School Counselors

From the ASCA Counselor Association

ASCA's Careers/Roles Page responds to the question, "What does a Counselor do?" and contains a wealth of information on the roles of school counselors, how to become a school counselor, promoting your school counseling program, research on the effectiveness of school counseling and more.

The School Counselor as a Mental Health Professional

The community accepts that:

• The Marriage and Family Counselor is the Mental Health Professional that counsels troubled marriages and family
• The Addictions Counselor is the Mental Health Professional that counsels individuals addicted to drugs and/or alcohol
• The Pain Counselor is the Mental Health Professional that counsels individuals in pain.
• The Child and Adolescent Counselor is the Mental Health Professional who counsels children and adolescents who need support.

Yet, the school counselor seems to be seen as simply another administrator in the school. School Counselors receive unique preparation to prepare them to be a counselor, and they bring this unique set of skills to schools! Just as the above the groups, school counselors are the mental health professional who counsels individuals within the school.

School Counselors are specifically trained to work within the school setting and coordinate services with teachers and outside providers.

The School Counselor role and the services defined by the role are defined as:

• Mental Health
• Leadership
• Advocacy
• Collaboration
• Systemic Change

We need to bring a Comprehensive School Counseling Program into fruition within every school so that school counselors are seen as the mental health professionals that they are. Continuing to advocate for the role takes perseverance, yet we persist because we know that our students do better when they have advocates such as us on their side. We must continue to educate our communities on our roles and the mental health support that our students need. Until each member of our community can identify the school counselor as the mental health professional in the schools just as they identify the community or clinical counselor as the mental health professional in the community, our job of educating the public continues.

Addressing Mental Health is Crucial to Student Achievement

The charge of teaching the essential skills curriculum that teaches the soft skills and characteristics that are critical to academic and career success falls to the School Counselor within the Comprehensive School Counselor Program (CSCP). It is the School Counselor's role to provide counseling for personal/social skills so that students can learn and reach their academic potential and thus their career goals.