Counseling and Consultation
Domain 3 (Counseling and Consultation) tests individual and group counseling, responsive services, and consultation. Items often present a scenario and ask for the best counselor response, the stage of group work, or the focus of consultation.
Individual counseling
School counseling is typically brief and goal-focused. A workable sequence is relationship building, assessment, goal setting, intervention, and termination. Core techniques include active listening, reflection of feeling, open questions, summarizing, scaling, the miracle question from solution-focused practice, and cognitive reframing. Informed consent and confidentiality limits are explained in developmentally appropriate language. Counselors do not diagnose or provide long-term therapy beyond their competence; they refer when needs exceed the school setting.
Group counseling
Groups may be psychoeducational, counseling, or task/work groups. Tuckman's stages-forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning-help the counselor anticipate dynamics. Effective groups require screening, clear norms, attention to developmental level, and explicit discussion of confidentiality and its limits. Groups work best for shared concerns such as social skills, grief, or transition; they are not the setting for acute crisis or individualized trauma treatment.
Consultation
Consultation is an indirect service delivered through a consultee, often a teacher or parent. Models include client-centered and consultee-centered mental health consultation (Caplan), behavioral consultation with problem identification, analysis, plan implementation, and evaluation (Bergan), and solution-focused consultation. Steps include establishing rapport, defining the problem in observable terms, generating and selecting strategies, monitoring results, and fading support. Obtain consent before sharing information and avoid taking over the consultee's role.
Responsive services and crisis
Suicide risk requires asking directly about thoughts, plans, means, and intent; reviewing risk and protective factors; maintaining supervision; notifying parents or guardians; referring; and documenting. No-suicide “contracts” are not recommended. Threat assessment, child abuse reporting, and crisis-team activation follow district protocols. Counselors document actions and consultations.
Worked example
A teacher reports that a student puts his head down and refuses work. The counselor uses behavioral consultation: define the behavior (off-task episodes per class), collect a baseline, examine antecedents and consequences, select an intervention such as check-in/check-out with modified task chunks, and review data in two weeks. The reasoning: the counselor provided indirect, data-based support and built teacher capacity rather than taking over the classroom.
Traps
Giving advice instead of counseling; promising absolute confidentiality; using a group for an acute crisis; diagnosing; consulting without consent; relying on no-harm contracts; and failing to document risk or consultation.