Provision of the Counseling Service Among Scholl Psychologist, Article Review Example

Provision of the Counseling Service among School Psychologist: A Review of the Training, Current Practice and Perception

Despite the current calls for school psychologists to take up leadership role in a collective and comprehensive effort to address the student mental health needs, many of them feel that their profession continues to be narrow. They also feel that it focuses on special education related activities such as eligibility determination (Timothy & Lori, 2013). This article focuses on the school psychologist provision of school-based counseling and other professional roles that many practitioners have expressed the desire to expand. To accomplish this, the researchers carried out a survey where a sample of school psychologists responded to an internet survey related to various aspects of counseling service delivery. These include their training to provide the service, the current practice, and the perception of the importance of the school psychologists to assume the responsibility of providing the school based counseling service. The result from this survey indicated that  although a larger percentage of the school psychologist had received training that is necessary to provide school based counseling service as well as their expression of the desire to engage in counseling, only a few are actually utilizing those skills. In addition, the study revealed that a vast majority of the respondent endorsed the importance of counseling as a service that should fall under the purview of the school psychologist. However, most of the respondents, felt that other external parties in the field do not share this view. From these findings, the researchers concluded that, many school psychologists have expressed the desire to provide counseling service to students. Nonetheless, they find that their daily roles and responsibility limits their ability to render such services, if not preclude them from doing so ought to right. According to the researchers, one possible way of promoting school psychologists  to provide counseling services, is by ensuring  that  training program emphasize on counseling in the context of  candidate practical experience. This would achieve multiple positive outcomes. First, it will assist in recasting the misguided perception that is held by other professionals who view counseling service as falling outside the parameters of school psychological practice. A stronger emphasis on the contexts of the practical training would send a clear picture that counseling is a key component in preparation of the school psychologist. They should demonstrate competence in this activity. Secondly, the psychology student would benefit from heightened expectation to provide counseling during their practical experience. In other words, the additional opportunity to work with student in this role should help build a sense of competence the training programs, which was previously lacking. By raising the candidate’s expectation to provide the counseling service during training, a strong message will be conveyed across all level of school systems, that psychologist are indeed qualified to counsel the students. Moreover, it will convey that the school psychologist’s skills transcendence psychological assessment and instructional design. In this regard, they should be regarded as indispensable part of the team in the endeavor to help student achieve their full potential across all areas of functioning.

The researchers identified the following factors as limiting the application of the study findings; the study relied on self-report, which could be as source of bias. The study sample used was of convenience and large percent of the sample used in the study were concentrated within a small number of States. At the end of the article, the researchers recommends that the future research to investigate where the provision of counseling service fits within the practitioners broader roles as a mental  health service provider. In addition, the researchers recommended that future research investigate the school psychology trainer’s altitude and perception about the adequacy of training to expand the knowledge on the topic

Reference

Timothy, A. H. and Lori, F. (2013). The provision of counseling services among school psychologists: an exploration of training, current practices, and perceptions. Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 50(7),