Recently a new member has been added to the Prince George Counseling team, and she is trained to work with students with active-duty parents and make their experience in Prince George the best it can be.

Julia Stoke, a licensed family and marriage counselor for over 20 years, has recently started her job as a M-FLAC counselor. Although she has previously worked with adolescents before, she is still adjusting to her new role and responsibilities.

“I am new to the job and new to the program, so it’s kind of a learning experience for everybody,” Stokes said.

Stokes hopes to reach military students by being a frequent figure in their classrooms.

“I am going to be here doing presentations in classrooms and different groups that’ll be on things like family transition, deployment, service members returning, any sort of family stress All things that not only military families go through, but kids in general deal with,” Stoke said.

Julia also hopes to be a recurring presence at students activities outside of school.

“I’ll be at the bus duty, I’ll be at after school programs like plays, sporting events, things like that,” said Stoke. She does not only want to work with students, she also wants to reach their active-duty guardians as well.

“I’m going to be at after school activities because a lot of times parents will come to the sporting events or plays. Maybe have some parent breakfast or coffee time, things like that. They’re welcome to contact me. I can call them, they can call me. Im very open to seeing how I can assist them in relation to the high school because this is my base,” said Stoke.

As for availability, there will also be opportunities to speak with Mrs.Stokes throughout the school day. “I will be here in the mornings and in the commons area all through lunch. I’m hoping I’m gonna have little crafts and things to do,” said Stoke.
Military students can come to Stoke about a very wide range of topics that impact their mental health.

“The issues I mainly work with are school adjustment, deployment and separation, reunion adjustment, sibling, parent, and child communication, behavior concerns, fear of grief and loss. Just anything students feel like they’re struggling with,” Stoke said.

Although Julia Stoke works alongside Prince George High School’s Counseling Department, her counseling services are only available to students with active-duty military parents.

“Any sort of individual counseling, but I can only see active military kids. Presentations and groups can benefit everybody, crafts things like that. But if you say you know a family member that is being deployed and you are struggling with that, you could come to me and we would try to work through that stuff. If say a non-military kid was having a stressor, they would go somewhere else for example guidance or school counseling,” said Stoke.

Stoke is also planning on creating a safe, comfortable space for students when they seek her counseling services.

“I’m hoping to show the students that they’ll have a place to come and feel comfortable talking and will work through some of the issues with new kids transitioning in. I see we’ve got a lunch buddy table so I’m gonna extend on that and have people feel comfortable,” said Stoke.

Julia also has personal reasons for wanting to extend a warm welcome to new students and help current students.

“For me personally, my kids go to Prince George Schools so it’ll be nice for me to see how the high school works and know that i’m involved in the community, a place where my kids will eventually funnel up through and so it’ll be nice that i’ll be here, in its presence,” said Stoke.