How to Write Your School Counseling Story

Have you ever been asked “What does a school counselor even do?” Have you ever been asked to do something that does not fit the job description of a school counselor?  Has it ever been assumed that you have a magic wand that can “fix” kids? If so, you are not alone. There are two types of stories out there about our work as school counselors: an inaccurate story and an accurate story.
 
Let’s talk about your school counseling story and how to make it an accurate one. How can you be the author of your story and make it the type of story you proudly share? Your story might need to be edited or totally thrown out and started over – what better time to do that than now as we start a fresh new school year full of possibility?
 
I recently read an article about how humans are hardwired to avoid uncertainty. It said, “in the absence of information, people create conspiracy theories.” This is why communicating our story is so important. Otherwise, people will fill in the gaps and make it up. We do not want others who are uninformed to write our story for us. Some of these unwanted authors might be administrators in our schools or at the district level. Or maybe they are parents, teachers or even students. I have found that I cannot expect others to know my school counseling story if I do not tell it. It is my responsibility to write the story so that they do not write it for me and create conspiracy theories on their own.
 
So how do we go about writing our school counseling story in a way that others will understand it and read it?
 
To effectively write our school counseling story, I propose using the same writing process we teach to students:

1. Prewrite
2. Write
3. Revise and edit
4. Publish

Prewrite
This is probably the most important step yet probably the one most often skipped over. Unless we want our story to be full of reactive response, fire-putting-out, and responding to every non-counseling duty asked of us, we must prewrite our comprehensive school counseling program to be intentional before we ever try to implement.
 
How?

• Some great tools might be:
  • Annual agreement with administrators 
  • Yearly and weekly calendars
  • Looking at past data to drive decision making
  • Mission and vision statements

An effective prewrite never includes “this is how we’ve always done it.” It takes into account that bumps will happen and we know we will get off course, but with a strong prewrite, the bumps will be fewer and getting back on course will be easier.
 
Write
Once you have a solid and robust prewrite, it’s time to get writing. This is the fun part where we actually do the work and implement everything we have planned. It is important that what we are writing is accurate. We want our story to contain the ingredients of a comprehensive school counseling program.
 
How?

• Are you addressing the three domains – social/emotional, academic and career development? If not, you might need to go back to prewrite phase and figure out how to effectively add that.
• Are you spending 80 percent or more of your time providing direct or indirect services to students? If not, you might need to go back to prewrite phase and figure out how to edit that.
• Are preventive approaches like classroom instruction in place and being implemented regularly?

The write phase is a big part of what we do. It’s our actions every day.
 
Revise and Edit
At this stage, we check our writing and look at how we can make it better to best serve all students.
 
How?

• Maybe you are still called a “guidance counselor” despite that being an outdated term. (ASCA just released research showing the perceptions of skills was lower for those titled guidance counselors.)
• Maybe you advocate for what your school counseling program should look like.
• Maybe you collect data to show what your program can do when your story is written the correct way.

Publish
After the revisions and the edits, it is time to publish. The hope is that by this point, you are publishing a story that you are truly proud of, something you want others to know.
 
How?

• Do you have a monthly newsletter? Or a website?
• Do you have an active Counseling Advisory Committee?
• Do you use social media to talk about what you are doing to serve students?
• Do you have bulletin boards with current events?
• Do you talk to stakeholders about what you do every day? What about your local school board?
• Do you publish your data?
• Do you celebrate National School Counseling Week to advocate for the profession?

Of course, you do not have to do all of those things. But if you aren’t doing your own PR, you probably haven’t effectively published your work. By nature, this is challenging for most school counselors. But as I said earlier, either we tell our story or someone else tells it for us.

So the challenge I leave you with is: How can you make sure this next school year tells YOUR school counseling story?
 
Sarah Kirk is a school counselor and was named a finalist for 2019 national School Counselor of the Year.