SCHOOL COUNSELOR CONSULATION: A BRIDGE BETWEEN PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION CHAPTER 10

GOALS To introduce a specific consultation role for school counselors and to cite the similarities and differences between consultation and other school counseling functions while proposing basic competencies and training recommendations.

DEMAND FOR CONSULTING IN SCHOOL COUNSELING Consulting is a process in which a human services professional assists a consultee with a work-related (or caretaking-related) problem with a client system, with the goal of helping both the consultee and the client system in some specified way (Dougherty, 1990, p. 8).

BASIC INGREDIENTS OF SCHOOL COUNSELOR CONSULTING Two major themes stand out in these positions: modes and steps or stages. Consulting modes are the methods that individuals use or the ways they behave when engaging in consulting services. Consulting steps or stages are the sequential behaviors in which individuals engage when carrying out any of the consulting modes. steps and stages depend on modes

SCHOOL COUNSELOR CONSULTING MODES Prescription mode Provision mode Initiation mode Collaboration mode Mediation mode

SCHOOL COUNSELOR CONSULTING STEPS OR STAGES Essentially, their ideas fit into the five stages of Ivey, Ivey, and Zalaquett’s (2014) helping paradigm presented in Table 8.1 in Chapter 8 of this textbook: Those stages are: (a) building an empathic consulting relationship (b) listening to the consultees’ stories and searching for positive assets (c) setting goals with consultees mutually (d) working with consultees to explore alternatives, confront incongruities and conflicts, and decide on constructive action plans (e) helping consultees generalize and act on their action plans

BASIC COMPETENCIES FOR SCHOOL COUNSELOR CONSULTING Fortunately, consulting does not require a completely independent set of competencies. Instead, many of the counseling and some of the prevention programming competencies are simply applied in a different context. The importance of being multiculturally competent—sensitive to the worldviews of consultees and their clients—remains as important as it is in counseling interventions and prevention programming.

BASIC COMPETENCIES Building empathic consulting relationships Listening to the consultees’ stories and searching for positive assets Mutually setting goals with consultees Working with consultees to explore alternatives, confront incongruities and conflicts, and decide on constructive action plans

CONSULTATION: A NATURAL FUNCTION FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS Consulting is a widely accepted counseling function. Natural circumstances in the schools provide school counselors with a relatively specific consultation role that can manifest itself in several modes. Many students, teachers, administrators, and parents view counselors as being in a relatively neutral position in the schools and as possessing competencies that can be shared in consulting relationships. They are strategically located in the schools as people who might be trusted to serve as consultants via the various consulting modes introduced in this chapter. School counselors who recognize the interrelationships between consulting and other important school counseling functions can appreciate the unique qualities of consultation activities and recognize opportunities to consult in an organized fashion.

APPLICATION TO TECHNOLOGY How might counselors use their school Internet sites to assist them with their consulting activities? Do a Google search for online resources that address school counselor consultation. What did you find?