In education, the counsellors are commonly known as school counsellors. A school counsellor is a counsellor and an educator who works in elementary, middle, and high schools to provide academic, career, college access, and personal/social competencies to K-12 students (PreK to PUC/11th/12th)
- Historically there are three theoretical aspects of Counselling, these are approaches to counselling even in India, these are basically western ideas.
The three approaches are;
a. Psycho-analytic counselling
b. Behavioural counselling
c. The humanist counselling
In our study, we looked counselling as a student
wellbeing program, thus our approach to understanding counselling in our study was to understand the third approach i.e. humanist
counselling.
Let us briefly understand these three approaches.
a. Psycho-analytic counselling- This is more connected to Freudian analysis, which is often referred to as Psychotherapy. And these approaches are more connected with treating mental illness.
b. Behavioural counselling- These are
the approaches and theories more connected to working of the mind. For example:
Dealing with students with the fear of examination.
Most famously Carl Rogers is
associated with this approach. Rogers had once said, "The organism has one
basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain, and enhance the
experiencing organism” (Rogers, 1951). The humanistic view of counselling advocates
dealing with empathy (being listened to and understood), trust (acceptance-
being seen with unconditional positive regard), genuineness (openness and
self-disclosure- Non-directive counselling). This is the approach which deals
with the children wellbeing at schools. Rogers had pointed out that, without
these, relationships and healthy personalities will not develop as they should,
much like a tree will not grow without sunlight and water
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Education, viewed in the context of its counselling
function, is concerned with the kind of activities, which if implemented, would
best accomplish the educational goal of harmonious individual growth. The
purpose of education is to make the person competent. Educational counselling
by helping the students how to learn and develop an understanding of themselves
enables them to adjust with the academic pressure and promotes the academic
development of the students
Click to access all the articles published in this series:
Click to check sample of how an institution has designed student
wellbeing programs:
This is part of Children's mental
health and wellbeing series brought to you by Credence Learning
Foundation. This article is taken from a study submitted as course work at Azim
Premji University.
