Counselling in schools - vital to overcome youth problems

by N. Rifca Anzar

Counselling is the skills of helping people cope with personal difficulties through interviews and other procedures, with the aim of allowing them to reach solutions to those difficulties themselves.

Talking things over with someone, listening to their problems, helping to find solutions and supporting them through the bad times, is what counselling is all about. Families and friends often take on counselling roles for each other. But sometimes the problems are within the family and it is hard to get the help that one may need.

Over the past 10 years, the term 'counselling' has been increasingly associated with the process of guidance. Counselling, as it applies in schools, should not be confused with therapeutic counselling which is properly the preserve of, for example, psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists. However, when individual guidance is at its most effective, it is similar in many respects to the counselling process. It is concerned with good interpersonal relationships which are based on showing respect, listening, empathising and reflecting.

Counselling is non-directive in that it is concerned with helping pupils to reflect on their own attributes and circumstances and encouraging them to take responsibility for their decisions. Guidance is about valuing the uniqueness of the individual and encouraging each to consider how his or her behaviour affects others.

The guidance and counselling process can often involve discussion with and support for the individual who cannot meet agreed standards of behaviour and the formation of attainable goals.

It involves noting and commending progress and achievements. It may demand unequivocal expressions of concern about unacceptable behaviour or lack of progress, but it should always offer strategies for dealing with these problems.

Why use a counsellor?

At any particular time, many children might need extra emotional support beyond the normal care offered by their teachers.

Life is so full-on that sometimes there isn't any time to sort out the little problems, and before you know it, they've grown into giant problems.

For children, these could be:

· problems at school, e.g. not coping with work or being bullied

· problems with friendships

· problems with parents' relationships, e.g. Divorce

· problems caused by alcohol or drugs

· problems caused by money

· problems about body image or self-esteem

· feeling depressed.

Counselling children is very different to counselling adults. What we do and how we do it depends on a child's age, their development, whether they have any specific difficulties.

Many people may think that counselling is about talking to clients about their problem. Actually it is more about listening but children are unlikely to talk for 50 minutes about their problems. We therefore have to use many methods for children to be able to tell us about their difficulty and find many ways to explain to them what might make things better for them.

Bereavement and Loss: Many children are sometimes young when somebody close to them dies. Sometimes when parents split up, or a favourite teacher or friend moves away, the loss that children feel is sometimes as strong as if the person has died. Of course, these things will upset any child but children are remarkably resilient and usually recover in the natural course of time with the support of their friends, family and school. Counselling only becomes necessary when children find it particularly difficult to recover from these upsets and it stops them from returning to anything like their normal life.

Trauma: Some children may have experienced more traumatic circumstances of death, violence, abuse, or neglect. It is when these events seem to affect the child in school that teachers make referrals to Counselling in Schools.

Children may be struggling with having to care for sick or disabled parents or brothers and sisters. They may be the youngest in a large family and have to fight for any attention in their home. They may feel they don't really fit in at school, or are being bullied. They may be bullying somebody else but don't know how to stop. Some children may feel angry and feel that the whole world is having a go at them and they need to fight back. They may feel that nobody is listening to them and have no real sense of their place in the world. Their self-esteem may be very low and they may become very withdrawn or begin to dabble with behaviour that harm themselves.

These are only some of the reasons why some children need the help of counsellors.

Life events involving bereavement, ill health, etc. can cause serious questioning of life's purpose. Persistent losses overwhelm a child's ability to cope; this inability can cause difficulties at school and in relationships.

If help is not available from a supportive network (friends family or school), this may lead to physical illness, anxiety, depression, or chronic maladaptive behaviour, such as addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex.

Therefore, schools should find ways and means to help those children at an early stage to prevent things from becoming worse.

Teachers have a responsibility for the welfare and well-being of young people as well as for their formal academic education. There has always been help and support available for pupils, and often for their parents too, when educational decisions require to be taken, when a crisis situation arises, at school or in the home, and when important decisions have to be taken about obtaining employment or entering further or higher education. The following are some of the objectives for schools to consider providing guidance on the personal, social and academic development of each individual:

· to ensure that each pupil knows and is known personally and in some depth by at least one member of staff;

· to consider the pupils' personal, social and intellectual development;

· to help the pupil to be aware of his development and to accept responsibility for it;

· to identify and respond quickly and appropriately to the specific needs of the individual;

· to foster the development of good relations between teachers and pupils;

· to work well with the home in all aspects of pupils' development;

· to liaise with support and welfare agencies; and

· to systematise and make effective the recording and communication of information relevant to the welfare of individual pupils.

The success will depend on many factors, including the effectiveness of:

· support from the senior management team of the school;

· the structures within which arrangements are made for the co-ordination and deployment of staff involved in the provision of guidance;

· the approaches adopted by staff engaged in the guidance and counselling process; and

· the links established with parents and support agencies.

Counsellors provide a confidential atmosphere in which students can explore any topic or situation and discuss any concerns they may have. Students are helped to work through their problems, to develop self awareness, and to overcome problems by using new strategies.