Christina Guilbeau and Kenya Carney smiling and surrounded by hand-drawn doodles

About Us

Hopebound aims to create space for every young person to show up as their whole selves along their journey to wellness. Our goal is to eradicate barriers to access and revolutionize the world of mental health care as we know it so it can become care that knows us.

Care as we know it.

Our program intentionally and deliberately engages adolescents who come from low income environments, identify as Black and Indigenous People of Color and/or as a part of the LGBTQAI+ community.

Unfortunately, we are forced to acknowledge that the current state of mental healthcare was not created with these demographics in mind. According to the American Psychological Association, 86% of therapists identified as white, leaving a dearth in not only representation in the field but true cultural competency that is informed by shared lived experiences.

Care that knows us.

It is in consideration of those factors that we choose to utilize supervised master’s student clinicians as our providers. With these emerging clinicians, many of whom share the backgrounds of our youth, we focus heavily on expert training to ensure that the low cost of their services does not translate to a lower quality of care. We believe that creating the conditions for these young people to thrive in therapy is directly related to the ways in which we train the next generation of therapists to be radically inclusive in their approach.

two girls laughing

What We Do

We provide weekly, video-based teletherapy to under-resourced middle school and high school students at no or low-cost. In addition to working directly with families, we partner with schools and afterschool programs in Georgia and New Jersey to support adolescents through affordable and proven therapy interventions.

Our therapy services are provided by pre-licensed therapists, who are master’s students studying counseling, social work, clinical psychology, or marriage and family therapy, and pursuing licensure. They provide talk therapy services under professional supervision in order to earn hours. The supervisor is a licensed mental health clinician who meets with Hopebound counselors weekly to review their cases and support them to serve their clients in the best manner possible.

Why Therapy for Middle and High Schoolers?

Did you know?

In the United States, 50% of lifetime cases of mental illness begin by the age of 14. Yet 14 million children attend schools with no mental health staff.

It is not easy to be a young person, especially today. Middle and high schoolers face challenges everyday to fit in with friends, succeed in school, get along with family, and make other big decisions. And children face more obstacles than their parents did at their age, with the constant availability of social media apps along with COVID-19 stressors. In fact, adolescents have reported higher stress levels on average than adults. 

And the problem is only growing. 

One in six high schoolers reported making a suicide plan in 2019. And the number of Black youth attempting suicide rose by 50% since 2009. 

Mental health problems in adolescence do not always simply resolve themselves. But there is good news. Young people are resilient. 

Adolescents can adapt to life changes and new ways of thinking. The brains of adolescents are flexible. Of course, when a young person shows signs of struggling with stress or anxiety, the earlier they can get help, the better.

Did you know?

According to the CDC, in 2019 about 1 in 3 high school students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, a 40 percent jump from 2009.

Did you know?

After our year-long program, our clients report a 21% improvement in their mental health functioning, twice the amount of the most comparable youth mental health program.

Mental health therapy and other interventions are proven to help. Yet, less than half of youth in need receive any mental health treatment. We know what works, as long as youth can get access to these helpful resources. 

Hopebound is committed to being part of the solution for young people.

Check this link to determine if your child could benefit from therapy.

Hopebound works to revolutionize access to mental health and wellness support for young people from historically marginalized communities.

Care without the code switch.

Our Approach to Therapy

We provide affordable, one-on-one virtual mental health services to adolescents in need. The majority of the youth we work with are between the ages of 10 and 17 years old. We partner with individual families as well as middle schools, high schools, and afterschool programs in Georgia and New Jersey. About half of our clients come from partner schools and half come from independent referrals from their families.  If you are located in New Jersey or Georgia, and interested in our services, but your school does not partner with Hopebound, please feel free to contact us independently.