Photograph by Robert Scheer
Lynn Lawrence advises a student at Redwood School. She has completed nearly 3,000 hours of counseling time.
By Tim Persyn
When teens in Saratoga need help, there is a place they can turn. The Teen Counseling Center of West Valley offers both school-based counseling programs at Saratoga High School and Redwood Middle School and counseling programs at its clinic in Los Gatos.
The school-based program is free to students, while the fee-based services of the clinic are available to the general community.
During the school year, Saratoga High School has a counselor from the center available on campus 15 hours a week. Saratoga High Vice Principal Karen Hyde explained the significance of this campus resource.
"We don't have counselors that do personal counseling; we just have academic counselors," she said. "And life is more than academics."
The school-based program consists of both group and individual counseling. Students can refer themselves or be referred by the school's student study team, which consists of administration, the center's counselor, a police officer and guidance counselors. Parents and teachers can also make referrals.
Saratoga High's counselor is Mark Saindon, an intern at the center who is working toward his license as a counselor. He is supervised by Becky St. George, a licensed counselor.
Saindon said the types of issues he helps students with include everything found in a cross-section of the population.
"I'm someone they can talk to about sensitive issues...if there is no one else they feel they can talk to about it or they're not ready to talk to parents, friends or a teacher," Saindon said.
Topics in group counseling at both Saratoga and Redwood might include divorce. In these groups, students support each other and discuss important issues with their peers.
Nina Whitcaneck, a member of the faculty at Redwood, explained how the center's counselor at the school, Lynn Lawrence, can help students going through a difficult developmental period. "Kids can get help on peer relations, managing anger, family issues or long-term issues," she said.
She explained how Lawrence has helped Redwood students. In particular, Whitcaneck said students of middle-school age need to learn how to manage strong emotions.
"She (Lawrence) helps kids through critical times when how they react makes a difference," she said. "She obviously cares about kids and has helped many get through their middle-school years."
The counseling program provides a "safe zone" for students on the Redwood campus. "It's a safe place where they can develop a trusting relationship," Lawrence commented.
The counseling center contracts its services to a total of seven schools. Pat Lake, director of administration at the center, said schools pay two-thirds of the cost while the center raises the rest of the money through fundraisers.
The center is a nonprofit agency that also provides a clinic program in Los Gatos. The clinic offers counseling for the general community, including teens, adults, couples and families.
Fees are charged on a sliding scale. "We don't turn anyone away because they can't pay," Lake said.
She explained that the center relies on constant fundraising because it is not paid as much money as it costs to provide services.
She said the clinic sees about 700 clients a year. "It's important for people to know that we're here when they have nowhere else to turn," she said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, June 19, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved