Derrick: Okay, figure out who’s going to talk first and the other person, just listen.

Joseph: Hi, my name is Joseph and you are?

Jayda: Jayda.

Joseph: Have you ever heard of our Peer Counseling Program?

Jayda: No.

Student: Everything we talk about is confidential, which means that–

Derrick: Peer counseling is a program that is here on our campus to help our students, our staff, and each other just kind of navigate through life.

Student: How did that make you feel?

Derrick: We’re not psychologists, we’re not telling people what to do, we’re just simply being there to listen to them and let them know that their voice will be heard.

Derrick: Just one thing to remember, don’t give advice. We’re just listening, and try to help them to work through whatever they’re going through.

Caitlin: As a peer counselor I saw people struggling with eating disorders, like, to just fighting with their parents. A lot of students had trouble with grades or, like, feeling like they didn’t fit in, they couldn’t be who they were.

Raymond: Not everybody can talk to an adult, maybe they need a peer to talk to, someone their age that might be going through what they’re going through.

Meghan: A lot of kids don’t have that at home or don’t have that in their friend group, just people who understand and want to listen to them.

Student: It’s been kind of hard on me. High school’s been a big adjustment for me.

Derrick: When they do peer counseling sessions, the students maybe walk in the hallway, they sit outside the classroom, they kind of feel out the situation, and
they go with that. In the class, we will work on a lot of things to build up to the counseling session. We’ll work on empathy activities, posture, non-verbals.

Faith: The biggest thing that I’ve learned in the peer counseling program is definitely how to listen.

Student: I haven’t been able to catch up with all my homework, I don’t know what to do.

Student: Have you tried talking to your teacher?

Derrick: That’s a good suggestion, but don’t forget to ask him, too, like, “How does that make you feel?” So, ask him about his feelings.

Lori: Person 1 is to sit and not react. What the other people in your group
are going to do is they’re going to talk about, say, Person 1 first.

Student: I feel like she’s the type of person that just likes things on certain days and then the next day she’s like, “Oh, my gosh, I hate it.”

Lori: We’ll do lessons on judgement designed to help our students understand how we see people.

Lori: How did it feel to, like, make assumptions or judgements about their person.

Student: I felt bad if my assumptions were wrong.

Lori: So, that way, they’re able to listen and not pass judgement on them and give those people time to talk.

Lori: How do we take this forward?

You might hear something with a client or–

Lori: There’s nothing that teaches you in your teacher preparatory program about how to teach a class like peer counseling. I go from, “Here’s a cell, here’s how the cell’s going to function,” to we’re talking about feelings and I hear some heavy things from my students.

Meghan: In high school, all of the stressful things all mixed together in a pot inside of you and it’s a lot to handle. Stress at home and stress at school, pressure from parents. Peer pressure is a huge issue.

Faith: Students are not getting the help they need, because it goes back towards that stigma, that fear of, like, “If I show this part of me, how will they think of me?” instead of really taking a step back and really trying to understand themselves better.

Caitlin: A lot of people don’t want to be seen as weak, but it’s not something that makes you weak, it’s just something that you have to get help with.

Student: When I can’t deal with it, you know, I just don’t, because I want–

Caitlin: I, myself, went through a really hard stage of depression my junior year where I didn’t want to come to school and I didn’t want to get out of bed.
So, when I was finally, like, able to, like, get into therapy and, like, get better I just wanted to help other people get better.

Derrick: I feel that the more that we talk about it the less power it’s got over everybody.

Teacher: So, I think it’s really important that people know the resources out there.

Lori: These are the issues we’ve been dealing with for a long time, but this generation’s more willing to talk. They will let you know, “I’m dealing with anxiety, I am depressed.” They will speak up if you’re willing to listen.

And, so, by having these resources on campus, we can get them talking. A lot of times when we get them talking, we can really get them the help that they’re going to need.

Clovis Unified School District