Self-Activated Students™
Self-Activated Students (SAS) helps students who:
- Have trouble staying organized and/or focused.
- Have good intentions and weak follow-through.
- Get behind on schoolwork and/or could do better in school.
- Have ADHD and/or learning disabilities.
- Need support in the transition to high school or college.
Most students want to do well in school, but poor planning, procrastination, anxiety or other skill deficits get in their way. Many of these students "know" what they need to do to change their behavior, because they've been told over and over by parents and teachers, and because they have some awareness about what isn't working. These students may make promises and start the term well, only to fall behind again. It's as though their good intentions live in a sort of "Goal Cloud™," where all they need to do is formulate a few good intentions to solve the problem. Occasionally this works, but often the Goal Cloud remains hazy and does not help students reach their goals.
SAS helps students go from Goal Cloud to Next Action Plans. With SAS, students create and guide their own intervention plan with support from a team of parents, teachers, advisors and tutors/coaches. SAS is a student-centered program that:
- Identifies students' level of academic motivation — their engagement and commitment to their own education — and then guides them to increase their activation level and their effectiveness as students.
- Helps students discover their strengths and values, so they learn to create their own forward momentum for change.
- Draws on neuropsychology, cognitive behavior therapy, and motivational interviewing to help students align their motivation with their intentions and decrease internal and external resistance.
- Guides students to identify and change habits that hold them back, and try out new behaviors.
The SAS program includes:
- Assessment to determine a student's goals, strengths and weaknesses, and current level of performance. We collect information from the student, parents, teachers, and from school records.
- Recommendations for:
- School support
- Home/parenting environment
- Potential student-initiated actions to improve academic process and self-management
- Meeting with the student and parents to review the recommendations and to agree on a plan.
- Meeting at the school, if possible, to put school support in place. This process includes recommending:
- 504 accommodations if a full assessment has been conducted.
- Monitoring and learning support.
- A follow-up plan (what information will be provided and by whom, to make sure the
interventions are put in place).
- Meetings with the student, to choose targets and design plans for change, and to problem-solve results.
- Meetings with parents, as needed.
Other services:
- Depending on the student's needs, we offer training in other skill or problem areas.
- If we feel a brief assessment does not yield enough information to formulate an effective treatment plan, we will refer the student for a full assessment.
- We offer or refer for additional treatment if needed for issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance use problems.
For information on Getting Started with Self-Activated Students:
* Required. Thank you.
Please see our individual treatment pages to learn more about our other treatment services.
- Antonia Forster, Ph.D., ABPP - Forster TREATMENT
- Michael J. Fulop, Psy.D. - Fulop TREATMENT
- Ana Cragnolino, Ph.D. - Cragnolino TREATMENT