Mental Health Program Expands to four counselors, introduces art therapy ARTICLE BY ANIBAL GONZALES & ALEXANDRA ROZMARIN • PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA ROZMARIN • DESIGN BY MEGHAN EARLE
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PA’s mental health program, in its sixth year of operation, has expanded to include a total of four therapists and launched its art therapy services on March 23. The expansions come in response to student needs. The 2021-2022 school year has seen a 52% increase in referrals. A spike in referrals in March 2022 is correlated to increased advertising like therapist introduction visits to seminar classes, Mental Health Program Coordinator Jill Buencuceso said. Since January 2020, hours the counselors work have more than doubled from 35 to 85 hours monthly. As of April, counselors Iris Beaumont, Melissa Hinshaw, Hinshaw, Makenna Welch and Johnny Duran support 50 to 60 students a week combined. Buencuceso spearheaded the mental health program in 2016. “I never even imagined it would get to this point, which is fantastic,” Buencuceso said. “I can’t say that I even had a clear vision. To me, it’s always been in response to whatever is the need.” UPA has contracted its counselors through Advent Group Ministries since the 2016-2017 school year. Although UPA originally partnered with Counseling and Support Services for Youth (CASSY) in April 2016, the financial burden made that program unsustainable. “We needed to be a lot more creative,” Buencuceso said. Former Executive Director Daniel Ordaz reached out to pastor Raymond Menchaca in his church’s community, who was also a therapist. Ordaz’s wife also worked as Director of Human Resources at Advent Group Ministries. Menchaca, associated with Advent Group Ministries, provided counseling once a week and worked under the supervision of Director of Counseling Services Bruce Pickett. Pickett. “He’s been the mainstay, really and truly,” Buencuceso said of Pickett. All counselors under Advent Group Ministries are interns collecting their supervised hours to become licensed counselors. They complete those hours under Pickett’s supervision, meaning Pickett and the counselor discuss notes on patients, speaking clinically about the case needs of the clients. As a result, counselors usually conclude their time at UPA once their hours have been fulfilled. Pickett describes the partnership between UPA and Advent Group Ministries as both “symbiotic” and “synergistic.” Beaumont and Duran are currently working to fulfill their hours under Advent Group Ministries. Hinshaw, too, is being supervised by Pickett, but she is also part of a specialized art therapy program. Hinshaw began working at UPA as a virtual therapist in November 2020 as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor trainee. After her hours were completed, Pickett pitched an art therapy program to Hinshaw as a separate certificate program, leading her to stay at UPA with the title of associate Professional Clinical Counselor. “Melissa is tremendously talented,” Pickett said. “She gets it. She’s been an important part of the mental health team at UPA, and I wanted to unleash her.” The art therapy program is sponsored by architect Josh
Melissa Hinshaw teaches an after school art therapy session with five attendees on April 28. Moore, who reached out to Pickett looking for an Advent Group Ministries program to fund. Hinshaw first experienced art therapy while working at Children’s Berman Hospital in Sacramento. “Creativity is inherently helpful,” Hinshaw said. “There’s so much you can do with words, and there’s so much you can do without words. It’s great to be able to go back and forth. When are words serving me? When are they not? When do I really need to talk something out, and when do I need to shut up and feel it? That balance is super interesting to me.” Hinshaw has structured each art therapy session around a different aspect of identity, hoping to give students a space to explore themselves outside of being a student, friend or athlete. Hinshaw currently sees that space as missing in the UPA community. Sessions delve into cultural, family, gender and sexual oridentation identities. Hinshaw minored in studio art during her undergraduate years, which she said lends itself to the core of art therapy. “Composition has meaning,” Hinshaw said. “There are reasons we shape things the way we shape them. And there are reasons we use the materials and colors we use. It’s really cool to have it be applicable to how people interact in social and interpersonal settings.” 40 students total are signed up to attend art therapy weekly. Seven to eight students attend each meeting on average, split by grade level. “Therapy is the process of making the unconscious conscious,” Hinshaw said, “and art can tap into our unconscious in a way words can’t.” NEWS | 6
