School counselling
Counselling is a chance for you speak about your thoughts and feelings. It gives you a safe space to work through any problems that you might be having at school or at home.
How does counselling work?
You will have a block of around 6 weekly sessions. At the end of the sessions, you will have a counselling review which is a chat with your counsellor about how counselling has been for you. If you both agree to have more counselling these reviews will happen at the end of every block. Your counsellor will let you know when a review is coming up. The reviews help you and your counsellor to see whether counselling is the right support for you. You can also chat to them about any changes that would help you with your counselling. Each session lasts around 50 minutes. You would usually meet with your Counsellor once a week.
What does a counsellor do?
As well as listening, counsellors can help you to understand problems or difficulties you are having and support you to make positive changes. Counsellors do not give advice or tell you what to do, instead they help you to make your own choices.
Your counsellor will be qualified, experienced in working with young people and supervised (this means that your counsellor’s work is overseen by a supervisor to ensure they are working ethically and effectively.
Confidentiality
What you discuss during counselling is confidential.
This means your counsellor will not routinely feed back what you say to your parents/carers or your guidance teacher. If you tell your counsellor something that they think it would be helpful for other adults to know they might ask if you would be happy to tell them yourself or for them to tell someone. If this happened they would ask you and only pass on information if you agree.
If you have been referred to counselling by your guidance teacher, it may be helpful for your counsellor to be in contact with them for example to agree when to have your sessions. It can also be really helpful for your parents and carers to know you are getting counselling support if you are happy for them to know.
When would confidentiality be broken?
If the counsellor has reason to believe that you or someone you talked about is in danger, they will have to tell someone. If this happened, they would talk with you about what they plan to do and why.
Do my parents or carers need to be told I am attending counselling?
If you understand what counselling is about and you are able to agree to it, then you can access counselling without your parents’/carers’ knowledge. However, if you agree it is helpful if your counsellor can have contact with your parents/carers to better support you.
Who can come to counselling?
Counselling can be helpful for
- anxiety
- exam stress
- bullying
- family relationships
- friendship difficulties
- bereavement
- self-harm
- sexuality
- substance misuse
If you wish to see a school counsellor please speak to an adult like your pupil support or guidance teacher in your school.