FFS Welcomes New Counselor, New Counseling Program

A new counselor and a recently launched individual counseling program at The Family Foundation School have made the school's therapeutic component stronger than ever.  Individual counseling sessions conducted by seven staff counselors, including newcomer Mary Burkart, MSW, are helping students better understand themselves and their behaviors, letting them talk about their emotions and receive guidance and advice privately and confidentially. The new program is strictly optional, and is offered to students in addition to the daily group counseling, weekly peer group and support group counseling, and family counseling, which are all integral to the FFS program.

The newest addition to the FFS Counseling Department, Burkart spent more than 20 years at Tri Valley Central School in New York providing individual and group counseling to elementary school students. She now sees 18 FFS students for individual counseling on a regular basis and runs three of the school's weekly group counseling sessions. "I am very impressed with the students and their intelligence," said Burkart. "They are exposed to more living skills here, and the 12 Step program gives them a lot of insight that kids normally don't have in public schools."

She also likes the fact that all staff seem to be working with the same goal in mind. "In public school the teachers may want one thing, administration may want another, and parents want a completely different thing. I don't feel that at all here; everybody is working for the same thing," she said.

Burkart earned her Masters of Social Work degree at Marywood University in Scranton, Pa. Off campus she is a performing arts enthusiast, and an animal lover who is especially fond of cats.