Illustration by Tristan Ing

Students underutilize school counseling services

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As the school year enters its final stretch, students from all grade levels also face a mounting weight of stress. The dominant idea among students when approaching such stress is to avoid talking about it. Students need to be reminded and forgiving of themselves when it comes to seeking help in school counseling services. 

When a teacher asks a student to report to the counselor’s office it is inevitably going to be associated as a sign of trouble. Then, it goes without saying that any meeting with a counselor might pan out to generally be misrepresented as being in trouble. It only becomes natural that students hold a general wariness towards counselors, associating them with disciplinary action rather than emotional wellness and guidance. 

The reality is that counselors do not simply call you in and chew you out for anything wrong a student has done. They ask “Why?” in their process to understand you, to listen to you, which is a valuable service that students can access voluntarily. The counselors have met with hundreds of students in their career, so it is more than likely that they have advice for many situations students find themselves in, no matter the seriousness. 

To many, it seems that the counselors should be a last resort to turn to. That is true. Counselors do act and are generally regarded as a final pillar of support to lean on when students find that nothing else works. But there is no waiting line that tells a student exactly what order they should go in when it comes to seeking help from individuals. Students should not have to exhaust all their resources before turning to counselors because, in the end, counselors are one of those resources.

Counselor services are available whenever possible and see less use in the long run. The cloud of stigma and uncertainty will not be cleared out immediately, so students need to take those first steps into reporting to counseling. They should make it an occasional habit to check in with their counselors whenever possible to update them on anything that has been going on in their personal lives. Students do not have to be afraid or worried about the counselors. Personal issues and stress already take up much of students’ plates, so let the counselors handle the rest. 

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