Avenues Counseling

When you reflect on your teenage years, do you smile thinking of football games, school dances, and friendships? Or cringe at memories of awkwardness and anxiety, the stresses of balancing school, family, and social relationships, and finding your place in the world? Being a teenager has never been easy, but teenagers today experience higher rates of anxiety and depression than ever before.

Avenues Counseling, a 2024-2025 SOS grantee, provides counseling for children, teens, and adults. The mission of Avenues is to provide vital mental health counseling services to all who have a need, regardless of someone’s ability to pay. They believe emotional wellness should be accessible to everyone. 

In August 2024, Avenues launched an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) specifically focused on positively impacting the lives of struggling teens. The program is for teens wrestling with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation who need more than a weekly counseling session, but something less intensive than inpatient therapy. One of the program's strengths is the inclusion of required weekly sessions for the participants’ caregivers. Abi DeJong, LPC, the Intensive Outpatient Program Coordinator, explains, “What I have seen is that the teen is getting the care they need but the parent or caregiver is not, so I wanted to design this program so the family as a whole is being taken care of. The caregiver has support and the teen has support, and they have a place where they can land, where they can ask for help. We really see it as a holistic way to approach the family.” 

The IOP is based at the Avenues Counseling location in Ferguson, which is designated as a mental health provider shortage area by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Avenues opened the Ferguson office in February 2024, increasing equity and access to much-needed care. Clients receive a diverse range of services depending on their needs, including individual therapy, group therapy, or family therapy. 

Pat Crowe, SOS member and president-elect, led the Avenues Counseling site visit last year. She and the entire site visit team advocated for Avenues to receive SOS funding based on “their deep commitment to DEI, and their focus on their mission to provide accessible service to those in need. This is an organization where SOS’s support can have a meaningful impact on addressing the mental health crisis.”