While students are stressed out this week taking their finals, the school’s therapist is trying to help students keep their cool. The 25 percent weight of a final exam is enough to produce anxiety for any student, considering that it could make or break a semester average. School therapist Gladys Delgado said she expected her services to be needed at this time of the year, prompting her to notify teachers of the counseling she can provide to keep students from stressing

out“.End of the semester is usually stressful for students due to final exams and final grades,” Delgado said. “Students also may have projects due and/or are making up work for previous grades during the semester which adds pressure to do well in order to obtain credits for their classes.”

After volunteering to lead mini lessons on coping with stress, several teachers have requested her to visit their classrooms before finals started. She visited three classrooms, including AVID teacher Christina Garcia-Mata’s class.

“I think that it was a good experience,” Garcia-Mata said. “My students had the chance to kind of see that stress isn’t something they have to deal with.”

Delgado focuses on the impact of the stress physically and emotionally, while identifying ways to manage stress. Also engages the class in a breathing exercise, which is one way to cope with stress.

“In the mini-lesson we mainly focused on the importance of the four by four breaths,” Garcia-Mata said.

Delgado, who provides counseling services at Akins and Travis high schools, is part of the school district’s Campus Based Referral Centers. The program is part of a partnership between Seton Healthcare and the school district, which provides licensed counselors and psychologists to students.

This program began back in spring of 2012 at Crockett High and later expanded to six other campuses by fall 2013.

“The program here at Akins has been available since last year,” Delgado said.

Campus Based Counseling Referral Centers also offers ways to deal with and manage anxiety, aggression, isolation, depression, adjustement and different coping strategies that are helpful for students.