By Open Paths MFT Intern Nicole Casimiro -
I have had the great opportunity of working in the School Program for Open Paths Counseling Center, and am now starting on my second school year. Since 1998, Open Paths has been offering one-on-one counseling to at-risk students in our local community. We provide free services to children and adolescents from kindergarten all the way up to high school. A few of the schools we currently work with include Westside Global Awareness Magnet, Mar Vista Elementary, Venice High, Braddock Drive Elementary and Playa del Rey Elementary.
Because I can’t speak for all of the other therapists who have worked in the program, I will be more than happy to describe my own time there. It has certainly been an eye-opener to say the least. I have discovered that children and adolescents themselves can be very interesting, intelligent, complicated, liberating, and quite profound. Of course there are many issues that come to the forefront that therapists work with, including children of divorce, abandonment, aggression, depression, bullying, hyperactivity, abuse, self-harm, grief, peer-pressure and loneliness. Counseling offers a safe environment where they can freely express their thoughts and feelings, that they otherwise might not have the chance to do so elsewhere.
Play therapy and art therapy are greatly utilized, sometimes as an adjunct, and other times as the main form of expression, especially for those who are not as adept in verbal communication. More specifically, mediums like clay, drawing, painting, pipe cleaners, puppets, masks, games, and other projects have been included in sessions. One of the great things about the school program is that therapists are free to be as creative as they wish in helping children and adolescents express themselves, something both parties can definitely appreciate.
In addition to one-on-one counseling, Open Paths also offers group counseling at the school sites as well. I myself conducted an all-girls, anger management group last year at Venice High, and will be starting the next one very soon. As some students have attested to, group experience can be very life changing. For a student to share her deepest insecurities in front of her peers, and still get support and acceptance from them, can be enormously therapeutic and comforting.
If you are a child at heart, some more pronounced than others (raises hand), there are few things in the world that can be as satisfying and fulfilling than working with children and adolescents. Sure I haven’t played video games since I was young and may not be up to date with the trends and times of the youth, but who knew I could acquire so much knowledge about Minecraft in just one session? Their spirit can be infectious, which makes it that much easier to be passionate about this line of work. This program offers the privilege to be able to really look into the soul of children, which can be both heartbreaking and beautiful.
