Clients: Students

“Charis Denison has an amazing rapport with adolescents. [She] never condescends to students, but treats them like fellow humans. ... She is by turns irreverent, challenging, startlingly direct; she brings insight, compassion, and fearlessness to her work. She is that rare educator to whom adolescents want to listen, and with whom they want to be honest.”
—Sam Reed, Urban School of San Francisco alum

Adolescents serve as a central focus in Prajna’s work. We are teen advocates and are committed to empowering young people to be active agents of change in their personal, political, and social lives. We work with young people in classrooms, service projects, outdoor trips, and workshops virtually every day. We are in touch with the reality they live in, the questions they have, and the obstacles they face.

We are not therapists. We are, however, experts on adolescent behavior. We do not preach. We do not use fear as a motivating source for adolescent decision-making. Rather, we work in myriad capacities to inform, educate, and motivate young people.

Issues we address with students include ethics, stress, substance use and abuse, cliques & bullying, sexuality, assertiveness & self-defense, and social justice.

Workshops and talks for students and classes:

These services can be geared toward small classes of students, grade level, or school-wide gatherings. All workshops and talks include a combination of presentation, interaction, and discussion.

• Assertiveness, gender roles, and communication
• Self-defense, personal safety, and awareness
• Drug use, abuse, and prevention
• Academic Integrity
• Ethics and how to apply them in the real world
• Character education
• Sexuality (safe sex, abstinence, choices)
• Diversity and equity
• Body image
• The media and its influence