AST uses strength based social skills training (an evidence-based form of behavior therapy) to address and solve the problems people may experience as a result of social and thinking skills deficits. AST provides interventions that improve and enrich the quality of life for people with social delays, behavioral health needs, socio-emotional problems, autism-spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities and mental health diagnoses such as ADD, ADHD, anxiety and depression. Skills training has been shown to be effective in improving the social and thinking skills of clients regardless of the social problem; if there is a skills deficit, the person can learn how better to manage social interactions. If social anxiety is masking social ability, practice and exposure during skills training can help to improve the client’s confidence and self-esteem and reduce anxiety about social situations.
“Successful skills training is born out of a genuinely caring therapeutic relationship, grows with the dedication, patience and respect implicit in truly strength-based work and is guided not only by evidence-based best practices but perhaps, more importantly, a foundation of heartfelt values.” - Jesse White, Founder and Director of Aspire Skills Training.
Jesse White is a Quality Mental Health Associate (QMHA), has 3 college degrees and has a longstanding career in social services. Jesse is a skills trainer, mentor, teacher, coach, facilitator, advocate, community organizer, and organizational director, and has worked in contexts including: schools, jails, homeless youth shelters, orphanages and both residential and community-based mental health facilities. Jesse has worked for nearly 3 years now as a skills trainer and a QMHA in the Portland metro area. Jesse is an empathic and strengths-based direct service provider with a skill set that allows him to successfully engage with “hard to reach” clients. Jesse offers an array of intensive home and community-based, skills training services that are innovative, client-driven, and evidence-based. Jesse’s job and his passion is to catalyze and facilitate the behavioral and mental health changes that his clients, and those that surround and support them, wish to see.
"Over the months that Jesse and [my son] met on a weekly basis, I watched him bloom. Jesse played a vital and very necessary role in this family journey. [My son] needed that one-on-one where he could share his concerns with someone who was unbiased and nonjudgemental. Jesse met him where he was at and helped him relearn how to think, how to act, and how to react. I cannot praise him enough; I am so thankful that there are skills trainers out there who take the time to meet kids where they are and help them to be the best they can be.” -Client's mother, 2012
Copyright 2012 Aspire Skills Training LLC