After having spent all of first period inside a bare concrete classroom, junior Sterling Abrahamsen walked out onto the second-floor atrium and spotted a corner adorned with cheerful banners and playful activity cards, run by an individual with an equally sunny face.

“Everything was so bright and colorful,” Sterling said. “It seemed like a really friendly place.”

Namely, Margaret’s Place.

The violence prevention program was welcomed to Pali’s temporary campus last spring, but it continued to advance toward its myriad of goals this semester, starting with the development of an indoor resource desk next to the second-floor staircase.

Katie Carey, Pali’s Margaret’s Place counselor, explained the personal motivations behind its implementation. 

“The Margaret’s Place CEO lived in the Palisades,” Carey said. “So it was really important for them to get behind [Pali and try] to mitigate the stress and potential harm that could come from the wildfires.”

The program was introduced as a safe space for students impacted by violence or trauma. In addition, Margaret’s Place also offers individual and group counseling, therapeutic recreation and anti-violence education. 

The National Library of Medicine reports that these developmental periods, such as high school, are characterized by age-related changes in both cognitive and social processes that have an influence on psychological adjustment following trauma exposure, highlighting Margaret’s Place necessity amongst Pali’s high school setting and especially in the months following the fire.

Carey noted the mission of Margaret’s Place is to “provide psycho-education for students… teaching [them] how to cope with these challenging emotions.”

For Theodore Lopez and Rocky Perez, Pali’s psychiatric social workers, the values of Margaret’s Place aligned with the school’s needs, leading to an established partnership between Carey and the efforts of Pali’s mental health team. 

“Our goal is to continue showing familiar faces and bolster school mental health,” Perez stated. “There’s 2,500 kids and there’s three of us, so the more we get involved in partnerships like this, the more comfortable students are coming to us when a problem arises.”

Margaret’s Place offers many different kinds of solutions to all sorts of problems. In an attempt to lower the pressure of traditional verbal therapy, psychologists have increasingly utilized art therapy, a form of psychotherapy that integrates artistic media such as painting, drawing or modeling into treatment methods. 

“A lot of our therapy involves art making, which isn’t about having good artistic skills, but more about the meditative process of creating,” Carey said, “and next semester we’ll be running weaving and mosaic-making art therapy groups as well.”

The presence of grab-and-go style handouts at the second-floor counter has proven especially effective for creatively-inclined students. Junior Rebecca Hill explained how such resources and activities reached students like her who are constantly on the move. 

“I picked [the Margaret’s Place activity page] up on a whim but it was really nice to see how much thought they were putting into caring for students… it gave me a chance to slow down and enjoy myself,” Hill said.

Beyond providing care for students impacted by violence, Margaret’s Place is a program designed for students interested in learning how to prevent harm in their community, a goal that was manifested in the new Peer Leadership Club, which is run by mental health officials in partnership with Pali student leaders. 

The student-run club was developed with the purpose of increasing teen involvement in mental health issues they are passionate about. Pali hosts a number of mental health advocacy groups, such as the Mindfulness Kindfulness Group, the Psychology Club and the ASB mental health committee. Carey hopes that the collaboration of these organizations with the Peer Leadership Club will diversify viewpoints in the development of teen mental health resources.

“I like to hear what students think about certain topics because every generation is different and their perspectives allow us to reach teens and brainstorm different approaches to issues,” Carey said.

Teen involvement is especially fostered by the Peer Leadership Club’s unique structure that tackles different mental health matters every month. Junior Sterling Abrahamsen became a member because of these diverse subjects covered within the club.

“Every month we get a new topic, and we create a workshop so we can advocate for an issue in a creative way by welcoming people with eye-catching visuals and hands-on experiences,” Abrahamsen said of her involvement in Margaret’s Place. “Last month we did a workshop for domestic abuse and created care packages for victims.”

Abrahamsen has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that makes her especially connected to the goals of the Peer Leadership Club and motivates her desire for advocacy for students with learning differences. An IEP is a legal document under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that outlines a custom educational plan for students with disabilities.

Similarly, a 504 Plan is another legal document designed for students with disabilities, both mental and physical, but it differs in its focus on providing accommodations rather than specially designed instruction.

“Advocating for yourself is a very big part of having an IEP or 504,”Abrahamsen said. “Being someone with firsthand experience, I understand the struggle that others are going through and I want to do what I can so they don’t feel isolated.”

Carey agrees.

“Everybody has the resources within themselves, we just need to learn how to tap into them, and that’s what Margaret’s Place is for.”