For students, the role of the school counselor has expanded greatly, especially with the transition from middle school to high school. Since the inception of the modern education system, counselors have played one major role for students: to assist in solving emotional, social, and mental health concerns. And that perhaps, seems to be where the major problem lies. 

By the time students get to high school, the role of the counselor has evolved: the counselor is still there to provide assistance with problems relating to mental, social, and emotional wellbeing. However, students seem to forget that beyond scheduling meetings, high school counselors provide valuable information and advice, such as aptitude assessments and individual planning, and tips for the college application, to name a few [3]. 

However, as students in the district move up from the middle school, where the major role of the counselor has been for mental wellbeing, they subconsciously learn to avoid going to the counselor while at the high school, except for the once-a-year scheduling meeting. By high school, the services that a school counselor can provide has changed so drastically that many students may end up missing out on the ability and opportunity to interact with counselors much beyond the concern of mental health. 

And why might students subconsciously deter themselves from their counselor? Why is there  such resistance in regards to simply stopping by for a quick chat? For many schools around the nation, it’s the negative perception of students and the community that results in such strong stigmatization. This negative perception is caused by a variety of factors that can vary based on the individual, however, some of the most common factors include: “fear that confidentiality will not be upheld, concern about being judged, a lack of faith regarding the effectiveness of counseling, and the belief that seeking counseling is a sign of weakness” [2]. And the reason that this stigma remains, is not necessarily because of the fear of being judged, which one might think is the primary reason. In fact, “focus group research with U.S. adolescents found that even if adolescents find value in counseling and would not judge peers who were in counseling, they would resist seeking professional counseling help for themselves…Adolescents tend to overestimate their ability to manage emotional problems, presuming they are better able to handle their own problems than may actually be the case” [2]. Without addressing the perception and continued belief formulated around high school counselors, those stigmas will continue to persist. “Neglecting a community’s perception of mental health issues and their forms of treatment only maintains stigmatization” [1].

Many students at Ridge High School have internalized that strong stigmatization. Especially with Ridge’s mental health and wellbeing programs and teachers stating that they should refer to the counselor with any concerns at the end of the lesson, Ridge counselors have, in my opinion, nearly become conjoined with assisting with mental health concerns. But it’s not just at Ridge that this trend seems to persist. The decline in willingness to visit the counselor’s office has been supported by researchers’ findings, in that counselor visits “dramatically decrease as [students] move through adolescence” [2]. It’s extremely important to realize that the counselor’s office is not just for talking about your mental health struggles. 

However, perhaps an even more important fact to realize, is that using your counselor as someone to communicate with is completely acceptable! Counselors are trained and equipped with the resources to be able to understand and navigate your problems (of nearly any type) with you [4]. Friends are still a great option, but they shouldn’t be the only time one’s mental health is discussed, especially when most of the time, it is joked about in a throw-away manner.

Hopefully going forward, the counselor is able to be utilized beyond their skills dealing with mental health, and can gain a more positive perception about the services they do provide in regards to social, emotional, and mental wellbeing. 

[1]https://everypiecematters.com/jget/volume01-issue01/an-assessment-of-the-stigmatization-of-school-counseling-services-in-developing-countries.html#:~:text=The%20interchangeable%20use%20of%20%E2%80%9Ccounselors,teachers.%E2%80%9D%20This%20type%20of%20stigmatization

[2]https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2156759X18811275 

[3]https://www.umassglobal.edu/news-and-events/blog/what-does-a-school-counselor-do#:~:text=They%20provide%20aptitude%20assessments%20and,as%20apprenticeships%20or%20training%20programs. 

[4]https://asuonline.asu.edu/newsroom/online-learning-tips/effective-counseling-techniques-skills/