Professional School Counseling

Professional School Counseling
Liberty University

COUN501 B08

Dr. Kathleen Chara
Sharon Ollie
On
March 9, 2012

Professional School Counseling

A school counselor assists students in developing strategies to surmount society before society surmounts them. By teaching children social skills, and also a way of coping, a school counselor serves as a role model among the youth. Their primary purpose is assisting children with educational, emotional, and social development skills that will guide them in the direction of a healthier future. In most schools there is at least one counselor. Most School Counselors work in secondary schools (Grubb). Most opportunities will occur to meet replacement needs. Outlook is dependent on pupil population so job opportunities are best in growing areas. Those in the area of specialty who are bilingual and bicultural may have better chances for employment. Beginners may have to work at lower paying or part-time jobs in order to gain experience in the field. Jesse B. Davis was the founder of school counseling. Jesse B. Davis was the first individual that becomes known for introducing “vocational and moral guidance” into the school system. “This was the first systematic guidance program in public schools” (A Brief History of School Counseling, 2011). Jesse B. Davis was a school administrator in Michigan who seen how the new classes in the school systems were challenging to the students so he created a guidance curriculum. Davis introduced his guidance curriculum at the Grand Rapids, Michigan School that he was a principal at. This program was introduced to 11th grade boys and girls during 1898 to 1907. He introduced this curriculum into an English class once a week. During this class that teachers would teach the lessons that were suggested by Davis. Frank Parsons was influenced by the work of Jane Adams. He was a social worker in Boston Massachusetts. Parsons began a house for people that were unemployed. He thought that vocational education should be introduced into the public school systems. Parsons introduced the Vocation Bureau in Civic Service House in Boston in 1908. This established the first vocational institute in the United States. He also wrote a book called “Choosing a Vocation” right before he died in 1909. The American Counseling Association started out being known as the National Vocational Guidance Association, which was founded in Grand Rapids Michigan. This form of vocation guidance that the above people developed began to spread throughout many of the larger cities. This spread also involved Eli Weaver. Eli Weaver wrote a book called “Choosing a Career”. He began to introduce vocational guidance in New York City Schools as early as 1906. Vocational guidance began to spread fast. By 1909, it was I introduced into Boston schools, then in 1911 into Cincinnati schools. Vocational guidance mainly was developed because of a fear of unemployment. This in return created a strong social reform and progressive education movement. By 1924 guidance counselors (School Counselors) began to get certified. Vocational guidance and school counseling began to grow between the 1920’s and 1930’s. This growth happened due to the progressive education in the schools. The progressive movement placed emphasis on personal, social, and moral development. Many schools refused this education, saying that it was an anti-educational movement and that they should only be teaching the fundamentals of education. All this added with the Great Depression cause a decline in the school counseling and guidance profession. “In the 1940’s the United States were using psychologists and counselors mainly to select, recruit, and train military personnel” (A Brief History of School Counseling, 2011). This usage of counselor in the military caused the 1950’s “the Guidance and Personnel Services Section in the Division of State and Local School Systems. In 1957 the National Defense Education Act was launched, which created an increase in vocational guidance. School Counseling has continued to grow since then. It has grown created new legislation and new professional developments. In 2006, congress created February 6-10 National School Counseling week. There were not very many requirements for those wanting to be a school counselor back during the development of the job. Most of the people that were school counselors were teachers that had very little to no training at all in the guidance field. The National Defense Education Act established different guidance institutes were teachers would attend summer guidance seminars to receive specialized training in different guidance techniques. These seminars would offer endorsements and certificates to the teachers that were participating in the school-counseling career. “By the 1970’s most states required that teachers earn a master’s degree in school counseling in order to be certified as a school counselor” (A Brief History of School Counseling, 2011). The master’s degree programs consisted of 30-36 semester hours. At present there are about forty states that allow non-teachers that have school counseling degree’s to become counselors at their schools. Many of these states also require that a counselor have internship hours in a school setting. A Licensed Professional Counselor is different from a Licensed or Certified School Counselor. Many Counselors that work in different settings other than school usually do not require a school counseling certification. In order to compete with other professional such as psychiatrists and social workers a counselor should obtain this certification. Duties of a school counselor are to work with students, school staff, families, and members of the community in order to make education easier for the students. Counseling programs in schools tend to create school success with “a focus on academic achievement, prevention and intervention activities, advocacy, and social/emotional and career development” (Hartley, Richard & McLearen, Cynthia, 2006). A School Counselor is a person that is a certified professional with a Master’s degree and specialized training. A counselor also is an educator who advocates for all students, coordinates services, consults, is a group leader, is a mediator, is a professional helping teachers, parents, and others to understand the development of children and youth, and finally a counselor is a professional who helps children understand themselves and others.
A School counselor has many jobs. These jobs include (Hartley, Richard & McLearen, Cynthia 2006):
• Counsels with students individually and in groups
• Provides developmental classroom guidance activities
• Responds to students’ needs in crisis situations
• Orients new students to school programs and settings
• Works with potential drop-outs and other at-risk students
• Actively participates in the referral process for helping students and families connect with community agencies
• Analyzes test results and provides information about students’ abilities, achievements, interests, and needs
• Coordinates efforts with other school professionals
• Conducts conferences with parents
• Guides students’ school and career plans
• Adheres to ethical and legal standards
• Pursues opportunities for professional growth
• Conducts periodic evaluation of the school counseling and guidance programs
• Helping a student to enjoy their educational experience
• Be someone that a student can talk to when needed
• Give parents and families appropriate information when needed
• Provide students counseling in order to ensure school success, personal development, behavior management, assertiveness,
• The counselor also provides ways for the students to deal with: stress/anxiety, anger, divorce, and grief &loss
• The counselor also teaches the student how to build their friendship skills and how to make smart decisions.
• The school counselor provides assistance to fellow staff members and students by promoting social skills
• The counselor keeps in contact with teachers and school administrators about the students’ progress and development
Some counselors offer parents and children or just parents different programs that help them to learn more about their education. A counselor’s job is much more different than it was 50 years ago. Back 50 years ago a counselor was more concerned with just getting a student the classes they wanted to take. At present a counselor helps their students in a much broader way. The counselor helps students deal with almost any problem that might arise. The counselor helps to guide students toward productive futures, and tries to create positive environments for them to learn in.
There are many different skills that a school counselor must be able to teach to students. These skills include (Maxwell, Nadine, 2007):
• Self-understanding and self-confidence
• Motivation
• Decision- making, goal-setting and planning
• Conflict resolution
• Interpersonal relationships/ social skills
• Communication skills
• Respect for others
• Appreciation for cultural/ethnic diversity
• Responsible behavior
• Career awareness
• Self empowerment and resiliency Narrative theory has provides a model that serves numerous and complex issues that help to face the diverse student population with whom all school counselors have the privilege to counsel in today’s schools. Schools continue to be challenged when they address the academic needs of Latino students in our schools for example “The graduation gap between Latino students and their classmates is an issue school districts are struggling with across the country” (McNeill, 2005, p. 23). The article particularly addresses the issue of Washington DC metropolitan school districts and specifically Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), and how “in the past five school years, the number of Latinos who dropped out from Fairfax County schools has more than doubled far more than their white, black or Asian classmates” (McNeill, 2005, p. 15). The Latino, Juan Pacheco who was a community activist and former FCPS student, shared that, “existing programs in school and community centers need to find better ways to engage children and provide them with ‘culturally appropriate’ role models” (Schumitz, 2004, p. 101). Counselors are ethically obligated to find culturally appropriate ways for to interrupt in Latino student’s lives so that there is a way to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity in order to achieve academically. Narrative theory has the propensity to provide counselors with a culturally sensitive framework that helps to build counseling practices that take culture into consideration. This has occurred due to underlying assumptions and theoretical concepts that are based from those assumptions. Informed consent is usually a legal condition that a person can be said to have agreed upon by giving their consent based on appreciation and their understanding of the facts and implications of the actions they will be receiving. Usually an informed consent statement is given so that each individual that is receiving counseling services understand the type of services they will receive. This statement is something that describes that nature of services, the counselors’ credentials, the confidentiality information, office hours, and contact information. A patient has the right to know all this information. They have the right to know that their information will be kept confidential. Confidentiality and School Counseling is pretty much the same as regular counseling. It is understood that whatever is discussed between the client and the school counselor is confidential. Confidentiality is essential when wanting to develop trust among your clients. Dealing with minors is more complex than dealing with adults and confidentiality. School counselors should learn how to balance their clients, the parents of their clients, the school system and their ethical and legal responsibilities to all involved. The issue of confidentiality is raised quite often because of the complex balancing of student clients. In order to aid the school counselor in their attempt to weigh their ethical obligations they must identify those of which they consider to be their “clients.” Seeing School counselors are a part of the educational community they don’t only deal with the students they deal with the teachers, administrators, and the student’s parents. It is extremely important that as a school counselor on must clarify that their clients are the students. “The Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the American Counseling Association (ACA, 1995) and the Ethical Standards for School Counselors of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 1998) are two resources available to help school counselors manage privacy and confidentiality in their counseling relationships. The moral issues that are most often shown in relation to ethical practices of school counselors include the following:
• Veracity or telling the truth
• Justice or fairness
• No maleficence or doing no harm
• Beneficence or doing well
• Autonomy or respecting free choice
• Fidelity or keeping promises A counselor should respect their clients’ autonomy. This means that they should respect their clients’ freedom to make their own choices. This doesn’t mean that a counselor should encourage their clients to make decisions that are different from the students parents or other significant others. What it does mean is that the “counselor refrain from imposing goals, avoiding being judgmental, and are accepting of different values” (Herlihy & Corey, 1996, p. 4). It can be very difficult for school counselors to apply moral principles to various situations, while also respecting the rights of minor clients’ that are being served in the school setting. A school counselor should be able to understand many different concepts. They should grasp the legal status of minors and the legality and ethics of privacy, confidentiality, privileged communication, and informed consent. “The ACA (1995) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice specifically references the term minor twice, both in relation to matters of consent. The Ethical Standards for Counselors (ASCA, 1998) include standards specific to counseling minors throughout the entire document. Neither set of ethical guidelines, however, defines the term minor.” At the age of 18 a person is no longer a minor they are now adults. Therefore, minors are considered to be anyone under the age of 18. At the age of 18 is when a child becomes and adult and no longer has answer to the parents. Once they turn 18 their parents aren’t responsible for their actions. Teenagers have just as much rights as adult when they enter into counseling. They have rights to privacy and rights to confidentiality. The US Supreme court upheld a parents’ legal right to make major decisions about their children (Butler, 1997, p. 30). Anyone that is seen in the parental role of a student is known as their parent and may be confronted about counseling. Counseling is known to be a contractual relationship, “minors cannot legally agree to be counseled on their own” (Remley & Herlihy, p. 179). Many states have begun to enforce laws that allow students younger than 18 years of age to be able to receive counseling or medical services without the consent of their parents. There are a few states that let the minors be considered mature and capable of understanding the laws of counseling. Informed consent is considered to be both an ethical principle and legal. It requires that school counselors inform their clients about the risks, benefits, and alternatives to proposed counseling. Clients that are minors are not allowed to give informed consent. Their parents are the only ones that can give a counselor informed consent. Even though the informed consent can only be given by the students parents the students is still allowed to seek counseling without parental consent. There are many schools or school principles that have rules that school counselors must obtain a parents’ permission before they counsel any student. Some others state that the counselor should seek approval from the parents if they see the student more than a certain amount of sessions. Clients should be able to provide or share information with their counselor in order to know that they can trust the counselor. This sharing of information helps to form a trusting therapeutic relationship that is a must in the counseling profession. In conclusion to this assignment, school counseling has had a rough time starting out and getting popular, now that it is up and going it is an amazing job. I think helping children through one of the roughest times in their lives is one of the best jobs a person can have. Children need good role models and as a school counselor this allows the children to look up to you and learn how they should act and what they should do in order to make it in today’s society. Even though, when I started this course; I wanted to be a school counselor, now I have realized that this is not something that I want to do as of right now. I still think that it would be an amazing job but I think that I would rather make a difference in a child’s life by becoming a teacher and having more of a hand on position in teaching a child right from wrong.

References
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McNeill, B. (2005, May 19). Schools struggle with Latino dropouts: Why are so many Latino teenagers dropping out from Fairfax County schools? Retrieved February 25, 2012 from www.connectionnewspapers.com.
Schumitz, K. (2004). Barrios Unidos worker critiques gang policies. Retrieved March 1, 2012, from www.timescommunity.com.
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