What Does the School Counselor do?

What does the school counselor do?

Counseling is a helping process in which the school counselor provides a safe, nurturing environment to foster a trusting relationship with students.  In this confidential relationship, students can explore their feelings and experiences in hopes of finding a meaningful, positive solution to their personal issues.  The school counselor can help students grow socially and emotionally by providing a listening ear and by teaching skills such as: understanding and managing feelings, solving problems, making friends, and more.

How do I work with students?

• Classroom Counseling (now known as Core Curriculum)- The counselor goes into the classrooms to teach knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help students reach their full potential in the areas of academic, career and social emotional development.
• Individual Mini-Meetings- The counselor consults with each student for a brief meeting, not to exceed 5 minutes, to gain insight on their academic, career, and social emotional needs.
• Small Group Counseling- The counselor works with students in smaller group settings to address specific areas of concern. Group availability is selected by the counselor based on amount of need. If group is unavailable, the counselor can work with a student individually.
• Brief Individual Counseling- The counselor meets with individual students  sessions) to help solve problems that are interfering with their learning and sense of well-being. 
•  Parent and Teacher Consultation- The counselor meets with parents and/or teachers regarding issues with students.
• Responsive Services- Includes crisis intervention, consultation, collaboration, and conflict resolution.

Confidentiality

As your School Counselor, I develop confidential relationships with students.  This means that information gathered through meetings with students and parents/guardians will be shared on a "need to know" basis only.  I work to maintain the privacy of students and their families.  When information needs to be shared, I will assess who needs to know and what information needs to be known to best help students and their families.  I tell students, "What you say in here, stays in here.  Except if...someone is hurting you, you want to hurt someone, or you want to hurt yourself."