Counseling Program

Prospect Academy will provide mental health support and counseling to all students to support the growth of self-regulation skills, increased emotional awareness and expression, the development of social skills and the growth of healthy self-esteem in our students. Our counseling staff will provide regular individual counseling to our students, facilitate skill building groups, create behavioral support plans to support the mental health needs of our students in the classroom, provide in-the-moment support to students as needed and engage school staff in mental health education and preventative training to support the overall wellbeing and success of our students. It is estimated that between 5 and 9% of students are impacted by emotional and behavioral barriers that impact their ability to learn and reach their full academic potential (US Department of Health and Human Services 1999) and that social and emotional factors that are essential to effective learning in the classroom are often ignored (Daly et al. 2006; Gaylord et al. 2005).

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Since these findings, many initiatives have been created focused on promoting increased school based mental health services to better support the mental health and educational needs of students (US Public Health Service 2000). Prospect Academy intends to create an educational program including extensive counseling support to meet these needs in our school. Therapeutic models that our counseling staff will utilize will include Applied Behavior Analysis (as previously reviewed), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Counseling services will be individually designed to meet the developmental needs of each student.