Blog 6: Counseling

After reading the chapter on counseling, the topics sparked a lot of questions that I had in regards to what happens in the school district that I work.  However, I want to first point out the fact that Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) stated that, “Counseling is not just for students who are “troubled,” as counseling enhances a student’s academic, career, and personal/social functioning” (pg.123).  This concept becomes lost as time goes by and students are falling through the cracks due to the main focus being on “troubled” students.  Unfortunately, due to the ratio of counselor to student, it becomes difficult to meet with every student.  This being said, I believe that it is important for counselors to be out and about showing their face seeing all students as much as they can.  Next, I would like to discuss the two areas of the chapter that sparked questions which were crisis intervention and group counseling.        

In terms of crisis intervention, I was curious what is done when a crisis does occur within our district.  After speaking with the school counselor, I learned that the school counselors have been broken down into teams.  Next, if a crisis occurs the principals are notified and the counselors are pulled for the day to handle the situation that occurred at the given school.  For example, last year one of the students had been killed and my counselor was pulled to go to another school to support the students with the tragedy.

The second area that made me question what we do is group counseling.  I was aware that groups were pulled in the school that I teach but I wasn’t sure how everything worked.  I learned that if a group has to be created whether it is focused on bullying, anger management, etc., then the counselor will send home letters in order to receive parental support.  Next, the counselor will screen the students in order to determine whether they are “group ready.”  In order to be “group ready” they need to be able to admit the problem that they have and be willing to share.  The next and final step is to pull the groups during lunch and recess so that they are not missing instructional time.  The first meeting the students are given the chance to develop rules and/or procedures of how the meetings will go.  Allowing the students to come up with their own rules allows them to take ownership of the meeting.  Finally, the groups meet on a weekly basis to discuss the problem they are facing.  In conclusion, this chapter brought many issues that as a counselor you need to be aware of in order to have an effective comprehensive school counseling program.    

Dollarhide, C. & Saginak, K. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action (2^nd ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.