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A working member of the Teen Health Center
Megan McAlister, Staff Reporter
Originally published January 29, 2016
Mallery Perry
Chelsea Clark, the Teen Health Center’s mental health counselor, advises SLAM club. In addition, she has started a mindfullness club called “Quiet Recess.”
Chelsea Clark is a mental health counselor, working in the Teen Health Center. She deals with students one-on-one about personal issues they are coping with. Her abilities to help students range from anxiety to suicidal thoughts.
Clark has been working at Ballard for almost four years. “I love working with teens, and the best way to do that is working at schools,” Clark said.
Before coming to Ballard she spent time doing a wide range of medical social work, which is mostly practiced in hospitals, clinics, health agencies and other long term facilities. She spent time working at Washington University, Harborview Medical Center and other hospitals, specifically working with those struggling with depression, particularly pregnant women, people experiencing trauma, among others.
She helps students deal with stress, depression, anxiety and other hardships in their lives. She talks with them one-on-one, sets up meetings with counselors and teach- ers and suggests coping strategies. Clark enjoys many things about her job, “[I enjoy] meeting with new clients who are really inspired to make changes in their lives,” Clark said. Additionally, she likes seeing her patients change for the better.
Clark is also an advisor for the school’s Students Lives Always Matter (SLAM) Club. SLAM Club helps raise awareness about depression and suicidal thoughts in teens. Clark is hoping to reach out to more schools with the club, such as Salmon Bay and Whitman Middle School in February, in hopes of getting the message out with how to deal with depression and anxiety.
With the help from Clark’s intern, Grace Lautman, she started a nutrition club and a mindfulness club, called Quiet Recess. “It’s going to be a place where people can just figure out how to manage stress in their life and pick up some other tools for that,” Clark said.
Additionally, the busy mental health counselors are hoping to start a class that will help students build healthy relationships with partners, friends, adults and guardians. Clark and other members of the council continue to build and find new ways of helping students, and strive to let them know they are not alone.
