Counseling Services
School Counseling at EPS: School Counselors offer short-term, solution-focused, and strengths-based counseling to all Eastside Prep students. Counselors provide individualized support on a wide range of concerns such as stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, friendships, and identity development. While School Counselors do not provide primary treatment or therapy for mental health concerns, all are equipped with clinical knowledge and experience. Counselors aim to work collaboratively with students to develop strategies and plans that will increase their ability to cope, effectively communicate with others, and promote positive well-being.
Confidentiality: All of this begins with providing an open and nonjudgmental space for students to be vulnerable in expressing concerns that are often hard to share. Confidentiality is a key component of school counseling – while counselors must share information when there is a serious safety concern, the majority of conversations in the counseling space remain private between the student and counselor. Counselors review the boundaries of confidentiality whenever they meet with a student for the first time. Students are also assured that school counseling is designed to advocate for and support students, never to discipline them.
Meeting with a Counselor: EPS Counselors are available to meet with any student or consult with any family member. There is no topic too big or too small, and there are no prerequisites to setting up a meeting.
The most convenient way to connect with counselors is to email them at counselors@eastsideprep.org. Students and families can reach out at any point to set up a conversation, provide information, or request resources.
Services Provided by School Counselors: In addition to individualized counseling, our School Counselors play an important role in supporting student well-being through both responsive and preventative support services, such as:
- Consulting with families about typical developmental stages of adolescence as well as more substantial emotional challenges.
- Intervening during mental health crises to ensure student safety and set up a plan for additional support.
- Connecting with students’ mental health providers to support ongoing treatment plans during the school day.
- Providing referrals to therapists and other community providers of mental health and support services.
- Serving on the Well-Being team alongside other faculty members dedicated to monitoring the emotional health of individuals and the community at large.
- Collaborating with Learning Support to address specific needs related to mental health interactions with students’ learning profiles.
- Implementing a comprehensive suicide prevention training to Upper School students, faculty, and families through an ongoing partnership with Forefront Suicide Prevention at the University of Washington.
- Organizing the Peer Mentors program in which Upper School students pair with Middle School advisories to teach lessons and connect across divisions.
- Supporting and teaching social-emotional learning (SEL) content throughout Middle School and Upper School.
- Serving as active members of the EPS community in many different roles throughout the school.
For more information, contact EPS School Counselor Michelle Lorne at mlorne@eastsideprep.org, Sam Foote at sfoote@eastsideprep.org, or Amy Sanchez at asanchez@eastsideprep.org.
Meet the Team
Readings and Resources
- Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, An Inside-Out Guide to the Emerging Adolescent Mind, Ages 12-24,The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive, and other books by Daniel Siegel, M.D.
- Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls and Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour, Ph.D.
- Enough as She Is: How to Help Girls Move Beyond Impossible Standards of Success to Live Healthy, Happy, and Fulfilling Lives, The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence, and other books by Rachel Simmons
- How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims
- Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say It, and When to Listen, The Blessing of a B Minus: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Resilient Teenagers, and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogul, Ph.D.
- How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk – Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
- Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens + Teens – Laura S. Kastner, Ph.D., Jennifer Wyatt, Ph.D.
- The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook — What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing – Bruce D Perry, M.D., Ph.D. with Maia Szalavitz
- The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity – Nadine Burke Harris, M.D.