Jocelyn, a Marriage and Family Therapist, has been at SAY for five years. She has worked as a counselor in local schools, at the Coffee House Teen Shelter and has led groups for teens who are on probation. Currently, Jocelyn leads SAY’s anger management and diversion groups. She loves to see the progress her clients achieve. “I feel so privileged to do this work and love seeing young people make healthy changes in their lives.”
Diversion programs for youth who have been arrested are particularly important to our local community. It costs about $145,000 a year just to house a young person at Juvenile Hall. For about $1,600, our counselors are able to reunite that same young person with their family – and give them tools and resources to cope with challenges in the future.
Working with youth can be particularly challenging, and Jocelyn works to build trust with all of her clients. “As a therapist, my philosophy is that each person I see is an expert on their own life and family. I trust that expertise, which allows me to help them discover and develop skills they already possess to make their lives safer and more connected.”
The youth in our counseling groups consistently reach out and care for one another. This shows every time a youth tells another how something that was shared in group has impacted them to think about their own life and behavior.
Other times, after a teen has shared about a dangerous behavior, a peer who used to do that same thing will share how they made changes in their own lives to be safer. “It’s so powerful to see our teens take the group work seriously. Not only to reach out to one another, but also to make changes to their own behavior to be safer or do things that will move them towards their future goals.”
