Ecological Considerations and School Counselor Advocacy With LGBT Students

Understanding the factors that influence school counselor advocacy for LGBTQ students

“…Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (1979,1992) was originally developed to help explain human development from a systems perspective. Currently, this theory has been used to help explain social interactions among populations in various systems (Lau & Ng, 2014), including LGBTQ youth in schools (Beck et al, 2018;Hong & Garbarino, 2012;Watson, Varjas, Meyers, & Graybill, 2010). Bronfenbrenner's (1979) framework suggests a series of five interconnected systems: (a) microsystem, (b) mesosystem, (c) exosystem, (d) macrosystem, and (e) chronosystem, and how each of these systems can impact the growth and development of a child.…”

“…Bronfenbrenner's (1979) framework suggests a series of five interconnected systems: (a) microsystem, (b) mesosystem, (c) exosystem, (d) macrosystem, and (e) chronosystem, and how each of these systems can impact the growth and development of a child. The individual is placed in the middle of the microsystem, and the subsequent systems circle out away from the individual in order (Beck, Rausch, Wikoff, & Gallo, 2018).…”

“…Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the Ecological Systems Theory to explain human development as the interactions between a person and their environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979(Bronfenbrenner, , 1994). Bronfenbrenner suggested that a) ecological environment was a series of interconnected structures; and b) the relationship between the various systems play a role in the development of an individual (Beck, Rausch, Wikoff, & Gallo, 2018;Bronfenbrenner 1979). The five systems that make up the ecological environment include the: (a) microsystem, (b) mesosystem, (c) exosystem, (d) macrosystem, and (e) chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).…”

“…In using an ecological model of addressing the needs, school counselors take a systemic approach and provide interventions across various levels. Such interventions might include, using data to assess the school climate (Mason et al, 2017), leading professional development to help staff understand how to support the unique needs of LGBTQ students (Beck, 2016;Goodrich et al, 2013;Rock et al, 2017), advocating for inclusive policies and procedures that specifically address the population (Gonzaelz 2016a, b), and leading school-wide initiatives that support LGBTQ youth (e.g., GSAs) (Beck et al, 2018;Kowciw et al, 2013;Kowciw et al, 2016;Mason et al, 2017). Mason and colleagues (2017) state:…”

Deviation sexsual LGBT-Z: preelemanary research from counseling perspective

“…This requires professional counselors in dealing with clients related to LGBT-Z. Some experts also suggest that in dealing with clients the counselor must first do the following: 1) Identification 2) Exploration, 3) Seeing how far he understands himself and his situation, at this stage the client is assisted by the counselor to see himself from various perspectives, 4) organize irrational beliefs because basically changes in gender are justifications of irrational beliefs, 5) Comparison of Identity that occurs through comprehensive selfexploration and comparing himself with the community, parents, peers and others, at this stage the counselor provides reinforcement about what is he has done, so clients find new understanding and comfort in running a new life (Alessi, Dillon, & Kim, 2016;Beck, Rausch, Wikoff, & Gallo, 2018;McCarn & Fassinger, 1996) So the role of the counselor in handling LGBT-Z behavior certainly starts with distancing the counselors from negative thoughts towards the client, this is necessary, because LGBT-Z has been rejected by the social environment so that the positive behavior given by the counselor to the client is the first approach to explore events or experiences from clients and help clients get out of LGBT-Z sexual deviation behavior. After this, the counselor seeks to condition the client to change the deviation that is done and the extent to which the achievement of the deviation changes the client has planned.…”