SCHOOL COUNSELLING (Essay Sample)

School Counseling Major Written Assignment Name: Institution: Abstract School-based counseling is an important form of psychological therapy for school-going children and young people. Counseling is essential for the mental health of children and young people because it enables them to explore, understand and ultimately overcome issues confusing or causing distress and difficulty in their lives. The holistic development of children and young people depend on their good emotional and mental wellbeing. School-based counseling is an important and effective resource to utilize in realizing this kind of development in children and young people. Counseling aims at assisting the child or young person to understand themselves greatly, create a greater awareness of their potential and its appropriate utilization, relate well with other people, cope successfully with the normal stresses of life, build their ability, address problems and work productively and fruitfully. The immediate benefits of school-based counseling include improved attendance and educational attainment, the realization of happier, resilient and confident students and reductions in instances of behavioral problems. Description of the Client Peter is a 16-year old pursuing high school education. Being a teenager, he is aggressively searching for his independence. Peter is privileged to have an economically stable family; his father is a pilot, and his mother works as a doctor at a local hospital. Because of the nature of their jobs, Peter's parents do not get enough time to interact with their son on a day to day basis. His parents are somehow detached from their son's life because of their busy work schedules. Teenage-hood is a crucial stage, and adolescent children need constant and prudent guidance from adults, specifically their parents, on a range of personal matters that include sex, peer pressure, and substance use. The absence of time spent between parents and son has driven a wedge in the relationship Peter has with his parents. He experiences immense loneliness despite the many peers he has in school. Peter is a day-scholar and normally, he goes home after the end of the school day. In the evenings, he gets a chance to meet up with his friends who stay close-by. Unfortunately, among his friends there are those who take part in destructive habits like drinking alcohol and abusing hard drugs. The apparent parental neglect has significantly impacted Peter's behavior; the prevalent and powerful peer pressure has strongly influenced his decisions. The absence of parental guidance has led to Peter being pressured into trying drugs and drinking alcohol in order to get his peers approval. Failure to participate in these destructive habits will automatically disconnect Peter from his friends. Trying drugs and drinking has greatly affected Peter's attendance of school and his overall academic attainment. In addition, his participation in other school activities such as co-curricular and music has taken a beating. As other students register excellent educational attainment and actively participate in sporting and art activities, Peter's performance has declined at an alarming rate, from a stellar to mediocre performance. It is paramount that Peter gets immediate counseling so that he can be salvaged from the destructive habits he is slowly and surely slipping into head-on. Initially, his parents have to be informed of their son's situation and be involved fully in the counseling process. School-based counseling is the best resource to raise awareness of the destructive nature of substance abuse to students such as Peter. The counseling process will involve educating Peter on the health hazards and risks of substance abuse and actively disengaging him from this habit (Baker and Gerler, 2008). School-based Counseling Interventions Peter, being a High school student, needs appropriate guidance that can enable him transition successfully into the world of work and adulthood. Against this backdrop, it is necessary for Peter to receive sound school-based counseling from the school counselor in collaboration with his parents, teachers and the fellow students. The decline in Peter's academic performance, erratic school attendance, and constant isolation will serve as a red flags to underlying behavioral problems (Perkins, 2003). The logical thing the teachers can do is to engage the school counselor so that he or she can help them to uncover the issues behind Peter's erratic behavior. School counselors possess the technical know-how necessary in helping students overcome the behavioral problems they are facing. Appropriate school counseling interventions that are employed early enough in offering psychological help to students prevent a particular behavioral problem from escalating even further (Brosnan and Carr, 2000). Peter has personal and sensitive behavioral problems, and he is in need of someone who can listen to him empathetically and help him disengage from the destructive drug abuse he is being pressured into. His referral to the school counselor will be made by one of his teachers who has closely observed the sudden change in his behavior. The teacher will first personally talk to him and arrange his meeting with the school counselor. Personal communication between the teacher and student helps the student develop confidence in the process and get assurance that there are people willing to help him (Baker and Gerler, 2008). The scheduled meeting between Peter and the school counselor will be more meaningful if the counselor will be more willing to listen to him. Listening to the client is what heralds the entire counseling process. Listening entails hearing the words Peter says and gaining insight in what he utters (Campbell and Dahir, 1997). The school counselor may indicate the understanding of what he is telling him or her by nodding his or her head and avoiding speaking as the client talks. Effective listening will enable the school counselor to respond appropriately to the psychological needs of Peter. The free-flow of communication is also dependent on the presence of trust between the client and the counselor (Brosnan and Carr, 2000). Students such as Peter will be ready to disclose a lot of information about the personal problems they are facing if they are convinced that the school counselors are people to confide. In turn, the counselors can tap more information from the student-clients if they encourage them to be confident in expression and assure them of the confidentiality of the information they share with them. Risk behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse among adolescents can be addressed through various interventions and programs employed by school counselors. Peter's decline in behavior stems from family neglect, and this will necessitate that the school counselor utilizes interventions that target both Peter and his parents (Repetti et al, 2002). The adolescent-focused interventions include Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and group work among the young people. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy refers to the combination of behavioral and cognitive therapeutic approaches used by counselors to modify destructive behaviors and thoughts (Clarke et al., 1999). This therapy involves holding of a number of sessions between the client and the school counselor in which they embark on the task of identifying the behavioral problems the client is having. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will enable the school counselor to provide Peter with techniques and tools that will be essential in helping him avoid falling prey to the pressure of his peers. The techniques and tools will alter his alcohol and drug abuse and maybe feel discouraged from engaging in these destructive habits. The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy awakens an unhelpful thought, which does not necessarily reflect reality, among clients, and it is this unhelpful thought which makes the clients avoid harmful social situations (Clarke et al., 1999). In Peter's case, the unhelpful thought that can be awoken in him is the possible negative impact of substance abuse on his future economic wellbeing. This should spur him to avoid the destructive habits of abusing alcohol and drugs. Primarily, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used in supportive counseling to address the unhelpful thoughts and replace them with realistic and helpful thoughts that will positively alter the decision making of the client. Additional benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy include reducing anxiety and depression among adolescents. Additionally, this therapy is useful to adolescents who engage in self-harm, and it will, therefore, be applicable in Peter's case. An important form of cognitive therapy that is useful to depressive people and those who constantly engage in self-harm is called problem-solving. Substance abuse is a self-harming behavior that Peter has engaged in as a coping strategy to his parents' perpetual absence from day to day life. This form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will focus on the problem of parental neglect that Peter experiences, help to find solutions to this problem and teach him how to cope positively with this situation. Problem-solving therapy will necessitate the participation of Peter's parents in his counseling sessions. It will be prudent to let them know that their perpetual absence in their child's life is driving Peter to destructive behavior and hopelessness. This counseling intervention shifts the therapy from Peter to his parents. The possible outcome of this therapy is active participation of Peter's parents in his life which will reduce the feelings of parental neglect and hopelessness thereby decreasing his susceptibility to destructive substance abuse behavior. Interpersonal Psychotherapy is the seco...