Counseling Corner

The DHMS counseling office is excited to start a newsletter! Twice every trimester, we will send out the "Counselor Corner" Newsletter for you to enjoy. By doing this, we hope you are able to gain some helpful resources, as well as be updated on any DHMS counseling news. As always if you ever have any questions, feel free to reach out to us counselors.

- Ms. Bechard, Ms. Goodier, Ms. Kunert

We are excited to announce that DHMS students have the option to take an online course called EmpowerU. EmpowerU helps students develop the relevant life skills to thrive in the face of adversity and build grit and resilience to navigate the challenges and rigor of school, life and social relationships with confidence. Students learn how to manage stress, negative thinking, social connections, life balance, and more.

What is the time commitment and what are the logistics? The course is free and done all online on your own time. It is not embedded into any DHMS classes, so this is something that you have to make extra time for and is usually done at home. The course consists of 18 lessons that take about 20 minutes each. If you sign up for EmpowerU, you would get your log in information and set up with a licensed instructor who would be checking in with you. You would need to complete 3 lessons per week. If you want to set up a time to do this at school (over your lunch or at FLEX) you can work out that plan with your school counselor. Let your counselor know if you would like an application. We only have 20 spaces for this course so if we get a lot of applicants we may have to do an interview process.

Check out this EmpowerU video: https://youtu.be/yHYrTf4PyMM

A student currently in the course wrote “I am actually loving EmpowerU. It is work but it is not like hard work at all, it’s meaningful and helpful. It is a great class for me to be able to learn skills that help me process my feelings and stress and it is nice knowing I have someone to be there for me and support me online each day. Overall I really love it and I think it would be a great course for all students.“

DHMS is partnered with Every Meal - Fighting Child Hunger to provide weekend meals to families in our school community. Every Meal provides a few non-perishable food items each week. It is free of cost to families and the bag of food will be placed in students backpacks for them to take home, every Thursday. Email your counselor if you would like to sign up.

DHMS students have access to therapy at school through the Associated Clinic of Psychology. ACP is our school-linked mental health service and is offered through a grant from The Children’s Mental Health Division of the MN Department of Human Services. These services are available for qualifying students with mental health concerns. For more information contact school counselors.

For the ACP Newsletter click here: https://www.smore.com/tydew

Sometimes life can be overwhelming and it can be hard to work through difficult times. This Virtual Calming Room was designed to assist in identifying different strategies for managing emotions. We hope these tools will provide helpful outlets and practices for when life gets tough.

Here is the link:

https://www.district196.org/about/calm-room

Feeling overwhelmed, anxious or stressed? Change to Chill offers free online mental health resources for teens designed to help them learn how to relax and integrate healthy habits into their lifestyle. Whether you’re a teen yourself, a mentor or a parent, explore our mindfulness guides and stress relief activities for teens to help yourself and others soothe their minds and Change to Chill.

Here is the link:

https://www.changetochill.org/

We are available during school hours

Maureen Bechard

6th Grade

Maureen.Bechard@district196.org

651-683-6846

Rachel Goodier

7th Grade

Rachel.Goodier@district196.org

651-683-6868

Erica Kunert

8th Grade

Erica.Kunert@district196.org

651-683-6847