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About our Counseling Services
We partner with schools to provide professional mental health services to students in their academic setting. Our staff is conveniently located right on campus. All services are free to the student and their parents. With Next Step, there are no cost, transportation, or insurance barriers to prevent students from getting the help they need.
Next Step Counseling
Campus Locator
As a parent, it can be scary and difficult when you notice a sudden emotional or behavioral change in your teen. If you live in Texas, a Next Step counselor might be already on your child’s campus. If so, just make a call to your school and ask your child to be referred. Waiting times may vary, depending on the counselor’s existing caseload. We have a referral system to ensure your child receives these services safely and confidentally. View our full list of school locations here.
Contract a Next Step Counselor on your School Campus
We know that as administrators, you care about the whole child. You want them to not just succeed academically, but to reach their full potential in all areas of life. When a teen struggles emotionally, it can be difficult for them to access the help they need because barriers such as stigma, cost, and transportation. You can eliminate those barriers by contracting a counselor for your campus through Next Step.
At Next Step, we want to ensure that teens experiencing mental health issues get the support they need, no matter what. We can partner with your school to provide a Licensed Professional Counselor on campus, so any student on your campus can access counseling at no cost. Many schools have a student to guidance counselor ratio of 500:1. Most school guidance counselors simply don’t have the time with the 30-60-100 or more students that require many hours of individualized counseling sessions over the course of the school year.
Why Choose Us?
Experience
We provide licensed mental health professionals in order to achieve the highest level of service. Next step has been offering counseling services to Texas schools since 2014.
Cost Effective
Since we are a nonprofit, we work to combine your support with a variety of funding sources to provide your school with the most affordable solution, making it more beneficial than hiring a district employee.
Convenient
Our program is administered in the school setting during school hours. Next Step counselors work closely with designated school staff, and provide the right amount of counseling hours based on your unique needs.
Explore the Benefits
Student’s unmet mental health needs pose barriers to learning and development. Because of school guidance counselors’ training and position, they are uniquely qualified to provide education, prevention, intervention and referral services to students and their families. At Next Step, we see ourselves as a critical part of this mosaic of care, allowing school guidance counselors and administrative staff to refer students to our licensed professional counselors right on campus.
All counselors have up-to-date Senate Bill 9 certified criminal background checks.
Mental Health care can help teachers improve classroom management reducing teacher stress by helping disruptive students, improve grades, and decrease absenteeism and reduce disciplinary referrals.
Our counselors only provide mental health counseling. This allows teachers to perform their core duties.
By having mental health counselors on campus, we remove the barriers to care so that teens get the help they need. We will see any teen referred.