Exam #1

Amanda Bruneau

1. Describe the role of a Professional School Counselor in the 21st Century. Include factors unique to the
21st century the PSCs are able to address now, and differentiate the role now from the Guidance
Counselor role that it had started as.
The role of the PSC has changed significantly over the past 100 years. It began as vocational guidance in
the early 1900s and has evolved into a comprehensive component to the overall school's academic
success. The main goal of a school counselor is to promote a student's achievement, but it involves much
more than just academics. A PSC counselor wears many hats all the time, this includes direct and indirect
services based on the standards of academic, career and personal/social development. PSC's also rely
heavily on data in the 21st century because previously there was nothing in place to show or prove our
services were actually making a difference in the students and schools success. The ASCA recommends a
PSC spends 80 percent of their time in direct and indirect services with students and the overall
framework for a comprehensive school counseling program consists of four components: foundation,
management, delivery and accountability (ASCA, 2012).
The school counseling foundation is the core of program. Every school and every district has different
issues and goals for their students so it is extremely important for the school counseling program (SCP) to
be clear on what their program focus is to benefit the students the most. Typically this is going to align
with the school and districts overall goals and mission. In order for this to be effective, the PSC must
have the current knowledge of the new ASCA competencies to meet society demands. The problems and
issues students face today are very different than they were 20 years ago. Preparing students to become
contributing members of society involves helping all students reach their potential, whether that is a four
year school or a trade school.
Management incorporates organizational tools that are clearly reflective of the schools needs (ASCA,
2012). An assessment is now in place to evaluate the effectiveness of the school counselor and the school
counseling program. If there is a need in the school or an area of improvement, many times everyone
looks to the SCP to find solutions. The PSC needs to be resourceful in finding solutions for immediate
and long term issues. A plan is also set in place in the beginning of the school year to determine how the
program is going to be organized throughout the school year and what goals will be accomplished. This
involves an advisory council which incorporates people from outside the department to contribute to the
recommendations. In addition, it allows the PSC to have a plan, so every week they know what they need
to be focusing on and where they should be the academic year. The most significant change to the SCP is
the use of data. It is extremely important to show results from our work and implementations to show our
value within the school and promote systematic change within the school system so every student
graduates college or career ready (ASCA, 2012).
Delivery is providing services to students, parents, school staff and the community in direct and indirect
services (ASCA, 2012). Direct services include any in-person interaction with students. In the past, PSC
typically would meet with students in an individual basis with the purpose of exploring plans after high
school. This is still done today, but it is not the most effective use of a PSC's time. ASCA has creating a
core curriculum that is designed to help students attain the desired competencies for their developmental

level (ASCA, 2012). This can be done in a classroom or small group activities. I have the advantage of
working with many high schools in Massachusetts and a small handful of schools have actually creating
core curriculum for each grade level. The PSC actually has class periods allotted for their curriculum and
each levels builds upon the next. One example of a core curriculum that can be implemented in 8th and
9th grade is organization and study skills. I hear over and over again students are just not prepared for the
high school transition and they need study skills to be successful. Instead of a school be reactive and
helping failing students, a PSC can be proactive and teach the skills needed to be successful during this
transition. There is also going to be times when you are working with students that has a particular
problem that needs to be addressed immediately. It's important for the PSC to know their limitations and
when to refer a student if it falls out of skills set. Indirect services is when you refer a student for
additional assistance or when you consult or collaborate with others (ASCA, 2012).
Accountability is necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of the school counseling program. They
analyze data to determine how students are different as a result of the SCP.
The biggest change in society over the last ten years is the use of technology. Social media is an
enormous focus for a PSC, this is both good and bad. Cyber bulling is a massive issue that continues to
evolve with technology. It's extremely important for PSC to stay up to date with what is out there so they
are able address it within the school. In addition, the world is more competitive than it once was and
there is a huge emphasis on closing the gap and making sure all students are able to be successful after
high school. In my opinion, the PSC is the backbone of a school.

2. Discuss how counseling children is different from counseling adults.

Counseling children is very different than counseling adults, they are at a very different developmental
level than adults. In addition, counseling differs greatly depending how old the child is.
In early childhood, children rely heavily on solving problems based on what they hear or see rather than
by logical reasoning. They also focus on one aspect of a situation rather than taking a broader view
(Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009). They assume everyone things and feels the same way
they do and have difficulty seeing things from another's perspective. Play is a very important function
and they often express their feelings behaviorally. When counseling early children it is important to use
developmentally appropriate language and media play to help keep the child's attention.
In middle childhood, children become more concrete operational thinkers, they understand reversibility,
reciprocity, identify, and classification (Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009). They learn best by
questioning, exploring, and engaging in guided participation through social interaction. Their overall
worth and self-esteem begins during this time and they begin to compare themselves to others
(Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009). When counseling middle childhood children it is
important to employ concrete interventions to help children resolve problems and continue the adult
guidance (Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009).
Early adolescence are experiencing significant physical changes during this time. They become more
formal operational thinkers and begin to think more abstractly, develop the ability to hypothesize, and
consider alternatives(Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009). They are also very concerned with

their identify and where they fit in the world. It can be challenging to work with young adolescents
because they mask their feelings. It is important to remember that many problem behaviors are a result of
incompetency's in thinking an reasoning (Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009). They need
significant guidance at home and at school during this stage.
During mid-adolescence children can hypothesize and think about the future and are less likely to
conceptualize everything in either-or terms because their thought processes are more flexible. They are
less vulnerable and are able to express their feelings verbally. Individual and group activities can be
beneficial during this time(Counseling Children and Adolescence, 2009).
As you can see it is very important to be aware of the a child's age because it significantly changes the
way we, PSC, will interact with them in comparison to adults.
3.What does an individual counseling session look like as a School Counselor and how is this different
and similar to that of a Mental Health or related professional as discussed in the Vernon and Ivey
chapters?
Counseling in general in concerned with helping people cope with normal problems and opportunities. All
counseling professionals have similarities and would use many of the same counseling tools. For
example, microskills are used as the foundation of intentional interviewing. Some of the microskills
include: open and closed questions, paraphrasing, summarizing, reflecting feeling, self-disclosure,
challenging, minimal encouragers, and silence. Becoming fully competent in these microskills, no matter
which type of counseling you are doing, will enable you to help your clients change and grow. Ethics and
competence are also extremely important in all counseling professions. Ethical codes promote
professional empowerment by assisting professionals and professionals-in-training to: (a) keep good
practice (b) protect their client, (c) safeguard their autonomy, (d) enhance their profession (Ivey & Ivey,
2010). In addition, by knowing their limitations, all counselors remain within the boundaries of their
competence, based on their training and education. A counseling session for each counseling professional
will typically begin the same way, with an initial interview to learn about the client and why they are
seeking counseling. The counselor gathers data, then typically sets goals for the client, followed by
exploring alternatives and confronts clients on incongruities and conflicts. Lastly, the counseling is
concluded with new stories (Ivey &Ivey, 2010). A school counselor typically has a very large case load
and only has a finite amount of time they are able to spend with each student. Because of this, some
approaches to counseling are more favorable because they are solution focused rather than problem
focused. Decisional and Brief Solution-Focused counseling are two approaches that help the client seeks
solutions and change behavior to a desired outcome. This fits really well in the SC model and I
personally like because it focuses on the solution rather than the problem. Other forms of counseling
focus more on problems because they have more time to psychoanalyze.
4. Describe an example of when it would be appropriate as well as inappropriate to utilize the following
microskills in a counseling session: confrontation, challenging, paraphrasing, reflection of feelings,
summarizing, open ended questions, closed ended questions and silence.
Confrontation: Is effective when you already have a good rapport with your client. In a gentle way you
as a counselor can point out incongruities in a person's life, in efforts to open the person up to new ways
of thinking (Ivey & Ivey, 2010). An example of this would be when a client has a boyfriend that is

physically abusive, but the client believes the boyfriend really cares about them. During confrontation a
counselor can can ask the client directly "If someone really cares about you, do you really think they
would be abusive towards you". It would not be appropriate to use this skill if the counselor/client
relationship is in its beginning stages of development.
Challenging: Is similar to confrontation, you must have a good rapport with your client before using this
microskill. Challenging identifies discrepancies between thoughts and actions by using specific examples
with the client. An example would be a client never doing their homework, but expressing the desire to
do well in a class. Challenging exposed the decencies to the client by explaining their actions are not
lining up with their goals.
Paraphrasing: Is a brief, accurate, and clear rephrasing of what the student shared. This is appropriate to
use after a student has just described to you a part of the story. It allows the counselor to say back to the
client the story the client just verbalized in a condensed form. This is important because it confirms the
counselor is understanding the client. It would not be appropriate to use paraphrasing at the end of a
session because that would require a more comprehensive summary, not a brief rephrasing.
Reflection of Feelings: Communicates empathy by stating concisely the feeling of the problem faced by
the client. This is appropriate to use when a client is expressing an emotion, it validates their emotion and
shows the client they are understood. In some ways, it can be an encourager because it reinforces their
feelings. It would not be appropriate to use if you were not talking about feelings or didn't truly
understand the way a client was feeling. If you told the client they were sad when they were not feeling
sad, they were feeling angry, your client may feel like you don't understand them.
Summarizing: A statement that generally reflects what the client has shared. This is appropriate to happen
at the end of a session to wrap up and summary everything that has been discussed. It would not be
appropriate for this to happen mid way through a story because the client has not told you everything
about the story to summarize. The counselor would be interrupting the client if they summarized in the
middle of a story.
Open Ended Questions: Encourages the client to talk, they cannot give one word answers. They have to
expand a little more than yes/no. This is appropriate to use through the counseling session. You want
your client to be doing most of the talking. By asking a question like "Tell me about your home life" is
going to allow the client to expand considerable rather than asking the client "Where did you grow up".
Closed Ended Questions: Asks concrete and specific questions that have a very short response. Closed
ended questions are used to gain information. This is especially helpful and appropriate to use when you
need to gain facts about a situation. If you have a client that was involved in a accident, you need to
know specifics about the accident that will require you to get short responses, such as "Are you hurt". It
is not appropriate to ask close ended questions when you are trying to get your client to open up and talk
about a situation.
Silence: Intentionally not using any verbal communication in the session to allow the student time to
process and reflect on what has been shared. This is appropriate to use when you think your client wants
to say more or has more to say. Allowing silence to happen gives the client an opportunity to open up

more. It is not appropriate to use silence when a client first enters a session. The counselor must initiate
conversation or the session would not go anywhere and would be awkward.
5. ASCA incorporates four themes of leadership, advocacy, collaboration and systematic change for
school counselors as part of the ASCA National Model. Explain how school counselors promote student
achievement and systematic change through the application of these themes.
The ASCA National Model Themes, leadership, advocacy, collaboration and systematic change, are the
framework for the ASCA National Model. It begins with leadership, without leadership program
implementation cannot not happen successfully. School counselors will be leaders in the following ways:
(1) by being advocates for academic achievement and student development, (2) effectively delivering a
comprehensive school counseling program, (3) promoting professional identify, and (4) overcoming
challenging in the school counseling role (ASCA, 2012). The PSC serves are the strongest advocate for
academic achievement for every student. This includes students academic, career and personal/social
development needs and works hard to ensure these needs are addressed throughout the K-12 experience
(ASCA, 2012). Collaboration is also essential for the PSC because of their work inside and outside the
school. Within the school, PSC build teams to work towards the common goal of equity, access and
academic success for every student. Outside the school, PSC must work with parents and the community
to ensure students needs are being met with resources outside of the school (ASCA, 2012). Finally, PSC
have the ability to identify systematic barriers to student achievement. Data on things such as school
wide achievement, attendance and behavioral data inform the school counseling program, in addition
identifies and removes barriers that prevent all students from achieving college and career readiness
(ASCA 2012).
6. Identify and discuss three benefits of the Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling
Programs.
The MASCA Model used the ACSA Model as a guide to develop and design the comprehensive school
counseling school counseling model for Massachusetts. This is an extremely important fact, because the
national and state level competencies align. Within the four major themes for the national model, the
MASCA model holds four additional themes, accountability, management, delivery system, and
foundation. Accountability is an extremely important topic in today's society, because job security is not
as unyielding as it use to be and PSC have to be able to measure students outcomes and determine their
effectiveness. Gathering and disseminating data demonstrates that specific counseling interventions
contribute to gains in achievement. The PSC delivery system is done through four key program
components (guidance curriculums, responsive services, individual services and system services). All of
these programs are based on research findings and data analysis and are integral to the schools mission.
As mentioned before a PSC time should be spent doing direct services 80% of the time and only 20% in
direct services. I feel like the most significant change in the school counseling field is implementing
guidance curriculums. This allows PSC to be proactive and address issues before they become problems.
The management system includes various organizational tools and processes that are in place to ensure
the school counseling program is successful. The components include: use of time/calendars,
management agreements, use of data and performance evaluations. All of these are tools to help assist in
the major goal of providing equality access and delivery.

7. Discuss the construct "resistance" in terms of a) how it can be conceptualized, b) what might
contribute to it, c) how it might be reframed as something positive, and d) appropriate counseling
responses to it, including strategies for working with it. Consider different populations that School
Counselors will often work with when responding to this question including students, parents/guardians/,
teachers/staff, and administration.
Resistance is the major impediment to change. (a) it can be conceptualized as the incongruence within an
individual, saying one thing and doing another. Resistance is observable behavior that occurs within the
context of treatment and represents an important sign of dissonance within the counseling process (Ivey
and Ivey, 2010). b) . A person saying they want to change but lacking the motivation or drive to take the
steps they need to in order to make the change. They may just not be ready for the change even if they
know it is the best thing for them. Resistance is also a common response to a counselor moving too
quickly (Vernon, 2009). c) Instead of pointing out these discrepancies it is important for the client to use
the microskills of paraphrasing or reflecting the clients feelings to acknowledge you are aware of how the
client thinks and feels. In addition, the counselor can use reframing to show the client a new perspective
on the situation (Ivey &Ivey, 2010). d) Some strategies that might be useful to address resistance in young
clients include play therapy, role-playing, the counselor's self-disclosure about resistance, the counselor's
comment about a probable cause for the resistance, and confrontation. When working with adolescence,
an effective strategy is to acknowledge and "go with" the reluctance, leaving room for choice (Vernon,
2009). When working with different populations, it is important to be aware of cultural differences in
eye contact, proximity preferences, responses to stress, socioeconomic and sociocultural circumstances.
This pertains to children and adults. Language will vary depending on who a PSC is speaking with and it
must be developmentally appropriate. The manner in which you counsel a client is going to greatly
depend on the developmental level of an individual

References
Ivey, E. Allen, Ivey, Bradford Mary, Zalaquett, P. Carlos. (2010). Intentional Interviewing & Counseling.
Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Vernon, Ann. (2009). Counseling Children &Adolescents, 4th ed. Denver, Colorado: Love Publishing
Company.
American School Counselor Association (2012). The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School
Counseling Programs, Third Edition. Alexandria, VA: Author.