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School Matters: Stop by your children's school counselor
by Joanie King
Palo Alto Daily News
Through the On-Campus Counseling Program (OCC), Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS) has counselors available to our children in all of the public middle and high schools in Palo Alto, as well as at Menlo-Atherton and Redwood high schools.
ACS provides intervention and support for students and their families and helps ensure a safe, strong school community. If your older child is going through a difficult time, the school counselor should be your first stop.
OCC has a dedicated team of therapists ready, willing and able to give guidance and support for the short- or long-haul. The OCC Program serves a diverse population of students, ages 12 to 18.
Over the past school year along, more than 1,100 teens and their families received counseling in a choice of indivdual, family or group therapy sessions. The program fulfils an esential function in the psychological component of our kids' growth and development.
For the first time, ACS provided summer counseling at Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto and Menlo-Atherton high schools. Program Director Laurie Linscheid, MFT, supervised clinical interns over the summer, offering accessible therapy and continuity for clients and families.
More and more kids are seeking counseling for that familiar culprit, stress. Stress has had some bad press lately. We are failing to see how overbooked our kids are, but because they have such excelllent role models, they just seem to take more and more on.
In a recent article, "Life in the Fast Lane: A Healthy Response to Stress," OCC Program Director Margaret Murchan, LCSW, had this to say to parents: "You can have an impact on how your teenager deals with life. You can help them with:
- Balance - Admissions departments are looking for students who are balanced, not just those who have a high GPA. Encourage your children to pursue their passion.
- Patience - Help your teenager take one day at a time, one goal at a time and do the same for yourself.
- Making conscious choices - Help them choose to do something rather than feel that a force outside themselves is making the decision. Help them be proactive.
- Giving as well as "having it all" - Is "having it all" the American dream or is it "having unlimited potential?" There is a difference.
- Realistic boundaries - When a teenager is taking on too much, you can be there for them as a "reality check." Ask them how that plan is going to work for them. Is it realistic?
- Acceptance - All of our children are different. We need to celebrate their differences and not try to mold them to one outcome."
To learn more about ACS or the On-Campus Counseling Program, visit www.acs-teens.org. or contact Margaret Murchan at 650-424-0852 ex. 102 or occp@acs-teens.org.
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