Free «Counseling» Essay Sample

Counseling serves to guide a person during a challenging time in life, which, in most cases, would lead to destruction of an individual. School counseling tends to foster the development of student in learning institutions. It enables the learners to develop cognitive skills and become self-reliant through harnessing self-management skills (Erford & Crockett, 2012). School counseling programs help people deal with issues in three areas that define a person’s being in the long run. These include social, behavioral and emotional problems. Moreover, counseling helps in developing of individuals and their careers. Therefore, the paper seeks to reinstate the importance of school counseling in personal development of students, the significance of research, in particular evidence based research as the most effective counseling research method, and to identify skills and abilities needed for a school counselor.

Counselors should develop standards of approaching different situations as they present themselves. Such standards can only be devised when counseling adopts a research-based approach in order to ascertain best practices and assure effectiveness (Prosek, Holm & Daly, 2013). Counselors concentrate on identifying research-based practices and endeavor to apply evidence-based interventions in order to achieve effectiveness of research-based counseling (Erford & Crockett, 2012). Consequently, through research, school counselors can develop standardized practice principles applicable to a specific group of matters.

School counselors must demonstrate a positive attitude towards students by believing in the ability to change. A counselor with a positive attitude can more likely impact positively the student’s life. Moreover, the counselor must organize and implement programs that affect school counseling to attain effectiveness. Furthermore, they must be capable of creating a vision statement that examines personal and professional competencies. In addition, the counselor should demonstrate the highest degree of multicultural sensitivity due to a diverse nature of the society, and effective speaking abilities. Lastly, they must display leadership abilities in approaching issues that affect students (Hamlet & Burnes, 2013).

Action research has the capability of linking theory and practice, and thus is the most appropriate. It provokes the counselor to react to a change in connection with practice reflection. Moreover, it involves cautious data gathering and data analysis. Evidence-based action research propounds that school counselors require evidence to determine what steps to undertake, that is to say, it describes the problem in a precise form. It also helps identify the interventions necessary for resolution of a particular problem, that is to say, outcome research use. Evaluation of the intervention comes as the third step and allows the counselor to determine the effectiveness of the measures used. Evidence-based approach gives the counselor an opportunity to know what he or she should undertake. School climate surveys and assessment can help in guiding in this respect (Colucci-Gray, 2013). For instance, the counselor can apply quantitative description to determine the frequency and the nature of referrals in respect of indiscipline and help decide what intervention to employ. Survey outcomes in an evidence-based approach enable the counselor to ascertain beforehand any likely outcome research literature. It would, therefore, enable proper integration of the information in view of implementation in a particular setting.

The significance of school counseling research lies in its documented results and possibility to use them for further practices. Accountability has pushed to document the information for stakeholders who may need it to develop policies. Research can be imperative in this area since documentation of research outcomes may induce the users to establish a sequence and introduce effective policies that may help enhance students’ development. It can also aid in developing counseling curriculum that may be useful and time saving. Moreover, research helps the counselors to come up with intrinsic and elaborative ways of solving particular problems. Essentially, research would lead to the development of school counseling profession in a clear and consistent manner (Erford & Crockett, 2012).

Therefore, counseling in schools has proved to have a positive impact on the development of many students in terms of career and personal development. Consequently, the development of a research-based approach has also enabled the proper development of school counseling as a profession. Moreover, the researches, which were conducted in this field, resulted in a variety of approaches to resolution and treatment of professional issues. Furthermore, such results made it possible to enhance the school counseling in terms of devising certain standards and requirements to a school counseling expert.