School Counselling
Counselling is a chance for you speak about your thoughts and feelings. If you find talking about things difficult the counsellor might get you to show how you feel using games or art. It gives you a safe space to work through any problems that you might be having at school or at home. Most counselling in schools is for anyone who is 10 years old and above.
How does counselling work?
You will normally have around 6 weekly sessions. You will agree with your counsellor how long each session should last to make sure it is the right amount of time for you. You will usually meet with your Counsellor once a week, at the same time and day each week. At the last session, 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 reviews will happen every few weeks. 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.
What does a counsellor do?
As well as listening, counsellors can help you to understand the problems or difficulties you are having. They can support you to find things that help. Counsellors do not give advice or tell you what to do . They help you to make your own choices.
Your counsellor will be qualified and experienced in working with children your age. They are supervised (this means that your counsellor has another counsellor who helps them to do their work well).
Confidentiality
It is helpful for your counsellor to be in contact with an adult in school to agree when to have your sessions. It is also important for adults at home to know you are getting counselling support at school.
Although the counsellor will speak to adults at home and school, what you tell them during counselling is confidential. This means your counsellor will not tell other adults what you tell them without asking you first.
If you tell your counsellor something that they think would be helpful for other adults to know about they will ask you if they can help you to tell other adults at home or school. If this happened they would ask you and only pass on the things you agree.
When would confidentiality be broken?
If the counsellor thinks 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.
Who is counselling for?
Counselling can be helpful for:
- worries
- family relationships
- finding school difficult
- friendship difficulties
- when someone dies
- feeling sad
- feeling angry
Adults at school can speak to you about counselling and why it might help you.