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Organization and Management

of a Guidance and Counseling Program

by

Bev Brown

May 1999

References

Management of a counseling program requires a structure that allows for flexibility and inventiveness. The organizational structure must be a working document to facilitate the counselor. The manner in which the school systems provide needed support services for teachers and counseling services for children is a critical factor, (Landreth, 1987).

Recognition of the importance of the counselor being a front-line mental health professional and educator in the schools is central in addressing concerns. An article which reviewed issues in school counseling by Bailey, Deery, Gehrkke, Perry and Whitledge (1989), p.g. 12, stated the following definition of the school counselor adopted by the American School Counseling Association (ASCA), 1988:

School counselors are specifically credentialed professionals who work in school settings with students parents, educators, and others within the community. They design and manage comprehensive developmental guidance programs to help students acquire skills in the social, personal, educational, career areas necessary for living in a multicultural society. School counselors accomplish this by using such interventions as guiding and counseling students individually or in small groups, by providing information through group guidance, by contributing to the development of effective learning environments, by providing student advocacy, and by consulting with others.

A school counseling program organized for success would promote collaboration and negotiation among individuals and groups. School counseling programs need to provide an organizational structure to convey the philosophy and mission. The organizational structure would be used to bring people and resources together and arrange them in an orderly and coordinated pattern in an attempt to accomplish the stated objectives of the program.

Research studies have established that elementary counseling programs can positively influence children’s achievement, Gerler (1985). The counselor, when given the opportunity can be used to assist in the identification of the strengths and resources of individuals and therefore, of society. The program resources are channeled through positive and constructive prevention and remediation of maturation and growth difficulties of individuals and society, (Bailey et al. 1989).

A major focus of counseling programs should be to create a positive school environment for students through a comprehensive developmental approach to guidance and counseling that emphasized counseling, coordination and consultation (Bailey et al. 1989). The belief that guidance is for all students and that its purpose is to maximally encourage personal development not just crisis intervention, testing and counseling while professing in work and action a regard for the developmental stages and tasks of growing and maturing children. Providing a program based on the developmental needs of students rather than a program of services that is based on a current crisis and that may be fragmented having no sound functional foundation (Bailey et al. 1989).

Along with the three C’s for an effective counseling program: counseling, coordination and consultation, Bailey et al. (1989), added a forth "C", curriculum.

Counseling has been described as needs to be delivered individually and in small groups and has not been intended to cope with intense deep-seated problems of a psychological nature.

Coordination has been desirable as a method to systematize and manage available resources of the school, community, and home in facilitating the developmental needs of children.

A Consultant would be asked to communicate with teachers, parents, administrators, school psychologist, school social workers, and other community agency personnel. It would also be the role of the consultant to assist with any other person with whom the counselor works with directly to provide a benefit for the child and the school.

Curriculum was found to be important in guidance classes to provide a way to teach life skills and attempt to prevent a myriad of developmental problems and difficulties.

A counselor’s role consisted, in part, dealing with daily crisis and implementing intervention for problematic behaviors. The emphasis which as advocated was a proactive, prevention rather than the casualty repair orientation. The following story from the article by Bailey, et al (1989), pg. 7, is used to illustrate this idea:

It’s like the story about a school. It was commended for rescuing so many students from the river of problems. A wise person visited the school and was impressed with the programs and strategies for helping the drowning students. "However," he asked, "Has anyone gone up river to see who is throwing them in?" Counselors need to camp out up river and help all the children before they are drowning in the river of problems. We call this prevention.

A secondary counselor was reported to have said the following: "I am often frustrated trying to work with students who have had problems that may have been festering for many years" (Gerler & Anderson, 1990, pg. 4). Problems that may have been evolving for many years are represented in many other institutions in society, such as correctional institutions, youth service agencies, and mental health institutions, (Gerler, 1990).

Preventionists have tended to refer to protective factors. They have focused on such factors as building resilience in youth and have based their strategies on research which centered on environmental factors which were used to facilitate the development of youth who were not involved in life’s compromising problems, (Benard, Far West Laboratory, 1991). A meta-analysis of research projects have found that protective factors as "those traits, conditions, situations and episodes that appear to alter - or even reverse - predictions of negative outcome enable individuals to circumvent life stressors: (Benard, 1991). In order to be successful it has been found that prevention interventions need to focus on enhancing and creating positive environmental contexts - families, schools, and communities that, in the past, have reinforced positive behaviors.

A spokesperson from the Western Regional Center, (1993) quoted Emmey Warner as describing buffers or protectors making a more profound impact on the life coarse of children. Protective factors tended to predict success and were found to be more powerful forces than risk factors. As a result, the need was found for a more optimistic focus such as building protection and utilizing the kids natural self-righting tendency. The above spokesperson also quoted Anne Wilson Schaef - "an empowering perspective rather than as patients" which supported this idea.

Benard (1991) explained the use of a process in which there existed a balancing between risk factors, stressful life events, and protective factors. The prevention intervention method became an attempt to shift the balance from vulnerability to resilience by decreasing exposure to risk factors and stressful life events, or by increasing the number of available protective factors, Benard (1991). Elementary school counselors were found to be an important entity to facilitate this process.

Encouraging children to find some satisfaction in school and protecting them from the consequences of academic failure and from frequent changes of school may prove to serve an important protective function (Christodoulou, 1991).

School counseling programs have tended to accomplish the goal of success through the creation of physical and psychological environments which has been used to support the teaching/learning process. Counseling programs have derived their support from paying attention to such factors as: (1) the child, (2) the behaviors to be learned, and (3) the conditions of the learning environment (Horan, 1990). The welfare of the child must always be the focal point of the school counseling program. It must be geared to meeting children in ways in which they learn best (Horan, 1990).

The programs must be able to identify the critical behaviors that need to be learned and at what stage in the child’s development the learning should take place. The school in developing its educational philosophy and mission, must understand child growth and development and the societal issues (economical, sociological, medical, demographics, multicultural/ethnic, political, legal, technological & educational) which impact both on children and the community and create needs which must be addressed (Horan, 1990). To be effective, prevention programs must take into account the developmental and sociocultural realities of a target population. For example, developmental factors significantly shape children’s responses, (Cowen, Hightower, Pedro-Carroll, 1990).

Proactive, outreaching programs, have strived to promote wellness from the start or, in know risk-situations, to provide skills and experiences needed to forestall the development of maladjustment. The main concept considered here was if prevention programs did provide young children with skills and competencies that enhanced their ability to cope, and helped them to develop a sense of personal efficacy, they would have much to offer in the life-span sense, (Cowen et al. 1990).

Considerable research evidence outside the counseling literature has indicated that children’s learning and cognitive development depended on how children behave in school, how children feel about themselves, how children

function socially, and how children use their senses, and their mental images (Gerler, 1985).

One of the primary goals of school counseling has been the importance of fostering the self-concepts of children. Many researchers believe there is a clear relationship between how one tends to view oneself and how effectively one functions in life task (Stafford & Hill, 1989).

Stafford et al. (1989), pg. 48 states, "Much of research on self-perceptions in the school has explored the self-concept/academic achievement connection. Generally lost in all this is the idea that self-perceptions involve more than academic issues... clear and positive self-perceptions represent a basic human need antecedent to a fully-functioning life. Thus, self-perceptions ought to be an educational issue not only because they are related to academic achievement, but because they are an integral part of human growth and development."

Children referred to school counselors often exhibit problem behaviors, such as acting out or, underachieving, or being withdrawn. A look beyond the symptoms has revealed that poorly developed skills in problem solving, communication, and cooperation exacerbate their problems and impede efforts to remediate the difficulties. Students need to develop the basic tools for coping in society (Duncan, Beck & Granum, 1990).

Research supports the contention that what happens to elementary school children during their early years of development will have a marked effect on their coping behaviors in later life. Now, if we want to provide children with opportunities to grow, learn, and live creatively, we must pay attention to the full range of developmental, environmental, and hereditary factors affecting the teaching-learning process (Horan, 1990).

There was some evidence which indicated that early interventions prenatally and during childhood contributed to the prevention of psychopathology in adulthood (Christodoulou, 1991).

Early intervention comprised a complex collection of services and activities. To satisfy the requirements of PL 99-457 and now Individual Disabilities Act 1997, an early intervention system should include the following major functions: public awareness, screening and identification, diagnosis and assessment, intervention programs, case management and interagency cooperation, (Meisels, 1989).

The concept of learned helplessness was a cognitive style which was used to differentiate people who perceived coping outcomes as within or outside of their own control. Feelings of helplessness about their fate make children less able to deal with stress (Honig, 1986). When children have been provided with inappropriate models, their coping strategies have tended to result in increased stress.

Psychological theory and past research has supported the belief that prosocial development and altruistic behavior were emerging during the elementary school years (Trepanier, 1990).

Interactions of children with peers, with adults, and with curriculum has tended to encourage cognitive and social growth. These interactions and curriculum can increase children’s awareness of the perspective of others and promote more altruistic behavior. Positive experiences during the elementary school years were found to be critical for their full development (Trepanier, 1990).

It was suggested that a school atmosphere must be provided in which children become empowered to assume responsibility and to take charge of their lives in cognitive, affective, social and physical domains.

Educators in the United States have recognized that children constitute the nations most valuable resource. When children have been physically abused, emotional and psychological scars are created that may last a lifetime. In spite of maltreatment healthy development may occur, provided children are surrounded by strong environmental resources and positive interpersonal interactions (Downing, 1990).

School counselors cannot work alone in preventing and treating child abuse. Counselors need to develop close working relationships with social services and other community agencies that frequently advocate for victims of abuse and neglect.

It is suggested that counselors need to work closely with teachers to help them thoroughly understand signs of abuse and to acquaint them with correct referral procedures. Counselors and teachers need to collaborate to insure that abused and neglected children experience a warm and caring environment at school. The school classroom in fact may be the most stable setting neglected and abused children experience and may provide the empathy and positive regard needed to help children cope with their ordeal (McElligatt, 1986).

When a school counselor is called upon to intervene with a child’s disruptive classroom behavior, defiant attitude toward teacher authority, physical aggression with peers or repeated academic failure, one must look at how the problem developed, (Lewis 1990). One method used was to examine the social context and its relation to the behavior and actions of others. A thorough analysis of the familial system needed to occur before a means of intervening was determined. This does not mean that the solution to all school-related problems was found in a family-oriented intervention but this system should be the initial area of investigation, (Lewis 1990).

Attempts to improve the home environment can be made through education of parents in child rearing, special prevention programs addressed to high-risk situations, teaching of child rearing in school or, if these do not work, with drastic measure like removal of the child from a deleterious home atmosphere through adoption (Christodoulou, 1991).

The teaching/learning process was found to be successful to the extent that the conditions of the learning climate supported learning. The elementary school counseling program has been concerned with developing sound physical psychological educational learning climates. Knowing what can be done to help children feel comfortable and supported, unique and special, and experience a sense of personal power in shaping their own destinies (Horan, 1990).

The quality of the school has played a significant role in reading performance and behavior and thus a "good" school may exert a protective effect against behavioral disturbances (Meisela, 1989). School counseling programs served the educational system best when they assisted the school in developing educational programs which were used to address the complex developmental and societal needs of children, teach the behaviors that needed to be learned in addressing those needs and educational climate which fostered self-confidence, positive self-worth, and a never-ending love for learning and continued self-growth (Horan, 1990).

Findings have suggested that an educator might be able to achieve improved outcomes by attempting to create a training environment in which the child learns to take more credit for his or her achievements, thus enhancing the child’s experienced sense of positive control or self-efficacy. Such an enhanced sense of personal control might be expected to increase the amount of observed therapeutic change and foster the long-term maintenance of this change. Studies have suggested that children who attributed their behavior to stable, internal causes were more likely to show generalization of the behavior in question. Children of parents who used coercive disciplinary methods tended to be low on purported manifestations of internalization such as resistance to temptation, social responsibility, guilt following transgression, and concern for others (Bailey et al. 1989).

Organizing a counseling program must establish major elements of a broad-based, comprehensive, and developmental components which is designed to facilitate human growth and learning and at the same time foster resiliency with a preventive, proactive focus while providing a support system. The management of this program would include areas of counseling, coordination, consultation, curriculum and evaluation as the basic structure for effectiveness.

REFERENCES

Bailey, Walter R., Deery, Norma Kimrey, Gehrke, Mary, Perry, Nancy, & Whitledge, Jim, (1989). Issues in elementary school counseling: discussion with american school counselor association leaders. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24 pp. 4-12.

Benard, Bonnie (1991). Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community. San Francisco: Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, Western Regional Center.

Christodoulou, George N. (1991). Prevention of psychopathology with earlyintervention. Psycholtherapy and Psychosomatics, 55 (2-4), 201-207.

Cowen, Emory L., Hightower, A. Dirk, Pedro-Carroll, JoAnne (1990). School-Based Models for Primary Prevention Programming with Children (Vol. 7). New York: Haworth Press.

Downing, C. Jerry (1990). Parent support groups to prevent child abuse. Elementary School Counseling in a Changing World, pp. 129-136.

Duncan, Kevin; Beck, David L. & Granum, Richard A. (1990), Project explore:an activity-based counseling group. Elementary School Counseling in a Changing World, pp. 337-351.

Gerler, Edwin R. Jr. (1985, October). Elementary school counseling research and the classroom learning environment. Elementary School Guidance and Counseling, pp. 39-46.

Gerler, Edwin R. Jr. & Anderson Ronald F. (1990). The effects of classroom guidance on children’s success in school. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, School of Education.

Horan, John J. Kerns, Andres & Olson, Christine (1990). A world of drug abuse. Elementary School Counseling in a Changing World, pp. 91-435.

Landreth, Garry L. (1987, April). Play therapy: facilitative use of child’s play in elementary school counseling. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, pp. 61-70.

Lewis, Wade (1990). Strategic Intervention with Children of Single-Parent Families. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, School of Education.

McElligatt, Kate, (1986). Identifying and treating children of alcoholic parents. Social Work in Education, pp. 55-70.

Meisels, Samuel J. (1989, July). Meeting the mandate of public law 90-457: early childhood intervention in the nineties. American Orthopsychiatric Association, Inc. 59(3), 451-459.

Stafford, William B. Hill, Judity D. (1989, October). Planned program to foster positive self-concepts in kindergarten children. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24, 47-56.

Trepanier, Mary L. & Romatowski, Jane A. (1990). Classroom use of selected children’s books: prosocial development in young children. Elementary School Counseling in a Changing World, pp. 391-397.