1. Calo Teens: Your Window Into Treatment!
Academics Expands
School-Funded Options
The 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 Calo
Kuenneke 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, Interim
Academic Director