Children in high school today come from increasingly diverse and complex family structures. As an illustration, quite a significant number of children from divorced, single-parent families, same-sex parents, and even abandoned children living with their grandparents make up the school populations. (Butler et al., 2017), in their article indicate that over 13.7 million children are being raced by single parents and that 1 out of every 3 Americans comes from a diverse family structure. The issue of complex family structures has impact on many high school students in the U.S. Group counselling are a wonderful opportunity to reach out to young students who are dealing with various problems from their family backgrounds. High schools should have trained school counselors who can help students overcome their personal and family problems through various activities, therapies, and carrying out assessments for the success of their work.
Role of a School Counsellor
Kok & Low in their study reveal that group counselling for high school students from complex family background is one of the most difficult forms of counselling which requires an extensively trained school counselor (2017). A school counsellor should therefore be certified and licensed to uniquely address needs of the group of students he or she is counselling. Often, students from diverse family structures are faced with emotional issues which could potentially affect their academic performance. The role of a school counsellor is to help students address such problems and thrive academically which could help them exploit better career options after high school.
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Another critical role of a school counsellor is identifying issues affecting school performance, particularly absenteeism. According to a recent study, there is a high rate of high school dropout youths in the U.S. with majority of these children coming from diverse families (Kuperminc et al., 2019). As such they are faced with issues such as poverty which prevents them from attending school. Others are neglected and abandoned by parents that are drug abusers. In most cases these children end up dropping out of high school and becoming drug and alcohol abusers. A school counsellor should intervene in such a situation and help the students address the financial and social problems to enable them attend school. To sum it up, the role of a school counselor includes helping students in academic achievement, career, social and emotional development to prepare them into becoming productive and responsible adults. To achieve this, however, the school counsellor has to set development tasks and therapeutic goals for such students.
Key Developmental tasks and Therapeutic Goals
Research reveals that group counselling is one of the most effective interventions available to help adolescents cope with numerous issues among them family problems (Ibrahim, 2019). After selection of students who can benefit from the group, the school counsellor sets therapeutic goals and developmental tasks to be achieved after the set period for group counselling. One major developmental task includes gaining a sense of control and comfort with what is happening. This will enable the student to think abstractly and understand the real reasons they come from such a family. The other developmental task is to develop identities that are not defined by the kind of families they come from. The task will help students in the group to begin preparing for adulthood. During high school, adolescents tend to pull away from family, socially and emotionally to achieve independence. Often, those from complex families could be hurting emotionally and have no one to share with. Group counselling creates a platform where they can begin preparing for adulthood by sharing their experiences. Therapeutic goals include to help students cope with situations and facilitate behavioral change for improved academic performance.
Techniques and Method Activities Planned for the Group
According to Irvin, group therapy has therapeutic principles that should be followed for success. These include installation of hope, imparting information, universality, altruism, development of socialization techniques, cohesiveness of the group, and existentialism among others (Classen et al., 2019). To make sure the students have benefited from group counselling there are a number of planed activities they have to take part in. The first technique is taking a pledge of what is expected of each student in the group. This will encourage engagement ad contribution to the group. The other method is encouraging participation and sharing of past experiences. Some members may find it difficult to share with others and participate actively in the group because they feel nobody cares about their problems. Cheryl (2017) reveals that in group counselling everyone has something to share with others which can end up helping oneself.
Another technique critical for group counselling is earning each other’s trust. This will be reinforced by an creating a session where students get to know each other. During the process of interaction, they will be encouraged to maintain eye contact. Setting time for games for the group members would also help the students interact and achieve cohesiveness which is critical for group counselling. As a counsellor, it is important also to discuss with the group the most appropriate topics for discussion. These could range from self-esteem, friendships, academic achievement, and even how to cope with the diversity in their family backgrounds.
Assessment for Group Counselling
Assessment, according to (Ibrahim, 2019) interprets the success or failure of the methods and techniques applied for group counselling. Depending on the therapeutic goals set at the beginning of the group counselling sessions, the school counsellor can measure the success. One such criteria is a follow up of absenteeism. If students who were initially missing schools, attend class fully following the group counselling, then the counsellor can term it successful. Another gauge of success is regarding the involvement of group members. Depending on the level of participation and willingness to share, the school counsellor has to make decisions about decreasing and increasing involvement of group members.
In conclusion, children from diverse family backgrounds are faced with numerous issues which could affect their lives and even performance at school. School counsellors should identify such students and counsel them in groups. As highlighted in the paper, techniques such as social interaction, playing games, and sharing could help these children deal with issues from their families.
References
Butler, K., Crespi, T., & McNamara, M. (2017). Bringing the family counseling perspective into schools - Counseling Today . Counseling Today. Retrieved from https://ct.counseling.org/2017/05/bringing-family-counseling-perspective-schools/ .
Cherry, S. (2017). Transforming behaviour: Pro-social modelling in practice . Taylor & Francis.
Classen, C. C., Krug, O. T., Dezelic, M. S., Ansell, L., Haigh, R., Hamilton, S., ... & Welsh, H. (2019). Existential Group Therapy: Therapy Illustrations. The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy , 459-478.
Ibrahim, N. (2019). MULTICULTURAL FAIR ASSESSMENT IN COUNSELING: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES. Asian Journal of Behavioural Sciences , 1 (1), 27-32.
Kok, J. K., & Low, S. K. (2017). Proposing a collaborative approach for school counseling. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology , 5 (4), 281-289.
Kuperminc, G. P., Chan, W. Y., Hale, K. E., Joseph, H. L., & Delbasso, C. A. (2019). The Role of School‐based Group Mentoring in Promoting Resilience among Vulnerable High School Students. American journal of community psychology .
