Kids and grief and loss, Counselor honored for her service
By Jennifer Colton - The (Greenwood) Index-Journal
ABBEVILLE -At Long Cane Primary, the walls of Crystal Martin's office are covered with colorful illustrations of children showing different emotions excited, shy, happy, sad. Puppets and toys grace the tables, while bright, abstract finger paintings hang from the dry-erase board. As a mental health school-based counselor, Martin uses a creative approach to help students feel comfortable about their lives and feelings.
“We have a lot of kids that deal with grief and loss and have difficulty coping, kids dealing with a divorce and typical behavioral problems” Martin said.
'We're in the school to keep the students in school. If the kids had to come to the clinic to talk to us, then the kids are missing school and the parents miss work. It's really beneficial to be based in the schools.”
And Martin must be doing something right.
Out of employees in seven counties, she was named The Beckman Center for Mental Health Services Outstanding Employee of 2008 - the first time a first-year counselor had won the title.
“It was a shock," she said. “I was running up against all the people who have 10 years' experience. I was truly shocked that I was nominated, and then to win, that really took me back one."
Martin started her career working as a counselor at John de la Howe. Although she knew she wanted to work with children, she disliked living on campus with the students.
“I went back and got my master's and interned at Beckman Mental Health in Ware Shoals, and I fell in love with it," she said.
The counselor began her work at Long Cane in October 2007.
“Having Mrs. Martin has been a tremendous asset to our children and to our school," principal Charles Costner said. “The other plus of having someone here with her knowledge: She's able to share it with our teachers so they can better help our students."
A vital part of Martin's job is with make sure everything is OK and connect with any students who might be having trouble. Once the students are referred to Martin's office, they paint and draw and go outside so they build a rapport with the counselor and feel comfortable her what's going on.
“The most difficult thing is looking at some of these issues these kids face at such a young age, that I, at my age, might not know how to cope with,” she said. “As they start to get older, they get set in their ways and they're more likely to listen to their friends than an adult, so in way, it’s good that I'm here because I can catch them while they're young."
A typical day for Martin begins in the morning with classroom observations, where she'll look into classroom windows and monitor children's behavior without disrupting the class. Next, she'll enter the classroom and engage with the students.
"I also schedule groups to work through with things like anger management. I do two groups a day and see individual students as they come," she said, adding that she also meets with parents.
"I don't have many parents say, 'Oh, no, that's not my child. My child doesn't like that.’ They’ve seen some of the things at home,” Martin said.
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