Consejo Counseling & Referral Service

By: Anthony Martinez

One thing you may not know about September is that it's national Hispanic heritage month, so in this article I am going to showcase an organization called Consejo Counseling and Referral Service. 

Consejo is Spanish for advice so in English they would be advice counseling.

At Consejo, I sat and spoke with Samantha Valle, who is a Dependencia Quimica en Practicas Profesionales, also known as Chemical Dependency Professional Trainee. Samantha has worked with foster youth for 10 years. Before her current position, she had worked with organizations such as The Mockingbird Society, YouthCare, and Washington State University.

I learned about Samantha's style of counseling, and I even found out that there are different types of counseling styles. Samantha uses cognitive and client-centered therapy. Instead of just telling a youth what to do, she flips it and asks: "What would you like to do?" Personally, I find this to be a great style. It was great to learn from Samantha that we can use our life experiences, even the ones we may not be proud of, to provide help to those in need now.

One cool fact about Consejo is a story that was told to me by Samantha, about how this organization got funded for their current programs. When a young man was tragically killed in front of the South Park Community Center, local residents felt that the emergency services didn't respond appropriately to the crime. As a result, the City Of Seattle provided funding to Consejo to make South Park a better and safer community. That just shows that grassroots advocacy can make a difference.

Consejo was involved in an event called Fiesta Patrias, which was held in South Park on September 13th. This annual event celebrates Latin American countries' independence days that occur throughout the month of September, and has good food, fun dancing, and amazing people. There was also a similar event held on September 13th and 14th at Seattle Center.

I also had the opportunity to talk with youth at Consejo and ask them some questions. Most youth reported that their experience at Consejo is fun, pointing out that they get to meet new people and receive more opportunities, but one young lady said it distracts us from doing other things and I thought that was very powerful and positive. Some of the youth that I spoke to also said that they feel more comfortable at Consejo because it is a Latino-based community organization.

There are many Consejo locations throughout Western Washington and each center offers a variety of services. Consejo's main office is located in Beacon Hill. Their contact information can be found at: www.consejocounseling.org.

Thank you for reading about another great organization. Thank you to Samantha Valle, as well as the staff and youth at Consejo.