{"id":703,"date":"2023-04-26T13:54:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T13:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/blog\/?p=703"},"modified":"2025-01-14T14:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T14:52:22","slug":"how-mental-health-counseling-helps-pace-girls-reach-their-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/how-mental-health-counseling-helps-pace-girls-reach-their-potential","title":{"rendered":"How Mental Health Counseling Helps Pace Girls Reach Their Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly three years ago, Summer Kirk signed up to change lives. In the years since she joined the Pace Pinellas team as a counselor, Summer has served hundreds of girls \u2013 providing a steady support system as girls navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, youth mental health crisis, and a regular slew of challenges such as poverty, bullying, and mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A holistic support system is one of the biggest benefits Pace girls gain in counseling. Girls often enroll in Pace in a tough spot \u2013 having struggled with their relationships, schoolwork, or mental health. Summer says: \u201cSome of the girls don\u2019t have that person who they can look to for help or guidance or direction. That\u2019s a big piece of counseling \u2013 not only mental health tools but providing support, if they ever need anything, or need to talk to somebody.\u201d Having this reliable, compassionate, and trusted presence in their lives empowers girls to be the best versions of themselves, and even when things don\u2019t go to plan, girls know that they always have a supportive place to land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past three years \u2013 amid a global pandemic \u2013 certainly haven\u2019t been easy for middle- and high-school-aged girls. Summer remembers \u201cit was like pulling teeth to get girls to come into school\u201d at the beginning of the pandemic. Social anxiety and depression spread like wildfire, and girls really struggled to re-immerse themselves in their educational and social lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Creative thinking from Summer and her peers allowed Pace staff to continue serving girls despite these challenges. From counseling appointments in the parking lot to home visits, Pace staff ensured every girl felt supported. Through counseling, girls learned how to process their life experiences, new coping skills \u2013 like how to cope with challenging thoughts and behaviors, and how to manage their emotions. Change doesn\u2019t happen overnight, but Summer is inspired by \u201cthe little progress girls make every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dedication and innovative thinking makes Summer a truly exceptional counselor, and her colleagues and students aren\u2019t the only ones who think so. This month, the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas <\/a>honored Summer with the 2023 KidsFirst Cooperman-Bogue Award, an award honoring exceptional social service professionals who consistently put kids first. The Juvenile Welfare Board governs financial investments in organizations that \u201cgive children the best opportunities to lead meaningful and purposeful lives.\u201d Summer certainly fits the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Counseling Awareness Month, we\u2019re grateful for the incredible work all of our counselors do every single day. Not only do counselors teach valuable lessons and provide useful skills \u2013 but they change the trajectory of our girls\u2019 lives. Summer says: \u201cGirls enroll in such a hopeless place. Six months to a year later, they\u2019re in such a different spot. So many girls have graduated or gotten to a really good place, and they couldn\u2019t have done it without the support systems at Pace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

———-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Pace, our team of dedicated teachers, counselors, therapists, and directors foster safe, supportive, and inclusive environments for our girls to help them reach their goals. Get involved with Pace<\/a> and check out our current \u202fopen positions<\/a>!\u202f <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years ago, Summer Kirk signed up to change lives. In the years since she joined the Pace Pinellas team as a counselor, Summer has served hundreds of girls \u2013 providing a steady support system as girls navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, youth mental health crisis, and a regular slew of challenges such as poverty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"post_tag":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-voices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}