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Models and approaches of school counseling in explain alfred alder's principles of counseling , principles of behaviorism, developed principles of counseling and use the technology in delivery of virtual school counseling.
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Models and Approaches of
School Counseling
O B J E C T I V E S
Aristotle
INTRODUCTION AND THEMES
Standard 4: The professional school counselor provides responsive services through the effective use of individual and small-group counseling, consult- ing, and referral skills. (American School Counselor Association [ASCA]/ Hatch & Bowers, 2005, p. 63)
There are three major theories that have shaped how counselors provide therapeutic interventions in schools. The first of these is based on the theoret- ical foundation provided by psychoanalysis, first defined and elaborated by Sigmund Freud. These approaches include those that can be described as neo- Freudian and those that contain elements first identified in Freud’s writings. Eric H. Erikson, Alfred Adler, and Otto Rank have built models for practice based on these approaches and theories. The early behaviorists provided the second theory that guided approaches to therapeutic interventions. Behaviorism was first defined in psychological labo- ratories with carefully controlled experiments to look into how individuals learn and respond to their environments. These approaches to therapy include William Glasser’s reality therapy and choice theory. Related theories describe goal setting and brief solutions-focused counseling, strengths-based counseling, cognitive therapy, behavioral counseling , and cognitive behavioral techniques. Each of these methods is based on helping clients learn new ways of thinking, processing information, and responding to their environments. The third major theoretical basis in counseling is a uniquely American approach devised by Carl R. Rogers. His person- or child-centered (in this chapter also called “student-centered”) approach is one that does away with the notion that a coun- selor is going to fix a problem the student is having. The approach is one that helps the student better understand his or her own thinking and find a resolution within. School counselors have also adopted an abbreviated approach for providing student-focused interventions that are time efficient and highly effective. Central to these solutions-focused methods are strength-based school counseling and narrative therapies (Tafoya-Barraza, 2008). The emergence of strength-based school counseling has provided school counselors with a highly effective tool for providing successful interventions in school settings. While not always appropriate for every problem, strength-based school counseling is both efficient and effective.
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counselor must understand students and the culture of students as well as the culture of the school. Effective counselors recognize their roles in the culture of the school. The counselor also understands and respects the society created by students but never tries to become part of that culture. This implies the coun- selor is with it and up to date with popular culture but does not effect airs or try to act like the students. This will be immediately detected, and the counselor will be labeled by the students a phony and subsequently lose credibility. Central to the job is listening. This skill is one very few adults in a child’s life have. The counselor must always be sensitive to all levels of communication being used by the student being counseled. Verbalizations make up one dimen- sion; others include the student’s posture and body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures. All aspects of the student-client being counseled must be mentally noted by the counselor and become part of the therapeutic dialogue. Listening in all these dimensions leads the school counselor to be able to achieve empathy , the ability to sense and feel the feelings, understandings, motives, and attitude of the student being counseled as the counselor’s own. The ability to under- stand why a student behaves in a particular way, what he or she is thinking, and what his or her motives and needs are is the essence of being a counselor. If the counselor is heard as judgmental by the student, this trusting relationship will never occur. Language by the counselor that starts with the pronoun you should be avoided. For example, never start a sentence with “Don’t you think... ,” or “ You should/should not... ,” or “It’s really your doing/fault that... ,” and so on. Other characteristics of good, highly effective school counselors can be found in self-reports (Hopkins, 2005). One is self-deprecating humor. More than 30 years ago Norman Cousins published a report demonstrating the power of humor to improve the condition of medical patients (Cousins, 1976). Counselors should make the counseling office an enjoyable, never a threatening environment. A sincere smile and pleas- ant greeting should go to all students in and out of the counselor’s office area.
ADLER’S THEORIES IN SCHOOL COUNSELING
Adlerian counseling holds the central belief that people are social creatures and must learn to cope effectively as members of a community of others (Adler, 1956b). Thus, the behaviors and actions of all humans are directed by social needs. From infancy onward, children work to understand the world around them and become competent within it. This inevitably leads to the child being blocked or thwarted in these efforts. One result of being blocked is a belief that one is inferior and weak. The interpretation of the world by the young child
may be distorted and very wrong. This is made worse in authoritarian homes in which the child never develops the ability to express independence and competence. Elementary school students can overcome insecurities developed earlier in their childhoods by learning to work in cooperation with others. This work is most successful if directed toward self-improvement leading to self-fulfillment. The most benefit comes to the child whose efforts add to the common good for the community (e.g., classroom). Thus, Adlerian counseling is aimed at gaining an insight into self by learning to live effectively in school and in other social settings (Daniels, 1998).
Alfred Adler (shown in Photo 6.1) was a Viennese physician in general practice and psychoanalyst who was a close associate of Sigmund Freud. Adler broke with Freud in 1911 and relocated to Long Island, New York, in 1926. His debate with Freud had to do with core assumptions of psychoanalysis, includ- ing the sexual feelings of young children. Adler saw the concept of infantile sex- uality more metaphorically than did Freud. Another disagreement with classical psycho- analysis was Adler’s belief in the role of moti- vation and the child’s need to move toward his or her own future. Freud’s model was backward looking, attempting to learn causes of current problems through an analy- sis of past experiences. While Freud explored the unconscious mind for early memories, Adler tried to identify the source of the child’s motivation to respond in a particular way. During World War I, Alfred Adler was a member of the Austrian Army Medical Corp and served in a hospital for children. After the war he opened a clinic and also worked to train teachers in his psychological meth- ods (Boeree, 2006). Today we count Alfred Adler as the first of a series of neo-Freudians that includes, among others, Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, and Otto Rank.
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^187
P H O T O 6. 1 Alfred Adler
SOURCE: Bettmann/CORBIS.
an only child will be pampered and pro- tected by parents who are nervous about their only child. Firstborn children have the experience of being only children and then are sud- denly deprived of the spotlight and must battle to regain the attention and affection of the parents and others in the extended family. Firstborn children may become dis- obedient, regress to less age-appropriate behavior patterns, or become sullen and withdrawn. On the positive side, firstborn children will have experienced a richer lin- guistic milieu, with two parents and other adults talking and paying attention to them (Thurstone & Jenkins, 1931). Subsequent children in the family will not have that experience. Thus, firstborn children may appear precocious and assume a teacher- like role within the family. As other children enter the family, each will see one or more of the other children as being a competitor for the affection and love of the parents. Each will accept a role within the family that provides him or her with a distinctive temperament and style of interaction. The gender of each child and the length of the time period between births become part of the Adlerian calculus of the impact of birth order (Zajonic, 1976).
Many of the methods employed by Adlerian school counselors are designed for use with preadolescent students. The central Adlerian belief is that children mis- behave because they are acting out from faulty logic about how the world works. This misinterpretation occurs over time as the natural striving attempts by the child to overcome weaknesses are thwarted at every turn. The type of problem behaviors normally addressed using Adlerian approaches can be divided into four groups: attention seeking, power struggles with adults, revenge, and inadequacy (Fallon, 2004).
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^189
P H O T O 6. 2 Striving to Be the One Who Can Ride a Bicycle
SOURCE: Istockphoto.com /Rch1.
Changing Behaviors. The goal of counseling is to harness the child’s feelings of weakness and turn them into constructive and positive behaviors (Thompson & Henderson, 2007). Most interventions are designed to teach children more productive approaches to behaving and interacting with others. Approaches discussed previously, such as play therapy and storytelling (see Chapter 3) are tools used by school counselors employing Adlerian methods. Another approach involves role playing. These are simulation techniques that can be used in group therapy (see section on group therapy later in the chapter). Additionally, these methods are supplemented by a dose of neo-behavioral management. For example, children who need attention can be reinforced with positive attention only when behaviors occur in the appropriate context. Power struggles are not uncommon, and teachers may need to be educated in how to avoid them. Students can present power struggles by acting in a direct and destructive way or by a more passive form of aggression. This latter form involves being forgetful, slow to respond, stubborn, and lazy. Those who insist on entering a power struggle with teachers and aides of a school can be given choices between two positive possibilities, such as, “I would like you to do either... or... Which do you want to do?” Many educators are inclined to give a choice that only hardens resistance such as, “I want you to... , and if you don’t you will be sent to time-out.” Children are expressing a need for revenge when they exhibit behavior designed to hurt others. Little children who bite others and elementary school children who are bullies fall into this group. Adler would suggest such children are experiencing the pain of not being likeable and are possibly being abused by others. The dynamic of such behaviors is that they make the child even less likeable to others. Clear class rules about hurting others and punishment by natural consequences for inappropriate behaviors are recommended (see Chapters 3 and 4 for more on these topics). Natural consequences refer to what the Great Mikado in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta called “making the punishment fit the crime” (Gilbert & Sullivan, 1885). Adlerians view natural consequences as what will occur if a responsible adult does not correct the child. For example, if the child forgets to bring a lunch to school, he will be hungry all afternoon, or if she does not take care of the school’s equipment she will not be able to use what she broke in the future. Children with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy sense others believe they are stupid or unable to perform at normal levels. The result is a powerful feel- ing of hopelessness and despair. This is a problem that can be so deeply set that a child believes all attempts to show him or her as capable are rejected and any attempts at achievement are desultory and half-hearted (Fallon, 2004). Counseling these students requires an empathetic approach in all one-to-one sessions. Counseling is best paired with positive experiences of success. This can happen by finding small jobs the student can do to “help out” in the office.
The use of economic rewards in education is quotidian and spreading (Wallace, 2009). From the perspective of school-aged children, the true payoffs for doing well in school are in the distant future. Students have been paid for attending after-school tutoring, scoring well on advanced placement (AP) tests, and attending Saturday and summer tutoring sessions. All of these efforts are examples of applied behaviorism in a school setting (Guernsey, 2009). A negative reinforcer can also change behavior. These involve the removal of an annoying condition following the desired behavior. For example, when a parent nags a child to put away all the toys and clean up his or her room, the child may find the nagging annoying. When the child does as asked, the negative stops (no more nagging till the next time), and being left alone for a while rewards the child. The problem for counselors and other educators using a reward system to control and change the behavior of students is knowing what is rewarding to the student. A child may crave attention and being noticed by his or her peers. This can result in the student being a constant problem for teachers. The result is that the teacher continually reprimands the student. These reprimands are a form of attention, and all the others in the room are certain to notice and respond to the student’s acting out or other inappropriate behavior. Behaviors that are never rewarded will diminish in frequency and eventually be extinguished. Ignoring inappropriate behavior is not an easy concept for responsi- ble teachers or parents to understand or employ. If a child demands that he or she be given a desirable object and the responsible adult refuses, the child is likely to ratchet up the demand and become truly pestiferous. At this point the adult may make the error of giving in to the child. This adult abdication reinforces a pattern of behavior of demanding and pestering by the child. Adults who try to extinguish an inappropriate behavior, only to later cave in and give the child his or her way, produce the most resistant patterns of behavior. If a child does not know when he or she will win the contest of wills with the adult but does know that eventually the adult will give in, he or she has no reason to stop misbehaving. The frequency, intensity, and persistence of these inappropriate behaviors will increase.
ROGERS’S PERSON- (CHILD)-CENTERED SCHOOL COUNSELING
One of the most satisfying experiences I know is just fully to appreciate an individual in the same way that I appreciate a sunset. When I look at a sunset... I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color... .” I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds.^3 Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers described the birth of the new form of psychological therapy occurring on December 11, 1940, during a paper presentation he made at the University of Minnesota to a meeting of the Psi Chi honor society in psychol- ogy (Kramer, 1995). Rogers followed a complex path in reaching his profes- sional identity and developing what became known as the third force in therapy.
Rogers was raised in a strict home with highly committed Christian parents (Rogers, 1961). His choice for higher education was the Agriculture School of the University of Wisconsin. Later he decided to do graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. That also proved to be a false start, and Carl Rogers entered Teachers College of Columbia University, where he studied child development and guidance with Leta Hollingworth^4 (Thompson & Henderson, 2007). While working as a therapist in a child guidance clinic in Rochester, New York, he met many social workers who had been educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where they were taught by Otto Rank, an immigrant from Vienna. Otto Rank was a former acolyte of Sigmund Freud and member of Freud’s close circle. In 1923 Rank broke with Freud and the traditional model of psychoanalysis and developed a different approach to therapy. Otto Rank studied the personal struggle each person has in balancing indi- vidual will with the conventions and culture of society. He uses the word will to replace the concept of ego as developed by Erikson. To Rank, the will is a more energized form of ego that strives to provide us with independence and dominion. The best human resolution to the struggles of the human will involve acceptance of one’s self and the creation of a personal ideal to endeavor always to achieve (Rank, 1978/1936). The term client entered the writings of Otto Rank to replace the medical concept of a patient. The medical concept of fixing what was wrong with a patient was replaced by the concept of helping the client own and understand what heretofore were unexplored and unac- knowledged parts of the client’s own inner life. Otto Rank named this thera- peutic approach relationship therapy. Rogers invited Rank to conduct a two-day seminar in Rochester. During those meetings Rogers refined and modified his conceptual basis for work- ing as a therapist and began developing the new approach to individual therapy. Rogers described the significance of the impact of the Otto Rank seminars by saying, “I became infected with Rankian ideas” (Kramer, 1995). Rogers described this new approach as client-centered therapy (Rogers, 1980). Otto Rank’s relationship therapy model was incorporated into the
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^193
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^195
A child-centered therapeutic dialogue involves active listening , whereby the full attention of the counselor is focused on the child and what is being expressed. The counselor must be able to recognize exactly what the child is expressing and have the ability to reflect those feelings so the child knows the counselor is “tuned in.” When the counselor is reflecting the understanding he or she has developed, the counselor should use ownership statements for those reflective comments. Ownership is shown when the counselor starts a sentence with the word I. Comments such as, “I hear you saying that you feel lonely here in school,” or “I think you are saying that you are angry at the limits your mom set for you.” Through these reflective statements a school counselor can also clarify the student’s feelings and bring a focus to what is confusing or in conflict. Any chal- lenge to the student’s contradictions must be gentle and approached as if for clarification. The response by the counselor must always fit right into the student’s mood and the content of his or her thoughts. Even the tone of the counselor’s voice conveys his or her ability to sense the student’s inner feelings and thoughts. The student who is being helped by the counselor comes to recognize and accept the counselor’s empathy. The school counselor is able to understand and sense the student’s subjective world and still maintain a professional role apart from that of the student being helped.
Problems With Rogerian Methods in Schools
The problems for a school counselor using the child-centered approach of Carl Rogers can be divided into three areas. First is the problem of working in a school instead of a private office or clinic. On entering into a counseling relationship, students typically test the boundaries of that relationship. This may involve mak- ing vicious remarks about teachers or others in the school community. If the coun- selor makes a nonjudgmental reply, the student may take the counselor’s empathy to imply agreement. Despite any ground rules, this supposed agreement may be reported throughout the school and cause many hard feelings. Working in a school also implies that the counselor must be careful when making an appoint- ment to meet a student. Students must not be taken away from tests or laboratory exercises. The fact that Rogerian counseling may take many sessions and occur over several months can present a tricky scheduling problem for a school counselor. Teachers who see the same student miss time from class to meet the counselor may come to resent both the student and the counselor. The second problem area is in documenting the value of this method. Terms used to describe the counseling process are vague and not well defined. Rogers was educated in an empirical science and made great efforts to provide operational descriptions for his work, but his model is beguiling in its apparent simplicity
(Pescitelli, 1996; Rogers, 1985). This makes it possible for poor practitioners to think they are providing child-centered therapy when they are not. The final concern is that the model does not address developmental differ- ences between children at different age levels. It also does not address the prob- lem of when to use Rogerian methods with young children, children with disabilities, and those with significant mental illnesses.
ELLIS’S RATIONAL EMOTIVE (^) BEHAVIOR THERAPY IN SCHOOL COUNSELING
Everything hangs on one’s thinking. A man is as unhappy as he has con- vinced himself he is. Seneca
Albert Ellis began his career as a clinical psychologist in the 1940s and soon found the standard course of psychoanalysis to be too inefficient and languid.
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^199
C A R T O O N 6. 1 Finding the Time
SOURCE: Merv Magus.
Distortions: Creating dichotomies and categorizing everything as either clearly evil or wonderful, good or bad, absolutely disgusting or just right. Nothing exists in the space between the semantic polar opposites. For example, “If I make the second team in basketball, and am not a starter, I am a worthless athlete.” Can’t-stand-it-itis: Making the emotional assumption that this is something that you can never bear or cope with, and that you have been humiliated, defeated, crushed, or somehow made impotent by this happening.
Musterbating: With highly emotionally laden statements becoming the new Savonarola,^6 making moralistic demands and telling others what they must, ought, should, always (or never ) be doing. Demanding offenders must be condemned and harshly punished. Perfectionizing: Assuming that everything about you will always be perfect. Any defeat, no matter how slight, is a major blow. Statements such as “I’m worthless, useless, disgusting, hopeless, unteachable, or stupid.”
These examples of dysfunctional language and the underlying irrational thinking are normally accompanied with emotions that can lead the child to making wrong and self-destructive choices. These emotions involve anger, self- loathing, anxiety, and depression. Examples of this abound in the everyday lives of most students, as is described in Case in Point 6.1.
Chapter 6 Models and Approaches of School Counseling^201
CASE IN POINT 6.
A high school senior who is rejected for admission to his or her first choice college and feels like a total failure may exhibit irrational thinking and feel inappropriate emotions. If the student is able to snap back and realize that there are other good choices open for him or her, there is no problem. If the adolescent becomes depressed, is unsure of his or her ability and worth, and is totally miserable, counseling using REBT may be called for. Likewise, an elementary school student who has experienced the death of a grandfather may be appropriately sad and grieve for the grandparent. If that normal grieving process becomes irrational, the child may lose all zest for life, believe there is nothing more to live for, and express a desire to join Granddaddy in heaven. These thoughts are aberrant and irrational and imply that the child may be helped by REBT. Thought Question. Reflect on your own life. What major disappointments have you experi- enced? Write one or two down, then review all the internal conversations you had about what you did and what happened. Make a list of them and try to match them to the five overgen- eralizations described by Ellis.
The first phase in REBT involves assessing the problem that is affecting the child. Getting adolescents to express their feelings and describe what they are thinking can involve Rogerian methods. Younger children who lack the ability to explain how they feel or what their thoughts are may require the counselor to employ indirect or fantasy-based methods for therapeutic communication, for example, a puppet play or storytelling (Eppler, Olsen, & Hidano, 2009). In this assessment the counselor is listening for irrational thinking that may be highlighted by the use of language patterns described previously. Once the problem has been identified, the next task for the counselor is to find its parameters. This includes the intensity of the distress the child is experiencing, how long it has been going on, and how frequently it occurs. The issue of fre- quency can provide the counselor insight into what triggers the child’s distress.
ABCDEs of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
The two linked goals of REBT are first to have the child recognize how his or her thinking is not rational and the conclusions being reached are wrong. The second is to reeducate the child in new thinking patterns and a more rational way of seeing the world around him. To do this, Ellis proposed a series of steps for the counselor to follow in helping the child (Ellis & Bernard, 1983). These steps involve:
A. Identifying the activating event
B. Identifying irrational beliefs or cognitions about step A C. Identifying the consequences for the irrational beliefs (emotions and feelings)
D. Disputing the irrational beliefs E. Employing effective, new, more rational thinking about the original acti- vating incident
The following scenario is based on a problem that can happen when a student romance breaks up.
A. Girl receives a rejection from the first boy for whom she feels romantic love.
He wants to date others; she thought they were “going steady.” B. Student is crushed by the “break-up” and feels it is all her fault.