Family Counselors as School Consultants: Where are the Solutions?

Abstract

A systemic perspective applied to school-based problems examines the interaction patterns between the home and school; the ecological view examines the contextual variables that affect child development. This article presents a home-school collaborative-consultation model for family counselors that combines a systems-ecological approach with solution-focused, problem-solving strategies to facilitate home-school problem-solving meetings. School personnel often perceive the child as the source of the problem, which limits the scope of their interventions and ignores the potentially positive effect of involving families in the problem-solving process. A need exists for mediators who think systemically and can facilitate productive relationships between families and schools. A case study illustrating the application of this model is presented and implications are discussed.

Evidence-based parent consultation with school-related outcomes.

“…Though the bulk of school-related parent consultation studies is based on behavioral consultation models, others are described in psychological and educational literature. These models include a family-oriented approach to collaborative consultation (Fine, 1990), a model of family-school consultation using solution-oriented brief therapy (Carlson & Hickman, 1992), family consultation models (Bergan & Duley, 1981), rational-emotive parent consultation (Joyce, 1990), a home-school collaborative consultation model for family counselors that stresses a solution-oriented approach (Doerries & Foster, 2001) and Responsive Systems Consultation (Hughes, Hasbrouck, Serdahl, Heidgerken, & McHaney, 2001). Unfortunately, little to no empirical support is available for the majority of these parent consultation models; therefore, none of them was in-eluded in this review.…”

American School Counselor Association Ethical Code Changes Relevant to Family Work

“…T he process of involving families and family counseling in the educational setting has been a frequent focus in professional literature (Caffery, Erdman, & Cook, 2000;Carpenter, King-Sears, & Keys, 1998;Doerries & Foster, 2001;Evans & Carter, 1997;Fine & Carlson, 1992;Lewis, 1997;Terry, 2002). Within this realm, a continuing issue relevant to school counselors in collaborative efforts, both with other professionals and with parents, has been the issue of when and how much information a school counselor can ethically share with family members (Davis & Ritchie, 1993;Glosoff & Pate, 2002;Isaacs & Stone, 1999).…”