School counselors are licensed mental health practitioners
School counselors are licensed mental health practitioners who provide assessment, counseling, and diagnosis to people in multiple ways, including stress and any other psychological problems. To be effective in their roles, counselors need to have excellent communication skills, be non-judgmental, and be flexible. They should be able to listen carefully and explain their ideas and thoughts clearly. Also, they should receive their clients with an open and non-judgmental attitude, which is depicted by accepting the clients for who they are.
Being flexible is also another critical characteristic of a good counselor. Flexibility is the counselors’ ability to adapt and change how they respond to their clients’ needs because different patients present different problems.
When conducting their first counseling in elementary school or high school students, counselors should focus on the client to understand their feelings, thoughts, and actions. They should also stay confidential to earn the clients’ trust and open up about their problems. Confidentiality is essential in ensuring that the information between the client and the counselor remains between them. Also, the counselor should ask for clarification to understand the client as it is their first session, and developing any misconceptions about the client may ruin everything. Also, the therapist should structure the session before the actual date to ensure the meetings occur systematically.
There are five stages involved in counseling. First is establishing a good relationship with the client. The relationship-building process may include illustrating their roles to the client and introducing themselves by full names, which the client should use when addressing them. After familiarizing with the client, the counselor can then proceed to the assessment and diagnosis step to gather information about the clients’ problems. They should help the client communicate their issues without pronouncing the problems for them. After identifying their client’s concerns, the counselor will formulate a counseling procedure for the client to heal and alleviate their conditions. After the