SERVICES FOR SCHOOLS
A clinician who understands how schools actually work.
Schools are doing more mental health work than ever, but without enough support.
Schools have become the primary site of adolescent mental health intervention. Teachers and school staff can notice changes before parents do. Counselors and therapists carry caseloads that exceed what their training prepared them for. Administrators face decisions about students in distress without always having the clinical context to inform those decisions.
Most schools recognize that supporting student mental health requires more than their internal staff can provide, which leads to a staff culture rooted in overwhelm and burnout. Teachers and staff need professional development that goes beyond mental health awareness and actually helps them build skills. Counseling teams need clinical consultation that helps them think through complex cases with a clinician who understands the school environment and maintains clear judgment in such situations. Leadership needs strategic support for policy and programming decisions that have real implications for student well-being.
The challenge is finding external expertise that genuinely understands the school context, rather than consultants who treat schools as adjacent to their actual work, or clinicians who understand mental health but may miss the intricate dynamics of the school system. I bridge this gap, bringing almost a decade of school-based experience, a school social work credential, and licensure as a clinical social worker in California.
You’re feeling frustrated with:
Generic mental health PD that doesn't translate to your school's actual experience
Consultants who don't understand the constraints, culture, and rhythms of school work
Strategic decisions that require a clinical context you don't have on staff
Investing in mental health programming without clear ways to evaluate whether it's working
how i can help
My work brings substantive clinical expertise to school contexts, grounded in almost a decade of direct school-based practice.
What I Bring
Before opening private practice, I spent eight years as a school-based clinical social worker across the Bay Area, working with Palo Alto Unified School District, Aspire Public Schools, KIPP Bay Area, and Downtown College Preparatory. I hold a Doctor of Social Work from Tulane University, California's Pupil Personnel Services Credential, and serve in California chapter leadership for the National Association of Social Workers. My doctoral research examined how caring adults in school settings support adolescent development.
What That Experience Means in Practice
Clinical training without school experience has limits. School consultants who haven't worked inside schools often miss what's possible, what's not, and what specifically helps. My consulting work draws directly from years of navigating IEP processes, supporting students in crisis, working alongside teachers and administrators, and learning what actually moves the needle on student wellbeing. When we work together, I apply my school-context expertise to your campus experience.
How I Work With Schools
Engagements are structured around what your school actually needs. Some schools want a sustained partnership, like an annual PD package with built-in clinical consultation. Others need more targeted work, such as a specific training, a strategic consultation on a difficult case, or a program evaluation. The first conversation is where we figure out what makes sense for your school community.
I partner with schools on every dimension of student mental health
Faculty professional development (single sessions through annual partnerships)
Clinical consultation for school counseling teams
Mental health policy review
Wellness program design and review
Program evaluation and outcome assessment
Needs assessment for new initiatives
Custom advisory engagements
what becomes possible…
Faculty who feel more equipped to support students in distress.
Generic mental health awareness training doesn't support capacity building. Professional development with clinical depth, grounded in real cases and real situations, gives teachers and staff frameworks they can use the next time a student arrives at their classroom in distress.
Counseling teams with substantive clinical thinking partners.
School counselors, therapists, and psychologists do extraordinary work, often with minimal external clinical consultation. Regular consultation with an outside clinician provides them with a thinking partner for complex cases, support for difficult decisions, and space to develop their own clinical thinking.
Strategic decisions informed by clinical expertise.
Mental health programming, policy decisions, and response to specific events benefit from input that combines clinical knowledge with school-systems experience. Working with an outside clinician on these decisions reduces the risk of approaches that sound right but don't actually work.
What effective school mental health work actually requires
Every school I've worked with has good intentions when it comes to supporting student mental health. The challenge isn't intention, it's translation. Translating clinical knowledge into staff practice, individual student situations into systems-level decisions, and mental health awareness into actual capacity that changes outcomes.
Why Generic Mental Health PD Often Fails
Most mental health professional development for schools focuses on awareness, such as recognizing warning signs, understanding common diagnoses, and knowing when to refer to clinical staff. This information matters, but it doesn't translate into practical capacity.
The teacher whose student is showing signs of distress in the third period doesn't need to remember a list of warning signs; she needs to know what to actually say in that moment. The counselor working with a student in crisis doesn't need a definition of trauma; she needs frameworks for thinking through the situation before her.
Effective PD goes beyond awareness to capacity building. It uses real cases, builds on existing skills, and returns to topics over time rather than treating them as an isolated phenomenon. And, critically, it's grounded in what actually works in school settings, not in clinical offices or prescribed theories.
Why Clinical Consultation Matters for Counseling Teams
School counselors and psychologists carry tremendous responsibility, often without sustained external clinical consultation. They're navigating complex cases, making judgment calls about risk, supporting teachers and parents, all work that can feel isolating.
Outside clinical consultation gives counseling teams what they often lack: a sustained relationship with a clinician who can think alongside them about cases, who's not constrained by their school's resource limitations, and who brings clinical depth to situations they're navigating without it. Consultation is not a replacement for a BBS-approved clinical supervision relationship; it is a clinical partnership that supports their existing work.
Why School-Systems Experience Matters
Outside consultants who haven't worked inside schools often miss what's possible. They may suggest interventions that don't fit school constraints. They recommend services without understanding the realities of implementation. They mistake clinical wisdom for school wisdom.
Consultants who have worked in schools know what's possible. They understand the rhythm of the school year, the constraints of the school day, the dynamics between teachers and administrators, and the realities of parent communication. This contextual knowledge is central to whether the consulting actually helps or becomes background noise.
What Schools Should Look For
When schools are evaluating outside clinical consultants, several questions matter:
Has this person actually worked in schools? Theoretical knowledge of schools is different from school-based experience.
Do they understand your specific context? Independent schools, public districts, and charter networks have different cultures, constraints, and communities.
Is their work substantive? Generic PD and surface-level consultation are common. Substantive work is harder to find but more valuable.
Do they think about evaluation? Investments in mental health work should produce measurable outcomes. Consultants who don't think about this are operating without accountability.
Are they genuinely partnering with you? The best work happens when consultants act as partners, not vendors.
These aren't easy questions to answer from a website. They require conversations. The first consultation is where you find out whether what I do matches what your school actually needs.
my guiding principles
DEPTH
The mental health field generates substantial PD content, but most of it stays at the level of recognition and referral. The work that actually changes practice goes further by using real cases, returning over time, and building skills people can use under pressure. I do work that goes that far.
CONTEXT
A consultant who treats your school like an interchangeable case isn't going to be useful. Effective work requires learning your specific community, including what works, what doesn't, what your staff already knows, and what they need next. The work needs to fit your school community; otherwise, it won’t work.
EVALUATION
Programs survive on good intentions long after they stop producing outcomes. Mental health work in schools is too important to operate on hope. Engagements I lead include thinking about evaluation from the start: what we're trying to change, how we'll know whether we're changing it, and what to do if we're not.
PARTNERSHIP
School counseling teams know things about your community that no outside consultant could know. Useful work draws on that knowledge rather than overlooking it. I see myself as a clinical-thinking partner, adding depth where it's helpful, not replacing the people doing the work.
I want you to know:
Your students benefit when their adults are equipped.
Schools that invest in equipping their staff, supporting their counseling teams, and informing their strategic decisions don't just have better professional development; they have better outcomes for the students whose education depends on the adults around them. The investment goes to students, even when the direct work is with adults.
faqs
Common questions about school services
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Yes. I maintain two pricing tiers for school services. Standard rates apply to independent schools and well-resourced public schools. Title One/Charter Tier rates (25% below standard) apply to public schools with Title One designation and public charter networks. The applicable tier is determined at the start of the engagement based on your school type, not your school's specific budget.
This tiered structure recognizes the genuine resource differences between school types. It's built into how I price all school services, and is not negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
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Professional development is structured training delivered to staff. It might be a single workshop on a specific topic, a half-day session covering multiple topics, or an annual partnership that builds capacity over time. The audience is usually a group, and the goal is to build knowledge and skills across the team.
Clinical consultation is ongoing work with school counselors, psychologists, or administrators on specific situations. It might be monthly meetings to think through cases, episodic consultation as situations arise, or strategic consultation on decisions affecting student wellbeing. The audience is usually individual professionals or small teams, and the goal is to support their clinical and strategic thinking.
Many schools benefit from both. PD builds general capacity; consultation provides ongoing support for specific situations.
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School services are typically funded through professional development budgets, mental health and wellness budgets, or specific grants supporting student mental health initiatives. Some independent schools include consultation services as part of their faculty development infrastructure. Some public school districts fund services through Mental Health Services Act allocations or other specific funding streams.
The first conversation is about scope, structure, and budget, including what's realistic for your school's specific situation. Engagements are documented through a Master Services Agreement and a Statement of Work, with payment terms that align with your district's procurement requirements.
Ready to get started?