This was the question most recently asked by a member of the CESNET listserv:  Are school counselors really counselors?

The following response was posted by another member:

As a school counselor I can say with certainty that yes in fact school counseling is counseling.  We mix career counseling, solution focused techniques, family interventions, suicide assessments, and behavior modification plans.  Pop culture media has not helped the view of the school counselor.  Looking from the outside in, it may look suspect but we stay busy counseling.

We may be bound by scheduling and the school system itself, but we are counselors.  We fight the system for more opportunities to continue to counsel.  The ASCA model shows the ideal model for school counseling but not what is currently happening in the schools themselves.

Counseling itself takes on many different deliveries.  In-Home counselors sometimes drive their clients to appointments - is this counseling?  School counselors do paperwork - is this counseling?

If the definition of counseling is condensed to merely mean face to face hour long sessions then we should all ask ourselves if what we do 100% of the time is counseling.

What are your thoughts on the question?