Counseling and Guidance
The Counseling and Guidance domain covers direct counseling work: individual and small-group counseling, classroom guidance, responsive services, and crisis response. Items test your choice of theory, your group-management knowledge, and your handling of consent and confidentiality.
Core rules
- Informed consent precedes ongoing counseling; for minors, obtain parent or guardian permission consistent with district policy, plus student assent.
- Confidentiality has limits: danger to self or others, abuse or neglect, and court orders. Explain the limits in advance, in plain language.
- Groups need screening, clear norms, and roughly 6-8 members; run 6-8 sessions with a stated purpose. Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed in a group, so say so.
- Theories to match: person-centered (unconditional positive regard, reflection), solution-focused (miracle question, scaling, exceptions), CBT (thought-feeling-behavior links), reality therapy and choice theory (WDEP: wants, doing, evaluation, planning), motivational interviewing (OARS, change talk).
- Suicide risk: ask directly, assess ideation, plan, means, intent, and protective factors; do not leave the student alone; follow protocol; notify guardians; document; create a safety plan. Counselors do not diagnose or conduct therapy beyond their training.
Worked example
A tenth grader reports panic before tests. A solution-focused frame asks when the panic is smaller and what she already does that works; a CBT frame adds a thought record for 'I'll fail and everyone will see.' The counselor pairs weekly individual sessions with a Tier 1 classroom lesson on test anxiety, because many students share the problem.
Traps
Promising absolute confidentiality; using one theory for every student; delaying a suicide assessment to avoid planting the idea (asking does not increase risk); giving advice instead of building student agency; practicing therapy outside your competence.