Calo Teens: Your Window Into Treatment!

Academics Expands School-Funded OptionsThe Arkansas Department of Education is the latest state agency to include Calo on its list of programs approved for school district funding. The Arkansas DOE joins the states of California and Illinois who have approved funding for students at Calo. In 2015, more than 6 California students have been funded by their school districts; 5 students have been funded from Illinois districts this year. About 5 other students have been funded as well by school districts in various states like Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming. “During the year about one-sixth of our students in the teen program are funded by their school districts,” says Abby Mayer, Interim Academic Director for Calo teens. In other developments, Calo is now an approved testing site for the ACT. The test will be administered on Calo’s campus three times per year. The first test is scheduled for December 11, 2015.

Neurotherapist Joins CaloKuenneke individualizes neurotherapies for teens

Scott Kuenneke is Calo’s new Director of Clinical Neurotherapies. A board certified neurotherapist, Scott brings a new dimension to Calo’s work with adopted teens who have experienced developmental trauma. “Using some new equipment, we can get a real-time image of our students’ brains,” he says, “and use that as the basis of treatment.”

That new equipment is a Quantitative Electroencephalograph (qEEG). Using a normative database as comparison, a student’s qEEG data can identify instabilities and dysregulations. These markers are the origins of behavioral symptoms.

The qEEG measures five different brain waves: Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and High Beta, each associated with specific symptoms. For example, Delta is associated with sleep problems. With an individual map of each student’s brain, treatment plans can pinpoint particular symptoms.

Treatments include both Neurofeedback (NF) and Biofeedback (BF) for 40 one-hour sessions. NF uses the brain’s reward system to help the brain change itself. The result is an increase in

the efficiency of neurological processing. For example, a child’s sensory systems would be able to integrate more fluidly after treatment.

Treatment using BF can help encourage self-regulation. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a type of BF that teaches students to create a coherent

connection between their heart and lungs. By using HRV, Scott can teach students to produce coherent heart rhythms, triggering a response to allow the body to relax. “Our goal is to calm the fear-driven brain,” he concludes. Scott is a very experienced clinician,

having worked for the last 8 years for Reintegrative Health Institute in Des Pares, a suburb of St. Louis. Scott has also worked for the

Neurotherapy Center of St. Louis and performed assessments and developed treatment plans for juveniles in the Family Courts of St. Louis County. Scott holds a BS in Psychology from Webster University in St. Louis and an MS degree in Mental Health Counseling from Walden University.

TEENS CANOE FOR THREE DAYS WITH A FOCUS ON COMMUNICATION SKILLS

The Calo teen boys’ and girls’ programs recently completed the Communication sequence of Adventure Therapy in separate 3-day trips. Safe communication is stressed at Calo as the foundation of any trusting relationship. Healthy communication poses great difficulty to our students and can require hard work to do well. Students learn that communication can become a vehicle that allows opportunities to reap the benefits of hard work through deepened relationships and play.

Vulnerability, honesty and an awareness of our own fears are essential to communicate well with others. The communication sequence is capped by 3 days of canoeing here at the Lake of the Ozarks. Students work together to canoe from different campsite locations on the lake and celebrate their accomplishment by playing, fishing, swimming, wakeboarding, skiing, wake-skating and wake surfing. “Both programs had great trips this year,” says Mike Sharpmack, Adventure Therapy Director.

“Students really worked hard out there.”

Scott Kuenneke, Board Certified Neurotherapist

Abby Mayer, InterimAcademic Director