Blog #1

           Throughout reading through Chapter 1, I spent much of my time reflecting on the type of counselor that I hope to be.  Much of my motivation to become a school counselor comes from my experiences with my own high school counselor.  Unfortunately, those experiences were anything but positive.  When I read the first case study of Bobbi, I thought to myself, “I wonder if that is the attitude that my school counselor had?”  Part of me hopes that his attitude was similar to Bobbi’s and he was just burned out, because it would scare me even more if he legitimately thought he was being an effective school counselor.

I’m sure that counselors like Bobbi and my high school counselor still exist in today’s world.  It makes me sick that there are people working in schools that 1. Shouldn’t even be working with children in the first place, and 2. Have this attitude that all they care about is collecting a paycheck, mainly because they are burnt out.  To me it’s a simple concept, if you are burnt out, get out.  I like to compare it to being in a relationship.  If it’s obviously not working out and one or both people are unhappy, what good is it to stay in the relationship?  If it is simply out of convenience, does that make it right? In my experience, doing anything simply out of convenience rarely works for any of the parties involved. 

I guess I can get off of my high horse and look at it from a different perspective.  The more I learn about the counseling profession as a whole, the more I understand how easy it would be for any of us to experience some type of burnout throughout our careers.  That is why I believe a counselor needs to have a strong foundation of support, including people around them that can “put them in check”, especially when they find themselves getting “too comfortable”.  I am optimistic and hopeful that I don’t run into many people like Bobbi or my high school counselor throughout my career.  However, I am not naïve, and also have very realistic expectations.

To switch gears, I am looking forward to learning as much as possible about school counseling, the ASCA model, CSCP’s, and everything else that this course has to offer.  I was especially looking forward to taking this course, because I believe that much of what I learn will be able to be applied to my job as a counselor.

Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs.
           (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.