The importance of School Psychologists, Counsellors, and Student Welfare workers

Most of what I write here grows out of my days as an educational psychologist, both inside a school and in private practice. I plan to think out loud about what those days actually look like, and to pass along tips, resources and bits of information that might be useful to other counsellors and psychologists working in schools.

I'll also share general advice for teachers, parents and students on a range of psychological and welfare questions that tend to come up.

School psychologists, student counsellors and welfare officers matter a great deal to the life of a school. We teach, we guide, we counsel, we encourage, and (this may be the part that counts most) we try to inspire students to reach for what they are actually capable of.

Every morning I find myself wondering who will walk in needing help. What knotty, surprising problem will turn up at my door today? Which new skills will I have to pick up to be of any use to the person sitting across from me? What is this job, split between a school and private practice, going to throw at me next?

For some, I'm only a sounding board, someone to talk at for a while. Plenty of others need a nudge or two and then go on to sort out most of their difficulties on their own. A small number ask for a lot: hours of attention, steady presence, patience.

What I offer students is a set of tools for the problems they run into day to day. I don't rescue them. I'm not there to 'fix' anyone. The aim is to hand over strategies and skills that leave a young person with more say over how their own life goes.

The work has its good days and its hard ones. Still, when I switch off the office light each evening, I carry with me the sense that I've had some small part in another person's growth.

There's a story by Loren Eiseley that captures this feeling well.

Once, a wise man liked to come to the ocean to do his writing, and before settling in he would walk the beach. One morning he looked down the shore and saw a figure moving the way a dancer might. The thought of someone dancing to greet the day made him smile, so he quickened his pace to catch up. As he drew nearer he saw it was a young man, and that he wasn't dancing at all. The young man kept bending to the sand, picking up small things, and tossing them into the water. Closer still, the wise man called out, 'Good morning. May I ask what you're doing?' The young man looked up and said, 'Throwing starfish into the ocean.' 'Why would you do that?' the wise man asked. 'The sun is up and the tide is going out,' the young man answered. 'If I don't throw them back, they'll die.' The wise man said, 'But there are miles and miles of beach, and starfish all along every one of them. You can't possibly make a difference.' The young man bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it into the sea. As it hit the water he said, 'It made a difference for that one.'