School counselor
A school counselor is a certified/licensed professional that provides academic, career, college readiness, and social-emotional support for all students.
[4] Knowledge, understanding and skill in these domains are developed through classroom instruction, appraisal, consultation, counseling, coordination, and collaboration.
[7] They provide intervention, prevention, and services to support students' academic, career, and post-secondary education as well as social-emotional growth.
School counselor interventions for all students include annual academic/career/college access/affordability/admission planning K–12 and leading classroom developmental lessons on academic, career/college, and social-emotional topics.
[7] Additionally, some school counselors are stretched too thin to provide mental health support on top of their other duties.
[8] The role of a school counselor is critical and needs to be supported by all stakeholders to ensure equity and access for all students, particularly those with the fewest resources.
Increased emphasis is placed on accountability for helping close achievement and opportunity gaps at the elementary level as more school counseling programs move to evidence-based work with data and specific results.
[23][24] School counseling programs that deliver specific competencies to all students help to close achievement and opportunity gaps.
[21][27] Sink & Stroh (2003) released a research study showing the effectiveness of elementary school counseling programs in Washington state.
[28] Middle school counselors provide school counseling curriculum lessons[21] on academic, career, college access, and personal and social competencies, advising and academic/career/college access planning to all students and individual and group counseling for some students and their families to meet the needs of older children/early adolescents in grades 7 and 8.
[32] High school counselors provide[21] academic, career, college access, and personal and social competencies with developmental classroom lessons and planning to all students, and individual and group counseling for some students and their families to meet the developmental needs of adolescents (Hatch & Bowers, 2003, 2005, 2012).
With a great discrepancy between the rich and the poor, vocational counseling was initiated to help support disadvantaged students.
[45] After World War II, vocational guidance began to shift towards a new movement of counseling, which provided a theoretical backing.
Most are trained in Western-developed cognitive methods including REBT, Rogerian, Family Systems, Behavior Modification, and Object Relations.
[47] School counselors also recommend Chinese methods such as qigong (deep breathing) and acupuncture, as well as music therapy.
In Hong Kong, Hui (2000) discussed work moving toward comprehensive school counseling programs and eliminating the older remediation-style model.
[53] Obtaining certification/licensure requires a master's degree, an internship and/or practicum experience with a licensed school counselor, and completion of either a state or national test.
The education of school counselors around the world varies based on the laws and cultures of countries and the historical influences of their educational and credentialing systems and professional identities related to who delivers academic, career, college readiness, and personal/social information, advising, curriculum, and counseling and related services.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the school counselor position to grow 10% between 2021 and 2031; meaning there will be an additional 32,000 job openings within the next 10 years.
