Career Counseling Remshard, Michael. (1

Career Counseling Remshard, Michael. (1 Apr 2007). "Career Counseling 'At-Risk' College Students: Providing Direction and Support." Career Convergence. Retrieved 17 Apr 2007 at http://www.ncda.org / teacher and counselor, Michael E. Remshard is a devout proponent of the Adaptive Counseling and Therapy (a.C.T.) model, which stresses the need for a counselor to adjust his or her behavior to fit a student's emotional as well as vocational needs. Remshard stresses this is especially critical when dealing with at-risk students or students with backgrounds profoundly different than the counselor's own experiences and education.

When teaching a class of at-risk youth as a substitute teacher Remshard tried to motivate his indifferent students by allowing them to set the agenda of the class. This conformed to Step One of a.C.T which states that it is important to engage students early on, and to foster confidence through any means necessary, so long as these steps are appropriate to the goals of the counseling session or class.

Only with a motivated classroom or student can a counselor move on to Step Two, giving the students support to realize their goals. Instructing, teaching, supporting, and delegating are all appropriate counselor actions during Step Two, but the way these functions are balanced will depend on the background of the students. Step Three, match and move, refers to moving students forward by matching the tools at the counselor's hands with the students' goals and desires.

In Remshard's class, the students had become highly motivated, but still needed extra help and advice to realize their goals because they had been poorly prepared to enter a college environment. The students benefited a great deal from the a.C.T. approach, because for the first time they were able to feel a sense of empowerment about their education, and felt that they had successfully set the direction of the class in a way that was meaningful.

Application It is easy to see the usefulness of a.C.T., not simply with at-risk students, but with all students in matters relating to a student's vocational goals.

A high school counselor advising a highly motivated student about preparing to apply to college may need to provide advice about narrowing down an appropriate list of colleges, help the student manage the stress and time pressures of the application process, and determine how best to market the student to a school -- in short, primarily fulfilling the supporting and delegating functions of Step Two.

The same counselor dealing with an unmotivated student might have to work with the student first to find out why and if he or she wants to go to college at all and actively motivate the student to take constructive steps in planning his or her life outside of high school in ways similar to the author's behavior with his class of at-risk youths.

While with the highly motivated student, the counselor might seem overly directive if he or she pressed the student with many questions such as 'why do you want to go to a small school, do you want to stay close to home, how do you envision your freshman year' and even cause the student to feel more anxiety. With a less motivated student, asking questions.