- Many of us feel that counselling is for people who are weak and incompetent. In reality, many people miss this expert help and guidance because of these misconceptions.
There are few myths related to counselling, like it is only for major issues or crazy people, admitting that you need help and going for counselling means you're weak, counselling doesn't help or will make the situation worse, the counsellor doesn't know me - so they can't help me etc. (https://calgarycounselling.com). But really if you see at the counselling, these are the professionals who are trained to help humans in their day to day life needs. There are specialized people who are called as ‘school counsellors, who work with school stakeholders for students and school success.
Out of all needs, mental health needs are very prime. Mental health affects not only academics but also other areas of life. The problems of children are different in each type of school. One school in my study is day school cum boarding. There are some specific problems faced by students only in boarding schools, and there are other sets of problems faced by children in regular day schools. The issues are very different in government/low fee-paying schools and elite schools. They are two different extremes. In former more issues are related to alcoholism of father, economic and poverty issues, and so on, and in later more problems are regarding socialization issues, child behaviour and issues related to the family. This is broad categorization, not strict compartmentalization. There are various problems which students face in school, for which we need counselling.
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We will below look at 5 needs where counselling is helpful in school settings:
1. Humanistic approach based counselling:
A humanistic approach provides a distinct method of counselling and focuses predominately on an individual's unique, personal potential to explore creativity, growth, love and psychological understanding (http://www.thecounsellorsguide.co.uk). Humanistic counsellors therefore aim to help clients to explore their own thoughts and feelings and to work out their own solutions to their problems. This is very similar to the approach used in coaching, except that coaches are more focused on the present, and less on the past (https://www.skillsyouneed.com/).
We have discussed in our previous articles that everyone can approach for humanistic approach based counselling. When it comes to children, the development, wellbeing and safety are their basic needs, irrespective of culture and creed. It is every child’s right to get supported and guided in every domain of life. Children come with different energies and capabilities, we need to identify their areas of individual growth.
2. Identify the needs of differently-abled children: The second need of counselling is to identify the needs of differently-abled children, the common one being learning disability. These counselling support facilities at school help teachers in early identification, through which child, parent and school will be benefited. One of the teachers in our study suggested that the schools should have counsellor support from kindergarten itself so that the need can be identified at a very early stage. It is believed, early the identification, the intervention will be that much effective. There are challenges with differently-abled children such as ADHD, Autism, selective mutism, emotional problems, Bedwetting etc.
3. Related to family or personal issues of children: The third need of counselling is related to family issues of children, because of which they are disturbed in school, and there might be some hindrances due to which they cannot share. The counsellor can help them and give them positive motivation and build for them a positive atmosphere.
4. Adolescence support: The fourth need for counselling is related to adolescence support. It is good if students could get support from 6th grade as they enter adolescence. They get disturbed and influenced by peer group and also there are hormonal changes in this age. We need to impart knowledge about things like parental bonding, friendships, to keep a distance from the usage of harmful things like smoking etc. It is easy to inculcate values in primary school children, it becomes difficult once the children are in higher classes.
5. Related to behavioural issues: The fifth need for counselling is related to behavioural issues which teachers have to tackle well. Issues such as lack of student concentration, Peer pressure, bullying at class etc. When there are hyperactive children, more attention should be given. When there are ‘difficult children’ they need counselling, not corporal punishment. The other problem is with families where father and mother both are employed, and they are unable to give the required time and support to the child. And often, uncared children become aggressive. There are many challenges with children, which are not so transparent.
Conclusion:
One incident was shared with me by one of the principals of a school (where a counsellor was appointed). They had told the children to write an essay. There was an essay written by the child who is good at her academics, gets good grades. But it was astonishing to see the things which were discussed in the essay. She said ''It was very painful". Thus counselling facility gives an opportunity even to the so-called normal children, to share their feelings and challenges in life. Which will help them to channelize their feelings and emotions and self regulate.
An operational definition of school counselling is, the support provided by a dedicated counsellor in a school to help the child to discover ones potential and to get consulted for guidance in academics and non-academics. First and foremost the academic support is a more common need which requires counselling. If the child is not performing, it could be the problem of either classroom pedagogy (way of teaching) or parental/family issues.
Child solely could not be a problem for learning. But in exceptional cases, it could be genetic challenges. For children to get supported in these areas either we need professional counsellors or at least the teachers should be trained on basic counselling and learning difficulties identification. The inadequate guidelines and absence of proper counselling could lead to suicide attempts or suicide.
The primary motive behind counseling at school level is to address the emotional, social and behavioral needs of the students. The role of school counsellors is to provide practical life, the school and career suggestions based on the student's strengths, weaknesses, and interests. And empower the child to live a better life. 😊
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.
