Erin Walsh Kugler, NCC

My Personal Counseling Philosophy

 

School counselors are professionals trained as specialists within the helping profession to work in schools. The main role of a school counselor is to be an advocate for students and their academic success, mental health, social development, and college and career readiness. School counselors work with administrators, teachers, parents, and of course students in order to promote and facilitate student achievement and health.

 

As previously mentioned, while as a school counselor I will work heavily with students, however I will also be working with the school administrators and teachers. Working with the principle fosters student success because only together can goals be achieved. I am also available to teachers as resource when they would like some additional insight on particular students or issues they face within the classroom. Additionally, I will serve as a resource for parents and collaborate with them to foster student success.

 

As a school counselor I am the most pronounced advocate for students. If I am not being an advocate for students, I am not doing my job correctly. My goal as an advocate for students is to ensure there is equity among students. Without advocacy and equity, we have little hope in closing the achievement, opportunity, and attainment gaps present in schools.

 

Part of that advocacy will occur on the systematic level. Students are ever changing and unfortunately the school system does not develop as quickly. As educators, we cannot allow students to face the demands of an ill-fitting system and continuously not succeed. Sometimes the system needs to change in favor of the students, to work with them and foster student success.

 

As a school counselor I will focus on all the students because all the students need to be focused on. My position as a school counselor does not leave me to only work with the highest or lowest achieving students, or students having a particular crisis. All students are unique individuals and all students deserve and will receive my attention so they have the opportunities to reach their highest potential academically, personally, socially, and in terms of college and career readiness.

 

In order to best serve all students within a school and implement systematic change, I will be following the American School Counseling Association’s National Model. To reach all students I will provide individual counseling when students have a need best served with one-on-one interaction, group counseling to address particular issues that could be affecting multiple students, and classroom guidance lessons.

 

My research experience will allow me to use data in a number of ways to benefit students and the school. Data is critical when evaluating student performance. The data will show me where attention is needed to help the students be successful. The data analysis is also instrumental to evaluating the success of programs in interventions that have been implemented in the school. Improvements can then be made to the programs and interventions based on the evaluated data. Additionally, data gives me a ground to stand on when meeting with the school board and advocating for the students. Finally, data will provide me with information on how to allocate my time for direct and indirect services and limit unrelated tasks.