Inside Piedmont High's Wellness Center

"I feel like a huge part of my job is to listen. And that sounds like nothing. But I tell you, it's a lot of work. It's emotional labor," says Karen Blanpied, a counselor at Piedmont High School's Wellness Center, in a recent San Francisco Chronicle interview.

Blanpied helped found the Wellness Center and also teaches a social psychology class at PHS.

The students are "at a point in their development when they're really contemplating issues of life and 'Who am I?'" Blanpied says, and she enjoys being part of that process.

But even in Piedmont, she says, students need to talk about some hard issues: abuse, addiction, sexuality.You may read the complete Chronicle interview here.

PHS students: Have you found the Wellness Center helpful? Tell us in the comments section below.

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