Category: School Based Clinical Services

By: Aja Bradley, Clinician This school year Pathways introduced a new club called Braiding Beauty. Braiding Beauty was created to teach students how to do various styles like French braids, box braids, and knotless braids on themselves or others. I started braiding my own hair in 2018. Through years of YouTube videos and lots of…

By: Luisa Perez, Clinician One morning, a student cautiously walked into the counseling office and motioned that she wanted to talk. Choked up by her tears, the student explained she felt she did not belong among her school peers as an Indian girl. I could hear her frustration as she expressed wanting to fit in…

By Gideon Abadilla, Youth Development Specialist In honor of LGBTQ Pride Month, the Carteret High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) hosted Pride events within the high school this past June. On June 2nd, the GSA sponsored a Pride Month Giveaway Table where they distributed a multitude of LGBTQ-themed freebies to students and staff outside…

Alyssa Steele and Alexa Manley, Clinicians A key role as a school-based mental health clinician is prevention education. The purpose of prevention education is to proactively approach issues, rather than addressing them after they have already occurred. Developing resiliency is an important part of prevention because it equips students with the tools and skills they…

Alyssa Steele and Alexa Manley, Clinicians Carteret Elementary Schools acknowledge growth mindset as the social emotional learning topic for the month of May. Having a growth mindset means that we believe our abilities can be further developed with dedication, hard work and persistence. When a child has a growth mindset, they believe in themselves and…

By Alejandra Lopez, Clinician As the end of the 2022-2023 school year comes to an end. The Path at Carteret Junior High School hosted their 2nd Annual Glam Sessions for 8th-grade students for their dinner dance. Alejandra Lopez and Sofia Saieh-Kuczynski from The Path, created this event for students to have the opportunity to receive…

By: Lauren Balkan, Deputy Director – School-Based Clinical Services Since 2006, Wellspring has been delivering school-based clinical services (SBCS) in Middlesex County. The flagship program, Pathways School-Based Youth Services Program, established at Carteret High School, is funded by a grant from the NJ Department of Children and Services. Additional programs have been implemented at Carteret…

By: Jordan Indyk, Clinician for School Based Clinical Services In 2021 the World Health Organization estimated that about 4% of adolescents aged 10-14 struggle with an anxiety disorder and about 1.5% with depression. Over the past couple of years and with the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, struggles with mental health have been on…

By Wellspring Staff The importance of addressing mental health in schools has been recognized as an essential aspect of a student’s well-being. Mental health services and programs have been put in place in many schools across the country to support students who may be struggling. Metuchen High School is one school that has benefitted from…

By: Jordan Indyk, Clinician for School Based Clinical Services In 2022, it was reported that 1 in 10 high school and middle school students have used e-cigarettes, among those youth more than 1 in 4 reported daily use. E-cigarette and vape usage is on the rise, students are starting at younger ages and frequency is…

By: Jordan Indyk, Clinician for School Based Clinical Services This year Wellspring Center for Prevention was granted the opportunity to expand further into the South Plainfield School District. Clinicians entered both Grant School and South Plainfield Middle School to help provide services in lower grade levels, to try and address issues at a younger before…