Counseling and Guidance
Domain 2 tests counseling and guidance: developmental counseling, individual and group work, crisis response, and the ethical limits that shape every session. Expect questions about theoretical orientation, group stages, suicide risk, and confidentiality with minors.
Core rules and concepts
- Match the approach to the student and setting: person-centered for relationship building, cognitive-behavioral for skill change, solution-focused for brief school counseling, and reality therapy for responsibility and choice.
- Group work follows stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Screen members, state norms, and protect confidentiality with the limits explained up front.
- Confidentiality is conditional. Explain limits at the start: danger to self or others, abuse/neglect, court order, and need-to-know consultation.
- Suicide risk screening is direct: ask about ideation, plan, intent, means, and protective factors. Do not rely on a no-suicide contract alone; use a safety plan, notify guardians unless contraindicated, document, and refer.
- Responsive services include crisis intervention, short-term counseling, and referral; they do not replace ongoing therapy.
Worked example
A 15-year-old says, 'Promise you won't tell anyone-I've been cutting and sometimes think about dying.' The counselor does not promise secrecy. She thanks the student, explains the safety limit, asks directly about suicidal thoughts, plan, access to means, and protective supports, and completes the district risk protocol. Because immediate risk is present, she stays with the student, contacts the guardian using the agreed safety plan, documents, and refers for outside evaluation. The reasoning: safety overrides confidentiality; direct questioning does not plant ideas; documentation and parent contact are part of duty of care.
Traps that cost marks
- Promising absolute confidentiality to a minor.
- Using only a no-suicide contract without safety planning or means restriction.
- Over-disclosing to all staff instead of need-to-know consultation.
- Diagnosing a disorder or providing long-term therapy outside the school role.