About

About the Wellness Center 

Hello! My name is Jeff Steer, and I am the Mental Health Specialist here at Walnutwood High School.

I wanted to take the opportunity to let all Walnutwood High School students, families, and staff know about our newly developed Wellness Center at our Rancho Cordova campus. Our Wellness Center is tailored to the needs of an Alternative Education school environment and consists of a variety of self-directed wellness “stations” students can utilize at any time when they are struggling with issues impacting their mental and physical health and well-being, including stress, anxiety, sadness, isolation, and academic challenges associated with being a student. Students can utilize these “stations” for as long as they need to while they are on campus, whether it would be for a “brain break”, a moment to reset themselves in order to continue to focus on their schoolwork, or to spend time reflecting on ways to improve their health and well-being through worksheets covering a variety of topics associated with mental wellness, including coping strategies for stress, anger, and sadness.

We are developing new “stations” regularly in order to meet the various issues affecting mental and physical wellness, and we welcome input from students, families, teachers, and staff to develop stations to meet unique needs. Current “stations” include jigsaw puzzles, wellness worksheets, and mindfulness activities. We also have created an area in our Wellness Center called “The Comfort Zone” where students can sit on pillows and bean bag chairs to relax or work on their assignments using their Chromebooks if they need a break from sitting at a desk in the study area. And we also have a library of various books for students to borrow when needed.

Because we also have students at Walnutwood High School who attend our Folsom satellite campus, we are in the process of developing wellness “stations” in containers that students can take to their desks to utilize when needed.

Finally, since Walnutwood High School is an Alternative Education site, we also are including our students who only attend our program online access to our “virtual Wellness Center”, which will include links to all wellness worksheets, wellness activities, and community resources we have in the Wellness Center. You can find the virtual center under the “For Students” section of our school website, and the link is “The Wellness Zone”. This is available to all Walnutwood High School students, and they can easily access this on their Chromebooks. We encourage students, families, and staff to log in frequently because new information and resources will become available as needs change.

Our world has forever changed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental and physical wellness is far more important than ever before. We are trying to deliver wellness activities and resources to students and families in every way possible and our goal is for Walnutwood High School to become a warm and welcoming environment that meets both the academic needs and therapeutic needs of every student we serve.

Thank you, and we always welcome your feedback about our Wellness Center!

Jeff Steer, LMFT

LMFT 44900

Mental Health Specialist