Our dedicated team of mental health professionals have found ways to keep providing counseling and crucial support to students in the midst of shelter-in-place and school closures. In this interview with the Tim Griffith Foundation, Gladys Gudino, one of our Transition Program Therapists, shares her experience of working with students and speaks about how they are navigating through challenges during this time.
1. How long have you been with Acknowledge Alliance?
I have been working with Acknowledge Alliance since starting my graduate school practicum in 2014. I was eager to work with the agency for some years. My first contact with their amazing work was in 2008 when I was working at the Boys and Girls Club as the College Bound Program Site Director. I recall the clinical supervisor and therapists coming in to work with the students one-on-one. I was always intrigued and yearned for the same connection with the teenagers which I knew to be loving teens that welcome genuine and supportive relationships with adults.
2. What does your role as Transition Program Therapist entail?
As a Transition Program Therapist, my work focuses on working with adolescents. I work with teens who are considered at “high risk” of dropping out of and/or being expelled from school, or they are reintegrating into comprehensive high schools. These are often students who have had behavior, attendance, or substance challenges. School staff are looking to support them so that they can graduate and stay out of juvenile hall or youth camps.
I also work with academically-inclined students who want to excel academically, but face many challenges as they transition to new schools with different environments that are bigger or smaller, less diverse, and usually more rigorous. Often, they struggle with anxiety, depression, and their sense of identity.
All of these students have a common need and desire to form bonds with caring adults – people who hold no agenda and listen to them in order to understand and accept them. They yearn for a non-judgemental relationship where their fears, frustrations, and trains of thought can be laid out to be heard and respected; they want their stories to be honored. Many, if not all, of these young people come from families where there is immense love, but often a lack of knowing how to connect with one another, how to amend hard experiences, or how to make decisions that would break unhealthy family cycles.
3. How have you had to change to accommodate shelter-in-place?
As a clinician and essential worker, shelter-in-place has forced me to transition to a different platform for my therapy sessions. This means having tele sessions or video sessions, and phone calls with the majority of students. For students in crisis or families living in very small spaces that do not permit for the privacy or internet connection needed for a remote session, I safely follow strict social distancing, cleaning and health protocol to make any necessary arrangements upon meeting. Despite “zoom fatigue” from remote learning, my student clients have shown over and over their commitment to their mental health. They attend their weekly therapy sessions and their interpersonal work continues seamlessly.
Personally, video sessions have required adjusting as a clinician. Tracking body language, tone, and emotion through a small screen is different. While this can be a challenge, there are benefits. In a small way, the playing field is leveled: I am meeting them in their space. I am welcomed into their home and I experience their home life in some way. This gives for a better understanding of the experience of my clients.
4. How are your students adjusting to shelter-in-place?
Students are adjusting in incredible ways. Shelter-in-place has uprooted students from their normal lives and from their school experience which is a large part of their life. From one day to another, students were asked to pick up their belongings and prepare to not return to their schools. They did not have a chance to say goodbye to friends and/or teachers. At home, they were faced with additional challenges: learning how to learn remotely, crowded homes, laid off parents, and piling bills with no end date in sight. Many graduates felt robbed of a spring of celebration, minimal work, and lifelong memories. Despite all of this, they continue to navigate the day-to-day. In my case, they show up for our sessions ready to share genuinely and willing to listen to what little I have to say that may offer encouragement or gentle reminders of their strengths.
5. What kinds of difficulties are they facing at the moment?
Students are having an array of difficulties. Many things are uncertain and students are processing all of this. Some are the same ones as before: unsolved trauma, absent parents, academic frustrations, and limitations to age-appropriate independence. In many cases, students who were well on their way to separating from their families, literally and figuratively, feel trapped. Now with this indefinite shelter-in-place, those who anticipated leaving home for college after getting through high school no longer know what summer and college may look like anymore. For others, their plans of getting a summer job are suspended. Students are being pulled back into family systems that may not be conducive to individuation: they are asked to take care of siblings, they are considering staying local to save money, and some are feeling guilty about leaving their families during dire times. The futures they imagined and worked hard to achieve are now clouded with uncertainty and financial struggles.
6. How are you advising them to cope with those difficulties?
It is a lot of reassurance and validating. I reassure them that as a community and state, we are doing what we know is best to ensure the safety and health of our population. We understand that anxiety under these unusual circumstances is normal. I validate all of their feelings because any reaction to this abnormal situation is valid. We can feel any way we want and that is okay. We strive to practice mindfulness and acceptance of all our feelings. We look at the facts to help make plans one step at a time.
We also deal with anticipatory grief. This means addressing this “living loss”: we know things have changed, but we also know there are still more that will change. We will continue to lose things and this can feel powerless. So we name our feelings, we own them, and we let them pass. There is power, and empowerment, in naming them. All of this falls under the umbrella of self-care which is of utter importance right now. I talk with my clients and with youth groups about this, and remind them about setting boundaries. When they learn to take care of themselves, they can act and speak in accordance with their own values during this time of crisis. I also remind them of their strengths and help them find their own voice in the chaos that exists. Often, we just need to take a moment to be reminded of who we are.
