School Counselling

Embracing Neuroaffirming Practice in Counselling: A Guide for Immediate Application

The significance of the mental health crisis among autistic individuals cannot be overstated. A 2019 meta-analysis reviewing 96 studies found that psychiatric conditions are considerably more prevalent among autistic individuals compared to the general population (Lai et al., 2019). This crisis highlights the importance of shifting to a neurodiversity-affirming approach in mental health practices. »

Nurturing Positive Self-Esteem in Children: Empowerment Through Counselling

Positive self-esteem is crucial for a child’s overall well-being and success throughout their lifetime. It serves as the foundation for healthy relationships, academic achievement, and emotional resilience. However, many children struggle with low self-esteem, which can have long-lasting effects on their mental health and self-confidence. While self-esteem can naturally fluctuate during chil... »

Self-Awareness, Emotional Regulation and Empathy

How accurately can you predict how you come across? Are you good at picking up how you are feeling and how this affects those around you? How well do you consciously know and understand yourself including your feelings, wants, goals, desires and motivations? Self-awareness is paramount to Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Regulation (ER) and is commonly defined as the understanding of our ... »

Counselling with Equipoise

Naturally when clients attend for counselling sessions, there should be some thought given to any vested interest we, the counsellor, have in the outcome. If, for example, the sign on the door has ‘Smoking cessation counsellor’ written upon it, we can, to some extent, assume the work is focussed on actually altering that behaviour and the same could be said for alcohol and other drugs, weight mana... »

The Dangers of Teen Sexting (And How to Help Their Parents Help Them)

You may have faced this scenario before: anguished parents turn up in your rooms and plead with you for help: their cherished teenager, they find, is now sending and/or receiving sexually explicit text messages, photos, or videos. Oh, what to do? »

Counsellor Tips: Principles of Good Parenting

Have you ever wrestled with a problem, walked away from it for a period, and then ended up having an epiphany while you were officially “off duty” from the problem? Laurence Steinberg, an internationally renowned expert on psychological development during adolescence, talks about having such an experience leading to the development of his book on parenting. He says that he was reading ... »

Psychologist Q&A: Addressing Problem Behaviour in Students

Q. What is the most effective way to address problem behaviour in students? A. There are several things we can do to try to understand why problem behaviour occurs, or is maintained. It is important to make the effort to look deeper into the root cause of the behaviours, rather than just trying to address the behaviour directly. This is true of children, youth and adults with problematic behaviour... »

Counselling Dilemma: A Teenager Experiencing Study Stress

Anna is a 17 year old student in Year 12 who has come to counselling because she is not coping with the stress of her final year. Anna is from a culture where academic success is highly important and she is under intense pressure from her parents to get good grades and go to university. She does not want to disappoint them but is constantly tired and anxious. »

What Causes School Bullying?

Bullying behaviour is a complex issue and research in the area does not identify the supremacy of any one cause of bullying. Below is a summary overview of key factors that are considered to contribute in various ways, to the likelihood of bullying behaviours. The information below is not a complete list of all factors. They do represent major categories of focus with examples of predominant facto... »

School Bullying: Quick Facts and Information

There is no universal accepted definition of bullying. Olweus (1993) defines bullying as repeated, aggressive behaviour involving a power imbalance between the bully (perpetrator) and the intended bully victim (Olweus and Limber, 2010). Rigby (2010) defines bullying as a systematic and repeated abuse of power and identifies three aspects to bullying: 1) a desire to hurt/dominate; 2) an imbalance o... »

How to Address Bullying: Assessing the Next Steps

Depending on the outcomes so far, you should use the following guidelines: Un-Happy »

How to Address Bullying: Evaluate the School’s Response

The fourth step (click the links to review steps 1, 2 & 3) in addressing bullying involves evaluating the school’s response. After having a follow-up meeting with teachers and other relevant school staff, document what was discussed in the meeting, including the date, the meeting attendant’s names and positions, and details of what was discussed and agreed upon. »

How to Address Bullying: Consult with Teachers

The third step (click the links to review steps 1 and 2) in addressing bullying involves helping your child develop positive strategies. »

How to Address Bullying: Consult with Teachers

The second step in addressing bullying involves consulting your child’s teacher/s. »

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