WHAT IS COUNSELLING?

Counselling is for men or women, for all ages, and is suitable for many problems.

Counselling provides you with a safe, supportive, and private place, where you can explore any difficulties or distress in your life. You would be accepted, understood, and not judged. Also nothing will be considered too trivial. You may be feeling anxious, confused, distressed, out of control, or behaving strangely. Perhaps a recent or past experience in life seems to have affected you. Maybe you have had a change in circumstances, or suffered a loss. Counselling is also suitable if you wish to gain more self-understanding and awareness. HOW CAN IT HELP? I am a fully qualified counsellor, and have GP surgery, School & NHS experience. I see men, women or young people.

I am trained to listen attentively and objectively, and to allow you to express strong emotions such as fear, anger, confusion, or grief without becoming burdened by them. Sometimes this is not possible with friends or family. I can offer the highest possible limits of confidentiality, so that aspects of your life or relationships can be talked about in safety, and without fear of exploitation. Your identity is always safeguarded Being able to talk freely in this way, with someone you can trust, may help you deal with your problems, or clarify your options. APPOINTMENTS & FEES Appointments are usually for one hour. You may only need a few sessions, but it would depend on your particular difficulty, and on your willingness to continue . We would regularly review if the counselling was proving beneficial.

At the first session I would give you more information, and answer any questions. There would also be time for you to tell me about yourself or your difficulty. We would discuss whether we both feel it is appropriate to continue. Some people may need a different kind of help. I would give you a written agreement so that you are clear about our way of working together. If you decide not to proceed after this first session, there would be no pressure for you to continue.

The Challenge During consecutive terms as President of the Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association, the first author routinely made public addresses where the survival and promotion of the Counselling profession was explored. Following such speeches, Guidance Counsellors would typically tell stories about the poor regard with which their role was held within their system and asked what they could do to increase their identity, profile and status. The second author, in eighteen years as a Guidance Officer in a different State, also came to learn that embedded within such interactions and questions were anxieties about job security and concerns about the public perception of the relative professional value of our role. It would be possible to write a paper that reflected that gloom, but we decided it would be timely and more useful to consider what could be done to increase the likelihood of professional survival. In addition to the climate existing in the world of Guidance, we are aware of the advent of Nurse Counsellors, Behaviour Teachers, Pastoral Carers, Home-School Liaison Officers, School-based Police, Chaplains and Welfare Workers within the education context. It has been the placement of these additional personnel within schools which has added to the unease of Guidance Counsellors, with what many believe is usurping some of the their role. It has been cynically noted by some that these recent workers in the school take over various roles previously ascribed to Guidance Counsellors, yet with less training, supervision, success and expertise, and typically for less expense to the system. The question goes begging, "What next for our schools to supplement or replace Guidance Counsellors?" In a time when more and more families and increasing numbers of children require quality additional counselling, interpersonal and educational services, guidance and counselling roles need to be increased, not substituted with a range of less than comprehensively trained personnel. Clearly there is a need for more services, yet we have been puzzled as to why it has been in recent years that numbers of Guidance Counsellors, particularly in the public system, have not been increased, rather more and different services have been added to the system to do similar jobs. Has it been simply economic rationalism across different governments in recent years, or is it something else? Could it be that policy makers do not see that Guidance Counsellors really make a difference in people's lives and therefore have been willing to try different personnel to address the same school issues? If it is about economic rationalism, a case may need to be made that Guidance Counsellors make a positive difference and that what is provided is preventive mental health work that can ultimately save the system a great deal of money (consider the costs of admitting a young person to a psychiatric centre). If it is actually about the dim opinion held about Guidance Counsellors, a change in perceptions may be required. To respond to the question about what could be done to make Guidance and Counselling a viable and sought after service, we believe there are seven major areas for attention. Promoting yourself, your service and profession include issues of: (1) Marketing yourself, (2) Increasing accountability, (3) Being political, (4) Providing supervision and mentoring, (5) Volunteering services, (6) Actively networking, and (7) Maintaining competence.

Explain what you do for your school community. People are never going to support those who lock themselves away testing and counselling behind closed doors, and never emerge to tell others what they do and why. So, promote yourself and think of part of your professional role as marketing. If you don't beat the drum and advocate for yourself, nobody else will. Write a paragraph in the school newsletter, write and distribute "Press Releases," attend school open days and functions, spend time with the people who make decisions, be there at critical times in the life of the school, make sure the students know who you are and what your role includes. Self-promotion is critical, so too is the promotion of the profession. The National School Counsellors Week is being developed by the AGCA as a focus for marketing/publicising the profession, and can be used at a local school level or wider. We find it interesting in print or broadcast news when reporting on a tragedy in a school, reports invariably follow up with the fact that "Counsellors" have been on the scene working with the students and families. We all know that these "Counsellors" are usually Guidance Officers. It is acceptable for the public and media to use the title "Counsellor" yet many are still hidden behind the industrial title of "Officer", which really doesn't help people to really know what they do. It is also interesting to consider why Guidance Counsellors are often reluctant to sell themselves. It may be that the profession attracts people who are naturally less extrovert, and some retreat behind their professional title. This can give the appearance however that as professionals they do not need to explain what they do. It is not clear whether this is because they really do believe that professional demarcation needs to be maintained or whether it is a defensive reaction to feeling unappreciated or threatened. In any case, if Counselling is to gain momentum as a profession, practitioners need to be clear when articulating their professional identity. Confidentiality has often been used to excuse practitioners from singing their own praises. This is not a useful standpoint. It is only when the school and broader communities have an accurate understanding of the types of mental health and educational issues that you confront and how they are dealt with, that there will be support. Accountability We need to monitor the quality of Guidance Counsellor services to children, families and the school, while simultaneously providing credible data that can guide the design and delivery of future services to schools. This is about keeping figures on the number of students, teachers and parents one sees. It is not about telling everyone you are busy and overstretched. In this era, everyone is busy. It much more powerful to show who and what issues are being referred to you, how many requests you need to turn down, how quickly referrals are being handled, how many cases you have dealt with, client satisfaction with your services, particularly success rates or outcomes of your interventions, and what the school needs in their Guidance and Counselling service. Share with principals and regional administrators the realities of the enormous caseload. It can be very effective to do simple activities such as each time you

visit a school to call in and say hello to the principal and briefly say what you have been doing (as well as filling in any accountability sheets). The first author found in doctoral research five years ago that most teachers are overwhelmingly appreciative of the service Guidance Counsellors provide (Barletta, 1996). It is this type of information people need to collect at the local level. If you can't show that because of your presence, the school community is better off, people have a right to be concerned and dismissive.

This collecting and reporting of information can be done with a bit of initial effort setting up data collection sheets and then simply remembering to be methodical and diligent about keeping records. It can also be done without breaching confidentiality, as it is your data not case information that administrators need to be told about. How powerful it would be if supervisors, the Education Ministers, and Education Departments would frequently receive from the hundreds of Guidance Counsellors around each State, regular comprehensive reports about activities and success! This is not only about accountability, but also about being political. Being Political Don't wait for everyone else to represent your interests and advocate on your behalf. Just as you advocate on behalf of kids and families in your schools, you should be advocating for yourself and your profession, publicly. Take responsibility to write to the newspapers, meet with your State and Federal members of parliament, and make public comment on relevant issues when appropriate. The AGCA does what it can to fly the flag for Guidance and Counselling, but remember, it is a professional association not an exclusively political one. There is nothing like the support of the public and the politicians. On numerous occasions executive committees have been made aware of particular issues that a member believes the association should address. If you want the association to be active in a particular issue or area, collect the relevant details and put something on paper, then call an executive committee member. Don't expect them to do all the work. Any association can only be effective if there is some shared responsibility. Think to yourself what you have done over the past year to advance the cause of Guidance and Counselling. The National School Counselling Week, as well as being an opportunity to promote the profession, also provides the opportunity to contact the decision makers at all levels. Guidance Counsellors could speak to school councils, write to a local member and higher levels of the bureaucracy using the Counselling Week to raise current issues. Supervision and

Mentoring

The fourth suggestion Counsellors need to consider is being a fieldwork supervisor for University students completing a practicum or internship or for new entrants to the profession. Taking a student can bring with it a lot of work and responsibility, but being a role-model and mentor for an emerging professional means you are contributing to the next generation of practitioners. Promotion of your role and importance is highlighted as you interact with University co-ordinators, your own administrators and the broader community as they see your tutelage of novices. Modelling excellence in your ethical and professional practice means that others will more clearly understand the complexity of your job. Supervision has further benefits for the supervisor in enabling you to examine and discuss what you do in your daily practice. It can be stimulating and reinvigorating to have a keen newcomer who may bring recent ideas and viewpoints into the supervisory discussions. Contacting the local University Counselling, Psychology or Education department will enable you to offer your support in this regard. Volunteering In a similar vein to the last category, the fifth idea is that being involved as a volunteer within various community projects can be helpful to your cause. This suggestion includes work for welfare agencies, charities, church initiatives, disability services, migrant and indigenous groups, crises centres, self-help programs, youth work and

This collecting and reporting of information can be done with a bit of initial effort setting up data collection sheets and then simply remembering to be methodical and diligent about keeping records. It can also be done without breaching confidentiality, as it is your data not case information that administrators need to be told about. How powerful it would be if supervisors, the Education Ministers, and Education Departments would frequently receive from the hundreds of Guidance Counsellors around each State, regular comprehensive reports about activities and success! This is not only about accountability, but also about being political. Being Political Don't wait for everyone else to represent your interests and advocate on your behalf. Just as you advocate on behalf of kids and families in your schools, you should be advocating for yourself and your profession, publicly. Take responsibility to write to the newspapers, meet with your State and Federal members of parliament, and make public comment on relevant issues when appropriate. The AGCA does what it can to fly the flag for Guidance and Counselling, but remember, it is a professional association not an exclusively political one. There is nothing like the support of the public and the politicians. On numerous occasions executive committees have been made aware of particular issues that a member believes the association should address. If you want the association to be active in a particular issue or area, collect the relevant details and put something on paper, then call an executive

committee member. Don't expect them to do all the work. Any association can only be effective if there is some shared responsibility. Think to yourself what you have done over the past year to advance the cause of Guidance and Counselling. The National School Counselling Week, as well as being an opportunity to promote the profession, also provides the opportunity to contact the decision makers at all levels. Guidance Counsellors could speak to school councils, write to a local member and higher levels of the bureaucracy using the Counselling Week to raise current issues. Supervision and

Mentoring The fourth suggestion Counsellors need to consider is being a fieldwork supervisor for University students completing a practicum or internship or for new entrants to the profession. Taking a student can bring with it a lot of work and responsibility, but being a role-model and mentor for an emerging professional means you are contributing to the next generation of practitioners. Promotion of your role and importance is highlighted as you interact with University co-ordinators, your own administrators and the broader community as they see your tutelage of novices. Modelling excellence in your ethical and professional practice means that others will more clearly understand the complexity of your job. Supervision has further benefits for the supervisor in enabling you to examine and discuss what you do in your daily practice. It can be stimulating and reinvigorating to have a keen newcomer who may bring recent ideas and viewpoints into the supervisory discussions. Contacting the local University Counselling, Psychology or Education department will enable you to offer your support in this regard. Volunteering In a similar vein to the last category, the fifth idea is that being involved as a volunteer within various community projects can be helpful to your cause. This suggestion includes work for welfare agencies, charities, church initiatives, disability services, migrant and indigenous groups, crises centres, self-help programs, youth work and

one student, teacher or administrator, while a more indirect and gentle approach may be best for others. A major skill required is to present yourself in ways that are most supportive to the school and are seen as such by clients. The Future When working in school counselling we receive challenges from supervisors and support from colleagues. Everyday there are new challenges, unpredictable crises, and a never-ending demand for our knowledge and expertise. In terms of making a difference to people's lives and the profession, we

also learned quickly that it was up to the individual to choose if they were going to be a person who would say I can't, or I'll try, or I will. That same question is now posed for Guidance Counsellors in Australia. Marketing, promotion, data collection, networking and the political process are all timeconsuming and frustrating, yet most valuable when it is done in numbers. You can be a powerful influence in shaping the future. Just contribute at some level, otherwise you really will be destined to be the "Dodo of Guidance." The suggestions in this article are only a few ideas to promote and educate clients and decision-makers about the role of Guidance Counsellors. As a professional, the reader will be able to generate a host of other ideas to bring to life the categories highlighted within this article. The AGCA in it's support for Guidance Counsellors all over the country, continues to strive to promote the rights, welfare, education and mental health of children and adolescents, while simultaneously advancing the profession. Remember that change doesn't always start at government level - we have seen that time and again. It starts at the grass roots and it is up to individuals if they want to be part of the solution. It may be now a matter of professional survival.