Many students come to Calais struggling with either anxiety, depression, school refusal, ADHD or other emotional and behavioral issues that can have a profound effect on a student’s self-esteem, academic ability, ability to make friends and his or her overall quality of life. The highly certified staff of licensed professionals that embody our Counseling Team are always available to support students and guide them toward thoughtful decisions about their behavior as well as academic, social and emotional choices. The culture at The Calais School fosters a nurturing environment where students are empowered in ways that help them learn to self-regulate their emotions and build self-esteem.

We believe that all students are capable of enormous personal growth when they are provided with the appropriate support for their needs. With our multi-tiered level of supports, students are able to increase or decrease their level of care depending on progress, as we help them build the skills necessary to transition back to district successfully. Crisis counseling, group counseling, and individual counseling at The Calais School focus on student development in the following areas:

  • Social skills training
  • Decision making and problem-solving
  • Conflict resolution
  • Anger management
  • Character development
  • Self-esteem
  • Self-advocacy
  • Social & emotional competence
  • Citizenship skills

In addition to their individual work with students, our counselors collaborate with teaching staff to implement ongoing strategies to ensure the student’s continued success. Counseling staff also work with parents to promote and generalize social and emotional growth at home through individualized programs.

Counseling & Therapeutic Interventions

Our cutting-edge counseling methodologies and therapeutic interventions are highly effective in helping each student establish and attain their academic, social, and emotional goals.

Integrated Animal Assisted Interventions

Through our Animal Assisted Interventions program, our dogs and handlers work alongside the licensed counselors and social workers on our counseling team. Students benefit from the strong sense of safety, security, and comfort that the presence of our AAI dogs can foster. Integrated Animal Assisted Therapy in the areas of OT, Counseling, Speech and Social Skills development helps students reach behavioral and therapeutic goals by delivering highly effective intervention techniques in group and individual settings.

Integrated Mindfulness

Mindfulness is integrated into individual and group/social skills counseling sessions to target the development of social and behavioral skills needed to help students cope with stress, regulate their emotions, and improve self-awareness. Our Counseling Team regularly incorporates the mindfulness practices of breathing, imagery, meditation, and reflection to help students create space in their minds to replace impulsive reactions with thoughtful responses as well as improved attention and executive functioning. Students are given concrete strategies that can be applied at school and home.

emWave® Stress Monitoring

Did you know that positive and negative emotions can be readily distinguished by changes in heart rhythm patterns? Or that the measurement of these beat-to-beat changes in heart rate can be used to deliver tremendous therapeutic benefits?

Through emWave® stress monitoring technology, changes in heart beat rhythm can be harnessed to connect body with mind and promote self-regulation. At the Calais School emWave® stress monitoring technology is used to help students who suffer from anxiety or impulse control issues. This powerful yet completely noninvasive approach to stress monitoring provides students with immediate feedback on heart-brain interactions when they feel frustrated, anxious or stressed. Through the emotional awareness and control that this feedback provides, students are able to develop skills in self-regulation that can be tapped into when handling various emotionally stressful situations.

COUNSELING & RESOURCE CENTER (CRC) SERVICES

Self -advocacy is encouraged by empowering students to request support when they feel they need it, before a problem situation escalates –this teaches self-regulation. The Counseling Center in the high school and the Counseling & Resource Center in the lower school provide real time support to our students throughout the day. If a student experiences stress or difficulty when confronted with a problem situation, they are encouraged to leave the classroom and work through the issue with this support. This allows for minimal disruption of the education process while providing each student the opportunity to refocus and work toward an alternate solution to his or her problem.

The Counseling and Resource Center teacher provides:

  • In-class support for students and staff
  • Time-out management
  • Intervention counseling
  • Practice of self-regulation skills
  • Monitoring of problematic behavior within the program