Saturday, September 1, 2012
week #2
A counselor
should be someone who carries a positive outlook towards people with the
intention and drive to help them. In particular, a school counselor should act
as a mediator; an emotionally supportive staff member; and a developer in
regards to the students’ social, personal, academic, and their future career achievement.
The school counselors in my area stress the importance of preventive guidance
lessons and their directive group and individual services to the students. I always
wanted to be a counselor in order to help students with their personal, social,
academic, and career problems and development. My elementary site supervisor
stressed to me the importance of preventive guidance lessons in the classroom
before issues start and get out of control. I plan on contributing to the lives
of my young clients through the same practice of preventive practices.
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Preventative counseling is important but can also take on many forms depending on the location that you live in. More urban areas may need to focus on helping students avoid joining gangs, which may not be a need in more rural areas. Different regions have different needs so a school counselor should be aware of these differences. One way of doing this is to survey the opinions of the students, faculty, staff and parents to determine which issues may be of strong concern for them. While it may not narrow down to specific activities, it may be a starting point to assist in developing an overall plan. Also, creating an advisory committee with equal representation can help with creating programing and lessons that could be beneficial to the specific population.
ReplyDeletePreventive counseling with an emphasis on solution focus for the client is essential in the school setting. Students do become from a variety of backgrounds and situations which means the counselor needs to do a great deal of work in my opinion in establishing rapport upfront with students/clients. Time spent talking in the hallways, cafeteria, bus call, before school to build such rapport is invaluable. Trust is the main ingredient for the recipe of a great counselor/client relationship. The more time given to getting to know students upfront and where they are in the present can reap huge benefits later on. Half of our counseling I believe is done when we show how much we care for the student before they ever come into our office.
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