Essential elements that define counselling and professional relationships

¶ … Successful Counseling in Schools: Demonstrating Elements in Client-Counselor Relationships

As influential leaders in an educational setting, counselors are an integral cog in the education process. Often the first and last people to make meaningful contact with students before they embark on life in the real world, effective counselors are important, meaningful parts of the growing and maturing process for young people still trying to find their way in the world. There are some essential elements that can make or break the success of a counselor. The ability to relate and understand the issues students face, ethics and accountability and knowledge of various resources available to help students are just some of the many critical characteristics of an effective counselor. They should also be able to provide additional help as needed to students who face extra challenges.

"As school leaders, counselors are in a unique position to form collaborative partnerships with principals and faculty while utilizing techniques that improve morale, school climate, and student development," say Janet G. Froeschle and Susan Nix of West Texas A&M University in their Journal of School Counseling report, "A Solution-Focused Leadership Model: Examining Perceptions of Effective Counselor Leadership" (Froeschle & Nix, 2007, p. 21). For this reason, it is important for professional school counselors to be able to relate to their students. This may prove difficult for those new to the profession, as many people might agree that children change from generation to generation. One of the most important elements of a successful school counselor is the ability to relate to the children they work with, or at least be able to grasp some understanding of their situation. This can help counselors to be able to identify more closely with the issues students face and increase their chances of success when it comes to actually helping to resolve some of the issues they face.

Accountability and ethics are also characteristics of an effective school counselor (Brott, 2006, p. 10). Counselors must act in an ethical manner at all times and take responsibility for the information and guidance they provide to students under their care. "School counselors are facing the growing need to prove that they have an impact on student success by providing hard evidence in the form of evaluative data," says Jessica Dolan of Winona State University. If asked, counselors should be able to prove their effectiveness in the lives of students who they come into contact with. Counselors should be able to take responsibility for the effect that their counsel has on the lives of students, allowing them to make modifications to their counseling style and tactics when needed.

The ability to extend themselves and provide extra help to students who need it is one of the central responsibilities of a successful counselor. In their Journal of School Counseling article, Lynne Guillot Miller and John S. Rainey suggest that students with emotional disturbances, commonly referred to as ED, often require extra assistance that school counselors should be able to provide. They recommend that professional counselors look into additional training to help students with ED issues and others. "The preparation and additional training that many school counselors receive in the realms of career, personal/social, and academic concerns of students can aid in helping

school counselors provide services to students with ED," they say (Miller & Rainey, 2008, p.2).