The Cheerful Helpers Courier - August / September 2025
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Intern Orientation
Janet Upjohn, LCSW
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| Back to School
Jaclyn Zeccola, PhD.
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On August 25, 2025, Cheerful Helpers held its 4th Annual Intern Orientation at the Children's Ranch Foundation in Atwater Village. The Children's Ranch provides the ideal setting for our team to come together for the first meeting of the new year.
This year we welcomed many new and returning staff. Our new trainees include two MFTs from Antioch, one AMFT, and social work students from both UCLA and Cal State Long Beach.
The goal of our orientation serves as both a practical training as well as an opportunity to bond as a team. Orientation activities includes study of relevant literature, understanding of Cheerful Helpers' including language and policies, thinking about kids and families as well as play, food and lots of relationship building!
The relationship building process with staff and trainees parallels the relationship building process with new and returning families. It helps ground the team as we get ready for the new school year!
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In this month's video, Jaclyn demonstrates a craft project she created for Family Camp. Click below to learn more! |
Thanks to alumni parents Dylan and April, we are excited to announce our third collaboration with Las Vegas artist, Napoleon Hendrix.
To order your limited edition t-shirt or hoodie click here!
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I do love the beginning of the school year season: shopping for new clothes, shoes, pencils, markers and crayons! It all feels filled with possibility and excitement.
And, we also know it can be stressful. Especially for our families, the courage to show up to the unknown is extraordinary. Not only do we not know what the year might bring, but
some families don’t know about funding, and how it will effect eating, sleeping, and tolerating frustration. Change is hard, and we know we can do hard things, it can feel challenging to want to. If you or your child are experiencing back to school ennui, I encourage you to slow down. Think, as we do in the classroom, about what is the same about this routine, and what is different from what you were doing over the summer. Are there ways to
incorporate some of the ease or fun of summer into your early school days? Can you make a plan for this year of school, which creates a bridge, not just to the therapy aspect of our work, but also to the learning? Ask your child or their teacher what letter they are learning about this week, or what they did in math, and build on it at home.
Find objects that begin with the letter “B” around your house, during errands, or while you’re cooking. Count change, blocks, and talk about the steps of a bedtime routine together. These can be ways you endorse your burgeoning school kids and take this big, different step, together.
However you are, whether you’re feeling frustrated about traffic or an earlier wake time, sleepless nights, and / or if you’re enjoying the return to a known routine, we are so happy.
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| - Wednesday, September 3: First Day of School
- Tuesday, September 23: No School / Rosh Hashanah
- Saturday, October 4: Alumni Support Group (LINK), 9 am - 10 am PT
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Announcements or additions for the Courier? Use this LINK!
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