Stressed Out? Music is the Cure!

Image: Stephen McLeod Blythe – Muzak Stephanie Olano ACS Outpatient Counseling Program Clinical Intern Music has played a very important role in my life. From the time I was 10-years-old I could list the various bands that were heavily influenced by The Beatles. Adults found this impressive, but I found this knowledge strange and confusing because they […]

Read More

Concentrates: When Marijuana Doesn’t Look Like Marijuana

Image: Brad Bethell  By Evan Sahn ACS’ Outpatient Counseling Intern As a substance abuse counselor, one of my many responsibilities is to assist adolescents and families in achieving reduction in substance use, resolve internal family conflicts, resolve psychological issues that drive substance use, and eventually achieve sobriety.  That being said, we do spend some of […]

Read More

The Art of Saying “No”

Image: Heather Wiliams JoAnn Kukulus, ACS Outpatient Counseling Services Intern During adolescence, a great deal of communication that is initiated from teens toward their parents entails a request for permission to engage in an activity (sleepover, concert, party, use the car, etc.) or acquire a desired object (new clothes, athletic equipment, video game, etc.). Responsible […]

Read More

Stress management for beginners – and the rest of us!

Image: Miguel Virkkunen Carvalho By Charlotte Villemoes, LMFT On-Campus Counseling Program Site Director, Woodside High School Every day, all of us experience some sort of stress. Most of the teens I meet in my private and professional life will at some point talk about how stressed they are; they talk about feeling overwhelmed by school demands, […]

Read More

Motivational Interviewing and Self-Care Workshop

Friday, March 27, 2015 from 9 am – 4 pm  Location: PAUSD District Offices, 25 Churchill Ave, Palo Alto Fee: $50 per person (Refreshments and light lunch included) All professionals in the mental health field are welcome to take part in this one day, two-part workshop, exploring the spirit of motivational interviewing (MI) and self-care for […]

Read More

What is the Choking Game?

By Beverly Reyes ACS Outpatient Counseling Services Intern Source: http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/healthfitness/f/ChokingGame.htm Question: What is the Choking Game? Answer: The choking game is a dangerous practice of tweens and teens in which they self-strangulate in order to achieve a brief high. The high is the result of oxygen rushing back to the brain after it’s cut off by the practice of strangulation. […]

Read More

A Parent’s Guide to Teen Depression

Source: http://www.pamfblog.org/ Meg Durbin, M.D. a board-certified internist and pediatrician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Although being moody and irritable is often normal for teenagers, depression is not simply a side effect of growing up. Depression is a serious medical condition that affects approximately one in five teens before they reach adulthood and is the leading […]

Read More

Part 2: Inside the Mind of a Youth Facing Depression: Recovery

image: Laura Smith “How Fun” Continuation of “Part 1:Inside the Mind of a Youth Facing Depression” Note: This essay was authored by a local student to document a personal experience with depression. The writer, with parental support, was able to access professional help. Significantly, the author felt they could not share this experience openly, fearing […]

Read More

Part 1:Inside the Mind of a Youth Facing  Depression

image: Carlos Perez “Teen Dreams” Note:This essay was authored by a local student to document a personal experience with depression. The writer, with parental support, was able to access professional help. Significantly, the author felt they could not share this experience openly, fearing stigma.   I don’t know how it started, or how it took over […]

Read More