Definition of Counseling

The MSU links will be down tomorrow and, perhaps, on Sunday so, I am trying to complete some assignments before midnight.

To me, counseling is a profession which enables individuals seeking help to reflect on the issues in their lives, to discover options and to be able to arrive at resolutions which are healthy. I think of counseling as "graduate school" in the sense that, through counseling, one has the opportunity to learn more and to grow. I don't necessarily believe counseling is or should be time-constrained, but, rather, that a person might choose to move in and out of counseling, depending upon the individual's interest in personal growth or the individual's personal need. I do not believe counseling always must address problems: Counseling can just be a means of learning how to deal with life.

I do believe that school counseling differs in many ways from community counseling. School counselors are charged with helping students to achieve academically. Often, this requires a focus on the issues that impede learning. The issues might involve learning disabilities; distractions in the family; poverty; being a member of a non-dominant cultural group; addiction; trauma in the family; diabetes, lupus or another chronic physical; harassment in school; childhood psychiatric issues; or a host of other concerns. Lack of academic success could be as simple as having a teacher who lacks sensitivity to the needs of a particular student or the rigidity of an educational system that refuses to offer accommodations to students without formal identification of a learning disability. It is the school counselor's role to try to provide support to the student, to help to educate staff and to work with parents/guardians. What a school counselor should NOT do is diagnose and provide on-going mental health counseling. Providing referrals is an important aspect of school counseling, but needs to be done as a "suggestion" and not as a dictate or the school could be responsible for paying for psychotherapeutic services, something school districts are not wont to do.