Counseling Services
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School Counseling Program
- School Counseling Program
- Need to Talk? Hazel Health is Here.
- College and Career Planning Guide
- Mental Health Resources for Families
- Self Care Resources
- Program Components
- Partner Agencies
- Recovery Center Database
- Family & Student Resources
School Counseling Program
The School Counseling program is an integral piece of the overall educational process. School Counselors provide a comprehensive program that supports students’ academic, personal, social/emotional and career development. Growth and learning are developmental; therefore, guidance must be developmental and sequential. The need for guidance begins with pre-school entrance and continues throughout life.
The Comprehensive School Counseling Program is a K-12 developmental program that is concerned with all students while recognizing the fact that individuals have needs that will continue to require special attention. As a result, the comprehensive guidance program is for all students and becomes developmental rather than crisis-oriented.
Need to Talk? Hazel Health is Here.
College and Career Planning Guide
Mental Health Resources for Families
- BHR
- St. Louis County Youth Connection Helpline
- CHADS
- Jewish Family and Children Services
- KUTO
- NCADA
- Provident
- Safe Connections
- SSM Behavioral Health
- Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- UMSL
BHR
BHR provides confidential telephone counseling to people in mental health crises as well as mobile outreach services, community referral services and critical incident stress management (CISM). BHR’s crisis hotline and mobile outreach services are provided free of charge to the public by paid professional staff who have masters degrees in their respective behavioral science disciplines.
Crisis Hotline Numbers: 314-469-6644 1-800-811-4760
St. Louis County Youth Connection Helpline
St. Louis County Youth Connection Helpline
Call - 314-628-2929 or 1-877-928-2929
Chat - KeepingKidsFirst.org
Text - 4HLP to 31658
Go - SafePlace Locations
CHADS
CHADS offers school outreach programs, community awareness presentations, and classes as well as family support programs to advance the awareness and prevention of depression and suicide.
314-952-8274 (available 9 am-5:30 pm) 24/7 support line 314-469-6644
Jewish Family and Children Services
Jewish Family and Children's Service - We provide comprehensive and confidential counseling to help our clients who are experiencing distress in their lives. Our licensed therapists use a range of approaches to provide counseling for families, children, and adolescents who are coping with difficult times or disruptive life events, such as:
- Depression/anxiety
- Trauma
- Abuse/violence
- Interpersonal relationships
- Mental/physical illness
- Parent/child relationships
- Family conflict
- School behavior
- Social skills
KUTO
KUTO is dedicated to providing youth-focused programming throughout the greater St. Louis area. Our crisis prevention, suicide intervention, and postvention support services include community awareness, outreach and education; a youth-staffed telephone hotline; Peer Helper Skills Training; and support for survivors of a completed suicide. Our philosophy is simple; KUTO is teens helping teens help themselves.
Kids Under Twenty-One - 1-888-644-5886
NCADA
NCADA works to reduce or prevent the harms of alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention, and advocacy.
Click here to ask one of the knowledgeable NCADA counselors a question or call 314-962-3456
Provident
Provident is unlike any other mental health organization in St. Louis. Since our inception over 160 years ago, we have provided high-quality professional services to generations of individuals, couples, and families throughout the region. We believe that counseling isn’t just for those who are hurting; we know that anyone can benefit from taking time to focus on creating a happier life for themselves. We are trained to show our clients how investing in personal growth can allow them not just to survive, but to thrive. We do this by providing the skills and tools necessary for making and maintaining significant life changes. Our clients tend to experience a positive difference in their moods, lives, and relationships.
Together, we work to find your path to a brighter future.
Appointments and Information - 314-533-8200
Safe Connections
The mission of Safe Connections is to reduce the impact and incidence of relationship violence and sexual assault through education, crisis intervention, counseling, and support services.
24 Hour Crisis Helpline - 314-531-2003
SSM Behavioral Health
SSM Behavioral Health - Our team of counselors, psychiatrists, nurses and specialized therapists treat children with a wide range of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety and mood disorders and is committed to supporting the emotional and mental well-being of patients and their families every step of the way.
Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Suicide Prevention Lifeline - We can all help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals.
1-800-273-TALK
UMSL
UMSL - Community Psychological Services 314-516-HELP
The Center for Behavioral Health is committed to providing high quality, affordable counseling, and evaluation services to adults, couples, children, and families.
- Assessment
- Child and Family Therapy
- Adult Therapy
- Therapy for Older Adults and their Families
- Couples Counseling
- Group Therapy
Self Care Resources
Self Care Resources
Ways to Take Care of Yourself
- Accept yourself as you are
- Allow your emotions to come to the surface
- Compliment yourself
- Delegate
- Get enough sleep
- Get more sunlight
- Keep track of your achievements
- Light candles
- Limit your media consumption….especially social media
- Listen to your favorite music
- Make a plan of everything that needs to be done
- Make room for rest
- Make sure you keep in touch with your friends
- Meditate in the morning
- Say no to anything that is not important to you
- Take 5 minutes in the morning to just stretch and breathe
- Spend your lunchtime as sacred you-time
- Take a run or a walk
- Write support thoughts and affirmations
- Write a daily gratitude list
Accept yourself as you are
Let yourself off the hook and accept that you are only human. You are doing your absolute best, and you are doing exactly what you need to do. Trust your instincts and keep doing whatever you’re doing. You don’t need to change anything about yourself – trust that you are perfect just the way you are.
Allow your emotions to come to the surface
Compliment yourself
Delegate
Get enough sleep
This old advice is not only essential when it comes to self-care, it is also absolutely essential when it comes to being able to do your best. Particularly important when it comes to exam periods and work stress, sleep will help you achieve. It’s easy to think that a few extra hours of work will do you more good, but it won’t. Sleep will.
Get more sunlight
Keep track of your achievements
It may seem like you’re never going to get over a busy period, which is why you should keep a list of achievements close at any time. Whenever you hit a milestone – write it down! It will be very useful when you’re feeling tired by the end of the day and know that you still have several more hours of work before you can call it a day.
Light candles
Limit your media consumption….especially social media
Listen to your favorite music
Make a plan of everything that needs to be done
Instead of juggling all your to-do’s and must-remembers, write them down on a piece of paper. Then make a plan of how you are going to manage everything before your deadline. You may have to schedule a lot of tasks on certain days, and it may seem like too much to do, but at least you’ll know that everything will get done. Make sure you stick to the plan, every single day. Don’t fall for the temptation to start on tomorrow’s tasks today, trust that the plan will take you there, and enjoy some free time on the days when you finish your tasks early.
Make room for rest
This one’s important. Make sure that whenever you plan to rest – really rest. That means that you will have to make a conscious effort to push all work-related thoughts and worries away. It’s also important that you rest your mind as well as your body. 5 minutes of stillness is better than 30 minutes in front of the TV!
Make sure you keep in touch with your friends
Just a few text messages, tweets or the occasional coffee will make sure your friendships don’t suffer. You will feel much better when you focus on something else entirely, and it will prevent you from becoming a workaholic hermit. You don’t have to keep in touch with everybody, most people will understand that you’re having a busy period. Just make sure you stay in touch with the people that make you happy and inspired.
Meditate in the morning
Say no to anything that is not important to you
Laundry, phone calls with your mom, demanding friends – this is not the time to be nice and “responsible”. Give yourself permission to focus on what’s important. Getting the unessential responsibilities off your schedule will not only create some extra time and space, but it will also lighten the burden you’re feeling to keep up with it.
Take 5 minutes in the morning to just stretch and breathe
If you start your day in a stressful way, you’ll probably feel stressed for the rest of the day as well. Make sure your morning starts with 5 minutes of silence and ease. Stand up and stretch your body to make you as tall as you can be. Then bend over and touch the ground. Stretch again. Try to just feel your body and pay attention to your breath. Starting the day in a way like this will make you more relaxed as well!
Spend your lunchtime as sacred you-time
Take a run or a walk
Write support thoughts and affirmations
Write a daily gratitude list
Program Components
School Counselor Curriculum
Individual Student Planning
Individual Planning is a program component of the Missouri Comprehensive School Counseling Program (MSCP) that assists all students with educational/career planning, educational transitioning, and self-appraisal for decision making. Individual Planning is vital to every student's college and career readiness development grades K-12.
Responsive Services
The school counselors should be available and responsive to special or unexpected needs of students and parents/guardians. Thus, the purpose of the Responsive Services Component is to work with students whose personal circumstances, concerns or problems have the potential to interfere with healthy social/emotional, academic, and career development. Issues that students may face include academic challenges, educational and career decision making, family loss, relationships, school attendance, stress, substance abuse, physical abuse and neglect, and suicide. As a result, there is continuing need for individual counseling, small group counseling, crisis intervention, consultation, and referral. The Responsive Services component also supports the activities in the School Counseling Curriculum and Individual Student Planning components.
As students are supported in overcoming barriers to their social/emotional, academic, and career development, parent/guardian involvement is essential. This may come in the form of referring their children for assistance, working with school counselors to identify issues of concern, giving permission for needed services, and providing help in resolving issues.
Responsive services are implemented through the following: individual counseling, small group counseling, crisis intervention, consultation, and referral.
System Support
The Missouri Comprehensive School Counseling Program System Support component contains the management activities and services required to effectively support a district's comprehensive school counseling program.
The system support component is implemented through activities such as:
- Program management
- Evaluation
- Program evaluation
- Personnel evaluation
- Results of evaluation
- Professional development
- Staff and community relations
- Consultation and collaboration
- Committee participation
- Community outreach
- Program advocacy
- School support
Students receive guidance through:
- Individual and Group Counseling
- Academic Support
- Career Exploration
- Transition
Counseling topics might include:
- Divorce
- Loss
- Truancy
- Stress
- Academic Support
- Drug Abuse
- Coping
- Abuse
- Depression
- Family Issues
- Suicide Prevention
- Relationships
Partner Agencies
- Community Mediation Services of St. Louis
- Preferred Family Healthcare
- BHR
- CHADS
- Compass Health Network
- Great Circle
Community Mediation Services of St. Louis
St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area that does not have a sustainably funded and supported community mediation program. Community Mediation Services of St. Louis has been working to fill this void. We have been bringing people together to talk and resolve differences since 1999. We help parties address their conflicts by arranging a convenient time, a safe location, and providing professionally trained mediators to listen to the parties and facilitate a conversation process that helps parties identify needs and find solutions. The conversation, decisions, and outcomes are up to the parties. Because mediation offers parties the opportunity to create their own solutions, satisfaction with the process is often high.
To learn more visit their website!
Preferred Family Healthcare
BHR
Emotional Regulation Presentations (kdg-12th gr) ~ BHR provides Emotional Regulation presentations to help students identify the signs their bodies give to indicate they are feeling overwhelmed, so they are able to self-correct. Discussion occurs around the development of healthy and effective coping skills. Examples of skills students can use at home and school are given. A self-care plan is provided to all students with BHR contact information included.
CHADS
- Signs of Suicide (SOS) ® (5th-9th gr) ~ An evidence-based universal suicide prevention program that teaches participants the signs of depression, signs suicide, and the importance of telling a Trusted Adult when they notice those warning signs in themselves or someone they know. Training sessions are available for youth starting in 5th grade through college as well as parents, teachers, and community members. Through the screening and self-referral process in student trainings, SOS gives students an immediate, tangible action to seek help. Schools are able to identify students that may otherwise have fallen through the cracks and connect them with resources as early as possible.
- Social-Emotional Mentoring (kdg-12th gr) ~ The program uses the evidenced-based Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) competencies to improve the social and emotional wellbeing in students Kindergarten through 12th grade. Participants in the program are matched with a CHADS Social Emotional Mentor and meet weekly one on one for 30-minute sessions structured on the five social emotional learning skills: Self-Management, Self-Awareness, Social-Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making. Research has shown that students who develop skills in these areas also experience improvement in grades, behavior, peer relationships and an overall sense of well-being.
- Family Support Counseling (kdg-12th gr) ~ This program provides targeted, short-term counseling support to children and adolescents (ages 25 and under) who are struggling with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and/or suicidal ideation. CHADS licensed and provisionally-licensed counselors and social workers utilize evidence-based Brief Solution-Focused Therapy interventions to help their clients set goals, develop coping skills, and find hope for the future. CHADS clinicians are thoroughly trained and uniquely qualified to address thoughts of suicide. Clients typically meet with their therapist weekly for 6-8 sessions actively moving toward their goals set during the first session.
Compass Health Network
- Pinocchio Program (kdg-3rd gr) ~ This program is an early identification/early intervention program designed to serve children in kindergarten through third-grade identified as having emerging, mild to moderate behavioral problems, school adjustment issues, or emotionally-based social problems. The program helps children identify their emotions, supports children in finding their voice, and promotes the development of an improved self-concept.
Great Circle
- Therapeutic Services (kdg-12th gr) ~ The School-Based Mental Health Program provides individual therapy, group therapy, and family therapy to students who either have a mental health diagnosis or present with symptoms that may lead to a mental health diagnosis.
- Great Circle Prevention Program (kdg-12th gr) ~ The School-Based Prevention Program provides behavior intervention services to students who have been identified as having behavior concerns in the classroom. Services provided focus on character improvement, academic success, and emotional regulation.
Recovery Center Database
No one should have to navigate the path to recovery alone. Our counseling team now offers a quick, confidential way to connect with treatment centers in your area.
Just enter your location, and the database will pull up nearby recovery programs — from outpatient support to residential treatment — so you can take the next step with clarity and confidence.
This tool is free, private, and designed to help students, families, and community members get connected to real support, fast.
If you’re ready to explore options, or just need to know what’s out there, start with the link below. You’re not alone, and help is closer than you think.
Family & Student Resources
Family & Student Resources
Our Counseling Department has gathered a collection of tools, guides, and support options designed to help families and students navigate school, life, and everything in between. Whether you’re looking for academic support, mental health resources, community services, or tips for strengthening communication at home, this is your hub.
These resources were created with one goal in mind: making sure every FFSD student feels supported, understood, and equipped to thrive.
Click below to explore the full set of Family & Student Resources — and know that our counselors are here to help every step of the way.
Contacts
What do school counselors do?
Elementary School Counselors
Elementary School Counselors assist students in learning the skills and attitudes necessary to be successful learners. They help students learn that the classroom is their first workplace and that communication, decision-making, interpersonal and career awareness skills are important to their success.
Middle School Counselors
Middle School Counselors work with students to address their career, personal, social, and educational needs and concerns. They provide students with expanded career awareness and career exploration activities to assist them in the development and utilization of short and long-range education and career plans.
High School Counselors
High School Counselors work with students in acquiring the knowledge to help form the foundation for their next steps both educationally and occupationally. They assist students in developing realistic education and career plans based on a clear understanding of themselves, their needs, interests, skills, and the realities and possibilities of the worlds of education and work.
Facts and Figures - Client Enablement Consultant






