For years on end, schools used to deem the presence of a school counselor/psychologist trivial and, on the rare occasions when a school did pay attention to any aspect of the students’ life other than the academic, a social worker was put on board to handle “fights” between students or follow up on their attendance.

I still remember a discussion with the school principal when I first got a job as a school counselor over two decades ago (yes, though I hate to admit it, I am in my fifties!). He adamantly insisted the core of my role was to see to it that the girls take off their “against-school-rules accessories” without crying!

Since I am stubborn by nature, I did take on the job and stayed in that school as the only counselor for over 10 years. I dare say, when I left, the role of a counselor had grown to include a lot more than accessory-compliance.

The scene today is dramatically different. Schools try hard to find well-trained counselors to add to their staff, and school websites boast of their services targeting the development of well-rounded students, including, but not limited to, psychological services.

What has led to this change?

Is this a response to a real need, or is it simply a marketing strategy that aims at excelling at what is “in”? Is there a real need for counseling services in schools? Is there a real benefit that results from psychological support in schools? What is school counseling in the first place, and what are the roles of a counselor? What are the mental health needs of students, if any, that warrant professional support? Why can’t teachers just advise students and tell them what to do when they struggle, and why does it need to be a counselor? Why can’t parents just help? After all, when we were kids, certainly when I was one, our schools did not include a counselor, and we turned out just fine. So why the fuss??

To answer those questions, one needs to look at the statistics (whenever available): in 2019, before COVID-19 hit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data had reported that 1 in 5 children in the USA had a mental disorder. That was a staggering 20% of children. One year later, in 2020, this figure rose to reach around 33%. The same figures were reported in a lot of studies undertaken in the Arab world.

While interested professionals hope the mental health crises caused by COVID-19 has now subsided, in light of the lack of studies, they can at best claim the rates are back to around where they used to be, around the 20%.

The mental disorders commonly seen among school children are:

• Anxiety Disorders.
• Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
• Eating Disorders.
• Mood Disorders.

In a school of 2000 students, that is around 400 students who suffer from some sort of issues that impede their learning, their social interaction, and/or their overall psychological wellbeing: a debilitating anxiety; an attention issue that minimizes their learning both in and outside of class; a social communication challenge that limits their chances at making friends and/or deciphering social cues; a preoccupation with food intake that can seriously threaten their physical wellbeing and certainly damages their self-esteem; or a mood disorder that kills their motivation, eats up their energy, and leaves them hopeless and aimless.

This, however, does not include students who have other, “subclinical” issues that, left untreated, can also grow to be a stumbling stone in their way towards a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. one in which they enjoy an overall psychological “wellbeing”.

It does not include students who come from families that are incapable or unwilling to provide them with their basic needs for acceptance, love, appreciation, and care, leaving them in self-doubt, deprived of effective interpersonal skills, unable to manage their emotions, and with a shattered self-esteem.

It does not include the children who are, in the age of booming social media, subject to inferiority feelings when they fail to meet the “beauty and/or popularity standards” portrayed by bloggers, content makers, influencers, and regular TikTokers. It does not include children who are struggling to be seen and heard by the adults in their lives, those adults who themselves are struggling to stay afloat in the midst of a crushing economic crisis that has plagued the world in the past years with no sign of a near end.

Who are school counselors, and what can they offer?

A school counselor is a professional who is trained to handle issues that may affect students’ academic performance, which includes psychosocial and behavioral challenges. There are a lot of different understandings of the exact role, as well as different titles given to counselors world-wide. There is also a difference between a school counselor and a school psychologist, but the discussion of those is beyond the scope of this blog.

A 2020 study by Popov and Spasenovic showed that although the title or role of the school counselor differs somewhat, the key elements of school counseling can be summarized as:

1. Supporting the psychological, academic, and social development of students.
2. Resolving conflicts between all actors in school life.
3. Helping students face personal problems.
4. Consulting with students, parents, teachers, and principals.
5. Coordinating various school activities that serve the overall “healthy” development of students and equips them with interpersonal and emotional regulation skills, as well as skills to handle different life challenges.

A counselor is not a therapist. The training in both areas is fundamentally different. And while a counselor does not need to possess the training nor the skills needed for the therapeutic management of mental health disorders, the counselor certainly plays a pivotal role in identifying symptoms that would suggest the student may be in need of therapy and has the responsibility of communicating his/her concerns through the right channels leading to a referral for further investigations and/or interventions.

A school counselor offers students individual counseling tackling personal problems, provides skills training both individually and in small groups, provides teachers with tips on how to best handle individual students and groups in class, consults with parents on ways to improve home dynamics, meet the students’ needs, and/or improve their academic performance, and refers students for more in-depth services.

In all cases, school counselors follow up on students and monitor their development, working with the students and all significant players to manage challenges that might arise and threaten to hold the development of the student back.

To conclude: Why the fuss?

The need for mental health services in school-aged children cannot be disputed. Since children spend the majority of their childhood and teenaged years within schools, schools are the best place to identify and manage children’s mental health needs.

While teachers can and do indeed often recognize some of the children struggling in their classrooms, a lot of the issues await a different eye to spot them. The training of the counselors qualifies them to be the main agent of change in the lives of youngsters who are faced with psychological challenges and require professional services whether in or out of school, or, in most cases, both. School counseling is thus most certainly a necessity.