COUNSELING THEORY AND THERAPY IN
WEST VIRGINIA SCHOOLS
Although school counselors are qualified professional counselors by virtue
of their specialized certification, traditional therapeutic counseling, which is
regularly scheduled and lasts approximately one hour, is rarely conducted
by the school counselor in the school setting due to other responsibilities
related to the National Standards. However, that is not to say that
counseling does not occur, or that therapeutic relationships do not exist in
the school setting. Indeed they do. School counselors are professional
counselors in a school setting. Therefore, their role must stress the
importance of a developmental template to organize activities, but it must
be done in a concert with a psychotherapeutic template.
In the school setting COUNSELING is defined as a confidential relationship
in which the counselor conducts sessions with students individually or in
small group settings to help them resolve or cope constructively with their
problems and developmental concerns as they relate to academic, career
and personal/social development. Counseling may be in response to a
personal student crisis or support with an ongoing problem. Individual
counseling is short, usually lasting 15 – 30 minutes and often supports
school wide efforts to assist a student toward success. School counselors
may use brief/effective counseling techniques to quickly address student
issues to allow a student to return promptly to the classroom to continue
the educational process.
A word of caution . . . Haphazardly selecting techniques, without a
theoretical rationale, can be harmful to clients and can possibly be
unethical. Just simply employing techniques because they appear to work
can be confusing to the client and the counselor.
Students who need intense therapy are referred to appropriate outside
resources. Psychoanalysis, deep therapy, hypnosis, and other advanced
counseling techniques are intense therapeutic techniques and are not
practiced by a school counselor in the school setting.
A very significant function of a school counselor is to apply appropriate
counseling theories to address student needs and problems. All school
programming is to be research based and the school counseling program is
not exempt. Appropriate counseling theories provide a firm research base
for a school counseling program. A school counselor is continually vigilant
about the application of counseling and human development theory while
providing counseling services, planning and delivering the comprehensive
school counseling program, and initiating systemic change.
Page 27… West Virginia Department of Education 2004
THE COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENTAL GUIDANCE AND
COUNSELING PROGRAM MANUAL