Happy Valentine’s Day, from all of us at Spectrum. Today and every day, we are so grateful that people like you open your hearts to our youth, to make sure they have a safe place to be, a supportive community, and the help they need to thrive.

Thank you for keeping our youth in your heart.

With love and gratitude,
The Spectrum Team

The post Thank you for keeping our youth in your heart. appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

Kristen, our Riverstone Counseling program manager, shares some tips for addressing the holiday blues:

The holidays are often touted as being a joyful time with family and friends. However, this is not always the case. Between juggling obligations, difficult family dynamics, unhappy memories, or simply changes to our sleep schedule or diet; increased anxiety and a depressed mood are common around the holidays.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to forgo the holidays altogether!

Here are some tips to try if you are feeling the holiday blues:

• Practice gratitude, finding ways to be thankful for what you do have.
• Try to maintain a healthy diet and exercise during the holidays.
• Reach out and spend time with supportive family and friends.
• Don’t play the “should” game. Try to not feel that your holiday “should” be a certain way, because this can just add more pressure during the holidays.
• Don’t overschedule and tire yourself. Remember to try and relax and get enough sleep every night.
• Try to maintain daily routines.
• Make a list of things you enjoy doing that can help you relax, such as listening to music, spending time outside, meditating, or watching your favorite Netflix show!

Family members can also help their loved ones through a difficult holiday season by keeping these ideas in mind. Try to be supportive, patient, and understanding, and offer your loved ones the space and support to practice the self-care they need.

What works for you? Share your ideas for self-care in the comments.

To learn more about Riverstone Counseling, or to request an appointment, click here.

The post Tips for the Holiday Blues appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

Kristen, right, is Riverstone Counseling’s program manager.

Here’s the scene: a teenager is using drugs or alcohol. They get caught. They’re sent—by their parents or school, or by a court—to treatment, which can be an outpatient counseling program like Riverstone. Often, parents and schools want to see drug-free kids, but this abstinence-only model isn’t proven to be successful.

“It usually leads to the youth blowing out of our sessions without making change, fighting it, or faking it, without actual change happening,” says Counseling Program Manager Kristen Vogel. “When we hammer away the abstinence message, we’re missing something.”

Another Approach:

“People are often more likely to change when they realize they’ll feel better as a result of that change. Instead of trying to convince youth to stop using, we help them uncover why they’re using, and help them find different ways of coping with those problems.”

At Riverstone Counseling, we’re using a treatment model called the Seven Challenges. Backed by the Vermont Department of Health, this evidence-based practice helps youth look at their substance use in a thoughtful and honest way.

“Instead of trying to convince youth to stop using, we help them uncover why they’re using, and help them find different ways of coping with those problems.”

“A teenager’s job is figuring out who they are in their own identity,” says Kristen. “They’re going to come in with their own awareness of their life, and their own idea of what to talk about.”

When a young person is at the center of their own treatment process, they are learning how to make positive, healthy decisions for themselves.

“At Riverstone, we build a relationship between teenager and counselor to help the young person think thoughtfully about their drug use and how it plays out, and start to make better decisions for their future.”

To work through that process, our counselors use the Seven Challenges model. Plus, all of our staff have been trained on the treatment, so that youth who access other Spectrum programs see the Seven Challenges in those spaces, too.

At the Riverstone offices in downtown Burlington.

The Seven Challenges:

This treatment model comes from an understanding of youth development, especially brain development, that supports youth to develop problem-solving skills, constructive thoughts about their futures, and an understanding of how their substance use choices affect both of these. It is a health decision-making model that challenges youth to consider the health impacts of their substance use choices, and it helps them develop lifelong skills in making health choices.

For our clinicians, the honesty and trust built through using this treatment model are nothing new. As Kristen put it, “we’ve always been client-centered. We’re each forming strong, positive relationships with young people. We are accepting them for who they are at that moment, making room to build trust in a safe and non-judgmental space, and from there, helping them explore the potential changes they may want to make in their lives. Relationships—what we call strong therapeutic alliances—are really the groundwork for successful counseling.”

But is it effective? Our counselors say a resounding “yes.”

“The process isn’t forced,” adds Kristen. “It resonates with teens because they feel empowered in their sessions, they are the ones taking the lead, and we support them in making progress toward a change they’ve chosen for themselves.”

“We build a relationship to help the young person make better decisions for themselves and their future.”

The Seven Challenges complements our counseling practice, which is aligned with our clients and encouraging of family involvement. “The basis of the challenges is honesty,” says Kristen.

And honesty is the basis of our treatment at Riverstone: “we need all of our clients to be honest about what’s going on and to really understand that we want them to feel safe.” In this way, the Seven Challenges framework is helpful for any person who walks through our doors.

To learn more about Riverstone Counseling, or to make an appointment, call (802) 864-7423 x310.

The post Making Healthy Decisions: the Seven Challenges appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

This article was written by a young person who accesses Spectrum’s services, including our Drop-In Center and supportive housing.

In one of my 8th grade classrooms there was a map of the world with everything upside down. At least, that’s what we’ve been trained to think: north is up and south is down. In thinking about how I wanted to go about writing my first article for Spectrum, I thought about the one thing I’ve really learned in the past year and, in doing so, this map came to mind.

August 25th was exactly one year since the first time I walked into The Landing, the emergency shelter above the Drop-In Center. To say I was terrified would be a pretty significant understatement. I really didn’t have any words for anything. One person asked what my name was and I ran away in tears.

From what I could tell at the time, I was on my own. I didn’t know what was next and I really wasn’t okay with that. I made several attempts to take control over my future, many of which did not go as planned.

I signed up for classes at CCV but then dropped out, got (and then lost) a number of employment opportunities, and went from being high on life to the depths of despair in the blink of an eye.

I was pretty sure I was a failure at life so I did what I had to do to make it through each day. Correction: I did what I thought I had to do. I thought I always had to be okay. I thought I always had to smile and laugh and be happy when that really wasn’t true.

To be in the housing program at Spectrum, you are required to be working on something. Whether it be employment and building your savings, school, or yourself. I chose to work on myself so I went to a 3 week respite and, upon my return to Burlington, was in therapy twice a week for a few months.

During that time, it felt like I cried every day. I also laughed every day. Most importantly, though, I felt more and more real as time went on. Spectrum has given me the tools and space that I was lacking in order to become messy and fall apart. A place where I was accepted regardless of how messy or crumbly I was.

In just 365 days, I have made a complete 180 from where I was then. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very messy and very crumbly but now I have a vacuum to help me clean up when I need it. Which brings me back to the map I mentioned at the beginning.

Why are we, as a society, so set on a specific path to take in life? It seems so many individuals at Spectrum get thrown off by the fact that they’re not doing what they’re “supposed” to do (graduate high school, go to college, get a job, etc.) and yet nowadays the norm is to do what feels right to you.

So, if there’s one thing Spectrum demonstrates spectacularly it’s that north isn’t necessarily up.

The post Is North Really “Up”? appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

From left, Riverstone counseling staff: Sunnie Lobdell, Kristen Vogel, Leslie Ferrer, and Will Kraman.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Spectrum Expands to Include New Riverstone Youth Counseling Program
Nationally Recognized Leader in Youth and Adult Services Launches New Service

BURLINGTON, VT (August 25th, 2017) – Spectrum Youth & Family Services, a nationally recognized nonprofit providing youth and adult services to the Burlington area, today announces the addition of a new counseling program: Riverstone Counseling. This new branch of Spectrum specializes in working with teenagers, young adults, and their families, to help youth identify and work with their strengths to help achieve their goals.

Since 1970, Spectrum has been an integral part of the Burlington community by supporting thousands of children and families faced with homelessness, mental health issues, violence, substance abuse and countless other critical issues.

Through services like mentoring, skills programs, supportive housing, multicultural youth programs, a health center, and more, Spectrum has helped to make sustainable, positive changes within the community.

The addition of Riverstone adds a youth-focused counseling program to Spectrum’s wide range of services.

Open to the public, Riverstone counselors are trained clinical mental health/social workers and substance abuse counselors who focus on a client-centered approach to help teenagers and young adults work through and overcome mental health and substance use issues.

Riverstone counselors specialize in helping clients with mental health and substance use issues using cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR for trauma, narrative therapy and other proven treatments.

“The goal of Riverstone Counseling is to be a mental health resource for our entire Chittenden County community, not just clients being served in other Spectrum programs,” said Sarah Woodard, Director of Development and Communications at Spectrum. “The addition of Riverstone adds another level of specialization and focus to Spectrum’s current services and allows us to provide personalized one-on-one counseling support to youth in our community who could benefit from counseling. The team at Riverstone is skilled in working with youth and young adults in crisis, trauma, or those who just would benefit from a therapeutic relationship.”

For more information about Riverstone Counseling, please visit: www.riverstonecounseling.org.

To make an appointment, email hello@riverstonecounseling.org, or call (802) 864-7423 x310.

The post Spectrum Expands to Include New Riverstone Youth Counseling Program appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

“I myself feel very guilty and a failure as parent because I knew this could happen to him. I talked to him about it several times…” she wrote. “But talking and a good family weren’t enough.”

You can read Mark’s response in the Washington Post here. And let us know your thoughts.

If you know a young person 12-30 who needs help with their addiction, our counselors can help. Call (802) 864-7423 x310 or click here to make an appointment.

The post The words you never want to hear a parent say appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

“When you call someone an addict, it reduces them to just that,” said Mark Redmond, our ED. “But it’s just one element of their being — they’re a mother or a brother or a student.”

Here’s the story from the Burlington Free Press.

Photo: Associated Press

If you know someone who’s struggling with substance use or addiction, our counselors can help. Call (802) 864-7423 x310.

The post Talking about addiction? Word choice matters. appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

“When I came into the [Pearl Street Residence],” Chelsea begins, “I was homeless, I had dropped back out of high school, and I had crashed my car. I was in a really big legal situation—I was facing 15 years in prison. I was at a point where I was like, ‘there is no possible way I’m going to get my life back together after this.’”

She was 18 when she moved in, coming from a few months at a rehab facility. “At first, I was not a big fan,” she says. “I wasn’t a big fan of rules and structure. I had a foster home, but I didn’t follow the rules – I just did whatever I wanted.”

“But you’re expected to hold your own at Spectrum. You’re supposed to do chores, follow rules, and go to all your meetings on time. I had to learn how to be responsible. I had to learn basic life skills over again. They literally helped shape me from the ground up.”

Chelsea had dropped out of high school, so first, staff worked with her on getting back in. “They helped me to get to all my appointments, helped me to do my homework, to do the basic things I just needed to do. And I was able to graduate high school, which I thought I would never ever ever do.”

Because she was formerly in foster care, Chelsea also worked with Spectrum’s Youth Development Program, which supports youth aging out of state custody and transitioning to a life on their own. The YDP staff step in where a parent otherwise might, offering coaching and financial support. In Chelsea’s case, they helped her get into cosmetology school and apply for financial aid, and then helped her pay for the clothing she needed for school.

Staff also helped her address her legal situation. “I thought I was going to lose everything, but everybody was by my side the whole time,” she says. Kandi, her caseworker, went to court and then to trial with her. When she was put on house arrest for six months, she thought her life was over again. But she found Spectrum staff there to help her do everything she needed to do.

“I don’t have much family, I really don’t, and they helped to fill that,” says Chelsea, her eyes filling with tears. “Sorry, I’m getting worked up. They taught me how to live life again.”

Now 20, Chelsea is two years sober, lives on her own, and has a job in a local salon. She still comes to Spectrum for counseling and to check in with Kandi once a week.

“I had to be re-taught everything. The way that I was used to living was a dirty way of living. Stealing and doing drugs and no respect for myself or anybody else. It was just a terrible way to live. I guess I got to a point where I was able to look at the way that I was living my life before and really deep down inside decide that I didn’t want that anymore. I have stuff I want to do with my life and even if I didn’t have that much confidence in myself, there was a little part of me that wanted to someday achieve something. I would not have anything I have now without Spectrum,” she says. “That’s real.”

The post Meet Chelsea appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

On Monday, December 8th, Executive Director Mark Redmond was featured on Comcast Newsmakers. He spoke about what makes Spectrum services unique, the changing needs of the youth we serve, and the upcoming Spectrum Sleep Out in March 2015.

In his words:
“We work with young adults who are struggling … We try and focus on their strengths. We believe that with each young person, there is some strength that we can draw upon, and help them build from there. It’s called positive youth development, and I think that’s what makes us unique.”

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Chief Mike Schirling presents Annie Ramniceanu with the Outstanding Professional Award

The KidSafe Collaborative Lunch was held on April 17, 2014 and we were so pleased when our own, Annie Ramniceanu, was presented with the Outstanding Professional Award for her work to support the youth and families in our communities.

Chief Mike Schirling presented her with the award and here’s what he had to say about Annie:

“For the past 16 years Annie has been at Spectrum and her bio stands on its own. If you take a chance to read it, it’s really pretty amazing.

For those of you who have had the pleasure of meeting her, the passion she has for the work that she does is infectious. She’s held a variety of roles at Spectrum – too numerous to name. Spectrum serves over 2,000 youth and families annually and Annie has a direct hand in many of those contacts.

Emblematic of her work are the collaborations: From partnering with KidSafe and the Burlington Police Department, to groundbreaking work with the Dartmouth Medical School centered on teen addiction and a cornerstone of her efforts and a sort of signature achievement (I think) in her collaboration with courts and Judge Joseph in particular through a Rapid Referral Program… that was created in two weeks.

Judge Joseph had an idea and it took one phone call to someone as motivated and dedicated to youth as Annie to get it implemented and in action and I think that is particularly emblematic of what she does.

So all of those things centered around key programs in substance abuse and mental health that she has been an integral part of at Spectrum and all of the collaboration with various agencies to perform that great work is what has earned her today the Outstanding Professional Award.”

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