WORTHINGTON — Marlen Balster, a therapist at Prairie Elementary and the Intermediate School in the Worthington school district, is a welcoming and warm presence for students grades kindergarten through fifth to talk to whenever they need someone. If they ignore her and go straight to her service dog, a yellow lab named Cooper, that stays between them.
“Cooper is a psychiatric service animal. He’s my accommodation,” Balster explained. He doesn’t treat kids, but he’s there for them.
“It’s definitely interesting to see how the environment will light up when he’s around and just how much kids really truly enjoy the presence of an animal in the building,” Balster said. “He brings smiles and the kids love him.”
Balster, who struggles with ADHD and PTSD, explained that Cooper has helped her identify her invisible disabilities and learn how to support herself. She advocates for sustainable self-care through service animals and accommodations.
“I’m healing myself and finding new avenues to be successful in my day-to-day life,” she said. “I really just wanted to come into the school and show kids like, ‘Yeah, we can get through hard things and we can overcome a lot and we can become whoever we want to become.’”
Balster adopted Cooper when he was six months old from a breeder in Adrian. Once Balster got Cooper certified and trained two years ago, he started joining her at work. At the time, she worked as a domestic violence assessor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“He has sort of always been an office dog,” Balster explained. “He loves it. He usually is the first to wake up and get ready for the day. He’s my alarm clock.”
Through her role in Sioux Falls, Balster worked with adults who struggled with mental health and made some bad decisions.
“I had to evaluate whether or not they would be likely to commit another domestic violence crime,” she said. “It was really looking at their systems in place to see if they had the right support systems.”
Working within that environment led Balster to see the underlying dynamics and structures in mental health work. If a parent is unhealthy, the child in school is likely bearing the weight of that.
“I want to do therapy and I want to help people heal, but I also want to challenge the systems in place that are affecting people, that are limiting people from accessing resources,” she said. “It’s important to look deeper and not just (at) the individual who is struggling.”
Balster is currently studying for her masters in social work, with the penultimate goal of opening a therapy facility. “That’s a dream of mine, but, for now, I’m just really trying to give back to my community,” she said.
One way she does that is as a board member at Creative Healing Space, an arts organization in Worthington that encourages healing through art. Art has helped her get through hard times, so it made sense to help others do that for themselves.
Cooper hangs out at the Creative Healing Space in Worthington while people create art.
Contributed / Marlen Balster
“I get to hang out Thursdays and people will get to come meet me and meet Coop and be in his presence,” Balster said. “He’s pretty popular by now. A lot of people really enjoy seeing him and giving him a quick little pat down.
“I’m happy that I get to highlight the importance of having service animals in our community and integrating them out in public spaces,” she continued. “You can have a service dog and you can have it in your work and in your life … it helps the people around. Everybody always says seeing him is the best part of the day … he just brings such a fun, positive vibe to the school. Some of the kids can have really big struggles and having a day or a time just to see him and smile and give him a pat down, just to remind them … it’s going to be OK.”
Within Balster and Cooper, students “see that there are two people in the building who truly care about them and want to see them succeed.”
Theo Babb writes for The Globe in Worthington, Minnesota. They live in Luverne, MN and cover events in Rock, Nobles, Jackson, Cottonwood, Murray, and Pipestone county. Theo studied English and Fine Arts at the University of Sioux Falls. Their email is tbabb@dglobe.com