Consultation is "an interaction between the counselor and another person with the primary focus of assisting that other person to function more effectively with a third person or group within a work, school, or interpersonal system" (Dollarhide & Saginak, p.170, 2012). This chapter discussed the importance of consultation and how it is a necessary part of the school counselor's work. Because there are so many stakeholders involved, it is essential that effective collaboration take place to make consultation work successfully. School counselors have caseloads that are so large it would be impossible for them to work individually with all of them. Teachers are able to better understand their individual class because they work one on one with each of their students. This allows for a more effective way for school counselors to reach the students. It gives them the opportunity to plan and implement strategies to help the students be more successful in their educational environment. The time it saves gives school counselors the chance to work with even more students. Consultation is then a very critical way of working with students. It is part of the responsive service in the delivery system. As I have learned from the ASCA National Model, we should be spending 80% of our time in the delivery services. Therefore consultation is a huge part of what we should be doing. Dollarhide and Saginak (2012) describe that counselors need to gain a better understanding of consulting and the practice of consultation. It seems to me that it should be a crucial part of the school counseling education. Currently we are no longer required to take consultation and it makes me wonder if maybe we should be asked to. In the Classroom Management class we do have to take we learn about the basics of consultation and behavioral modification. However, I think it would benefit us to go more in depth the actual consultation process, working with the teacher to help the student.
The article by Kahn (2000) that we had to read for this week discussed a solution-focused consultation model that has been found to be a lot more beneficial than traditional consultation. It was interesting to compare what I have learned in Classroom Management to how the article laid out the consultation process. Often times the problem is more of the focus than solutions and weaknesses become great importance to the student's success. In the solution-focused model, the focus is on strengths and solutions. Just like in counseling, the solution-focused ideas benefit the client and participants more and tend to work better in the long run. The solutions and strategies are future-oriented and the only time they look to the past is for exceptions. After reading Kahn (2000), I think that it would make sense to try and implement a system similar to this in order to benefit the greatest number of students and stakeholders.
Dollarhide, C. & Saginak, K. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K-12 delivery systems in action (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Kahn, B. B. (2000). A model of solution-focused consultation for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 3 (4), 248-254.
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