hope is through these lessons they learn skills that can help them be successful in all aspects of their lives.
Describe if/how working at DSA has been different than you expected. I have been a counselor within the school setting for 5 years and Delta Streets is different from my previous school counseling experiences. Within my role, it can be difficult for students to communicate. The smaller environment and close knit culture we have here allows me to meet with every student every month, and establish trusting relationships with our students to provide a safe space within the school for our students to come for help.
 List any goals you have for yourself and your students over this school year. A goal of mine is by the end of the school year to have established a strong-trusting relationship with the majority of our students, so that they feel comfortable having open and impactful conversations with me. Additionally, I strive to impact our students' lives in and outside of school in a positive light and be able to see and experience their growth with them. As for our students, I hope they continue to have an open mind and willingness to participate and grow from the mental health services being offered.
How do you believe your work is impacting Greenwood? Mental health counseling is a difficult job to have when it comes to working with adolescents and teens. Asking for help and communicating emotions is very difficult for them, especially in the male population. I am grateful for this opportunity, for our students to experience, first hand, the benefits of well regulated social-emotional health. Some are beginning to see the far greater outcome of communicating their emotions, asking questions, and accepting the fact that it’s ok to not do all things alone and ask for help. My hope is as our young men at DSA become more knowledgeable of the importance of mental health and experience the benefits of mental health counseling, that they can help decrease the stigma around it within our communities.
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