COUN 6506 - 01 Counseling Issues with Families and Parents in School Settings

This course provides an overview of the application of family counseling concepts and techniques in school settings. It examines four specific modes of counselor intervention: (a) collaborating with parents and teachers to resolve individual student issues, (b) providing staff training and consultation to address common needs of students and their families, (c) designing school-wide interventions to change the culture of the school so as to more fully engage families and facilitate student development, and (d) building referral relationships with professionals in the community to address student needs. It embraces the school counselor roles of leader, advocate, collaborator and system change agent and facilitates an epistemological shift from an individual/intrapsychic way of thinking to a relational/systemic way of thinking in designing and providing counseling services. Prerequisite(s): COUN 6103; COUN 4105 (grade of B or higher); COUN 6210 (grade of B or higher); COUN 6406 (grade of B or higher).