By Emi Gruender and Westmont Student Advisory Board
Have you ever heard of our CASSY counselor on campus? According to a wildly inaccurate, made-up statistic of mine, we can assume that 3 out of 4 students have no idea what our resident CASSY counselor does, or even how to learn more about how she helps the student body on WHS’s campus.
The Student Advisory Board for the 2023/2024 school year recognized this lack of widespread mental health resource knowledge as a prevalent problem throughout our district and wanted to raise awareness. What better place to start than our newly implemented system involving CASSY?
Outside of the Wellness Center, mental health resources can seem scarce in the desolate landscape that high school can resemble. In recent years, CUHSD has been taking steps to remedy this situation– but even still, getting help can prove more difficult than first expected. Getting help and access to resources may just be a matter of knowing they exist.
If you’re having trouble with your mental health, know that resources are readily available to you. But don’t believe it from me. Graciously appearing on The Shield is Westmont’s resident CASSY Counselor, Yvette Dorfler.
Mrs. Dorfler has been a regular on the Westmont campus since October this school year, with her office located to the left of the Pride mural. Inside, an essential oil diffuser fills the room with calming scents, with a sand diorama on her desk and posters all over the walls. Joining me to represent the Student Advisory Board was sophomore Prisha Bhanushali.
Mrs. Dorfler’s background in therapy stems from working with high-risk teenagers in the TAY Community (Transitional Age Youth). “I would meet with those people in the community and help them transition into being productive citizens,” she explained. When we asked why she chose this career path, she told us that while helping teenagers can be hard, it’s “also rewarding too, at the same time, because you’re helping them through a really tough time.
Then, Prisha and I asked about the differences between her former employment and Westmont. To that, she replied, “I didn’t have a lot of students then, because they were higher intensity. But here, it’s a little bit less intense, so I have a higher caseload, so there are more students I can actually reach; which is why I transferred here. I feel like I can have more of an impact.”
Throughout our conversation, Mrs. Dorfler made it very clear that she cares deeply for the well-being of teenagers who come to her. Ever since working in elementary schools and organizing therapy groups for teen girls focusing on body images, Mrs. Dorfler has been working tirelessly to combat mental health issues in teenagers.
After those first experiences, Mrs. Dorfler told us that her thought process was essentially, “Oh, now I have to work here— I feel fulfilled.”
After covering her background, we moved on to the CASSY process here at Westmont.
“There are 2 ways to get to a CASSY counselor–
- Being sent via a referral, sent either from the Wellness Center Coordinator, your Guidance Counselor, or teacher recommendation.
- Drop-in meetings.”
Primarily, getting in touch with a CASSY counselor happens mainly through the school’s inner network. If you want to organize a session with the counselor, you can approach any of the authority figures outlined above for more information. For long-term sessions, Mrs. Dorfler told us about their 12-week program, in which students would meet with her twelve times over the school year.
Drop-ins are usually for more short-term issues. “Like if you had a really bad day, and needed somebody to talk to,” Mrs. Dorfler explained to us. Though she may not be available at any given moment, her office is open frequently.
Sessions with Mrs. Dorfler stay completely confidential. Parents or guardians will not be contacted about your visits unless you are in immediate danger, according to the list below.
MANDATED REPORTING CRITERIA
- Somebody is hurting you
- You want to hurt yourself
- You want to hurt somebody else
- You give permission to let your guardians know, to get you further help
But otherwise, all conversations with the CASSY counselor stay strictly between you and her. Additionally, Mrs. Dorfler told us, CASSY can refer students to other professional therapists outside of Westmont– the support does not start and end just within Westmont.
To those who know they need help but are skeptical about reaching out, I have one last message for you;
INTERVIEWER: “What would you say to kids who would be hesitant to come in here? The kids who are struggling, but don’t want to come in here for fear of shame or guilt. Why can’t I deal with this on my own? Things like that. What would you say to them?”
DORFLER: “Ooh, that’s a really good question.”
DORFLER: “ I would say that you’re the next generation. You get to choose if you want to change how your life goes, and this is the practicing ground for it, and so why not get some help doing that?”
Help is always out there. Sometimes, it just starts with an email.
GUIDANCE COUNSELOR LIST:
A-DEP: Lio Francisco: efrancisco@cuhsd.org
DEQ-HUY: Wilton Marin: wmarin@cuhsd.org
HWA-MEN: Carolina Pizano: cpizano@cuhsd.org
MEO-SAL: Kim Basl kbasl@cuhsd.org
SAM-Z: Miriam Wesson mwesson@cuhsd.org