Counselling at Student Care Service

Mrs Tan looked more like a teacher than a counselor but she was also a very creative facilitator and I was impressed.

The ice-breaker game she got us to engage in was rather intense in that within ten minutes or so we were to interact and exchange worldviews to half of our peers. Some information we disclosed were rather personal but our group has over the months become more familiar with one another. It did not mean a greater knowledge of one another. So this game actually got us to talk heart-to-heart briefly. A nice way to melt the ice!

Mrs Tan briefed us on Student Care Service (SCC) & School-based Counseling (SBC). The SCC was actually set up by VWO since 1978 to help maximize the students’ potential. It has evolved from providing just School Social Work (operating within school’s premises). A list of other services such as Educational Psychological Services, Casework & Family Counseling, Guidance Programme etc are also available. The main focus will be on the students in all aspects: educational, financial, emotional, relational, behavioral & developmental.

School-based Counseling takes place when a social worker meets up with students referred by the school, parents, other students or selves to work on presenting problems in individual or family counseling sessions. The general goal will be to enhance the functioning of these students through enabling the students and their family to cope with or resolve problems experienced by students. The psychological components that of perception of counseling, expectations of school and parents as well as accountability will determine the successfully running of a SBC set up.

Mrs Tan shared some useful skills and techniques in SBC. De-triangulation will ensure that the counselor’s focus is on the student only. And during counseling session, exception questions will be ideal when addressing students (age factor). Clarification and summarization of statements will also go a long way in bridging the relationship. The students’ faith and hope will be raised according to the expertise of the counselor. The relationship between the counselor and student plays an equally important role as the support system the student has (family etc and his or her own internal resources included).

Alas, we were not able to go in-depth into how to deal with critical presenting issues such as Rape/Molest, Under-aged sex/pregnancy, Beyond Parental Control, gang involvement and runway teens. It will be ideal to have a legally-trained facilitator to walk us through the legal processes and procedures.