Pleasanton Student Explores Teen Mental Health Through Expert Interviews

PLEASANTON, CA — A Pleasanton student is aiming to spread knowledge of teen mental health issues through interviews with licensed psychologists and mental health professionals.

Aarya Godse, a junior at Amador Valley High School, has published six articles on topics like stress, anxiety, emotional wellbeing, and career goals for her blog "Inside the Student Mind." Godse said that she has always been interested in human psychology, and hoped to use what she learned to help her peers.

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"As I learned more about psychology, I became interested in the challenges teenagers face and how mental health can affect students' everyday lives, relationships, and academic experiences. And as a student myself, I was able to relate and experience these struggles first hand, so I found it especially important to learn more about how teens feel and do something to help them," she said.

Godse has spoken to a variety of different mental health professionals to learn about everything from different career paths in psychology and mental health to life healing to the placebo effect in psychology to AI in schools. From the interviews, she's learned that while mental health is a large and expansive field, certain elements of the job remain constant.

"There are lots of things I have learned from doing this but the main one is that there is no one solid path to building a future in the field of psychology or neuroscience. Professionals can have very different careers, work with different people, and approach mental health from different perspectives. I've also learned how important listening, empathy, and understanding someone's individual circumstances are in this field," she said.

Godse said that she hopes to continue publishing her interviews, and hopes other students will benefit from their insights. She also hopes to expand the project into panels, workshops, and more.

She also said that she hopes that everyone who needs help feels comfortable asking for it. "In today's world I believe it's incredibly important to learn about human nature so we can help not only ourselves but others too. So many people suffer silently because they don't know what is happening to them. By creating awareness about various mental health topics can help people feel heard and that's why I would love to work in the field of mental health," she said.

Visit "Inside the Student Mind" to learn more.