Support and self-care: professional reflections of six New Zealand high school counsellors

Abstract

In many Western societies there is increasing demand for counselling; in turn, heightened levels of support needs have been identified for counsellors themselves. Despite calls for practitioners to adopt a more proactive approach to self-care, research suggests many still pay insufficient attention to alleviating on-the-job stress or achieving 'workÁlife balance'. These issues were examined within the context of inviting six high school counsellors in New Zealand to talk generally about their professional lives. The authors suggest findings support calls for counsellor education programmes to offer structured opportunities for trainees to reflect upon the task of discursively constructing professional roles.

School Counselors, Multiple Student Deaths, and Grief: A Narrative Inquiry

“…Questions about how to thoughtfully attend to their own needs while feeling an overwhelming obligation to attend to the school community’s needs were, at times, in direct conflict. These concerns align with the work of researchers who illuminated the stress school counselors experience from role conflict and ambiguity (Bryant & Constantine, 2006), as well as the emotional toll it can take on school counselors (Christianson & Everall, 2008, 2009; Evans & Payne, 2008).…”

“…School counselors are at risk for experiencing burnout and job‐related stress due to their many roles and responsibilities, as well as role conflict and role ambiguity (Bryant & Constantine, 2006), particularly in stressful situations like the death of a student. Given the risk of job‐related stress for school counselors as responders to crises, it is important to help school counselors develop a resilient mind‐set and support system, and find supervision to manage the emotional demands of the profession (Christianson & Everall, 2008, 2009; Evans & Payne, 2008).…”

“…Unfortunately, school counseling research related to grief counseling services has generally been about parent death (Eppler, 2008) and crisis counseling in response to traumatic events such as natural disasters (Shen & Sink, 2002), school violence, and terrorism (Arman, 2000; Riley & McDaniel, 2000). Christianson and Everall (2008, 2009) investigated school counselor self‐care in the midst of student suicide, and other researchers investigated more general self‐care practices among school counselors (Allen et al, 2002; Evans & Payne, 2008). Although these researchers address school counselors and crisis in general, a gap exists with regard to school counselors’ response to non‐suicide‐related student deaths.…”

"Each Leaving Something for the Other" Reflections on a Person of the Helping Professional Retreat in New Zealand

“…Both Rober (2011Rober ( , 2017 and Aponte and Kissil (2014) regard a professional's capacity for self-reflection to be predictive of them utilising their own strong emotions -or what Aponte and Kissil refer to as "signature themes" -as resources when working with others. In a similar vein, Evans and Payne (2008) perceive selfreflection as crucial for self-care and ultimately career longevity.…”

Counselling at School: A Comparison of the Work Characteristics of School Counselling Professionals in Four Different Countries

“…Taigi, šiuolaikiniai konsultantai mokykloje ne tik asistuoja mokiniams planuojant ir įgyvendinant asmeninius, socialinius, akademinius ir karjeros tikslus, bet ir bendradarbiauja su mokyklos socialiniais partneriais, tėvais, bendruomene ir padeda mokyklos bendruomenei spręsti kitus su mo-kyklos funkcionavimu susijusius uždavinius. Tačiau tyrėjai (Evans, Payne, 2008;Agresta, 2004) pripažįsta, kad realybėje mokyklos konsultantų darbas labai varijuoja, palyginti su teoriniais modeliais ir profesinėmis rekomendacijomis.…”