Counseling Students Who Are Gifted

This chapter reviews strategies for working with students who are gifted. It stresses that gifted students can be a vulnerable population because, without proper academic, social, and emotional support, they may not reach high levels of achievement and recognize their potential in school and beyond. Also, because gifted students’ social and emotional needs are often unrecognized and unmet, it is important for counselors to familiarize themselves with the characteristics associated with giftedness. The chapter describes the types of challenges that may be faced by gifted students, including perfectionism, underachievement, motivation, and multipotentiality. It also suggests counseling strategies to address these concerns such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, solution-focused brief therapy, career counseling, and group counseling.

Counseling Students Involved With the Juvenile Justice System

This chapter provides an overview of the juvenile justice system, as well as descriptions of alternative education settings, and offers suggestions for counselors who work with students who are involved with that system. Students who are involved with the juvenile justice system face a number of risks that impact them at school, including trauma, comorbid psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, learning disabilities, and underachievement. Counselors working with this group of students need to take time to establish effective rapport and develop a treatment plan that takes into account the complexities of these students’ lives. Specific counseling strategies discussed include solution-focused brief therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy dialectical behavior therapy motivational interviewing (MI), multisystemic therapy and group counseling.

Counseling Students to Increase Motivation and School Completion

This chapter reviews strategies for working with students who are at risk for school failure or dropout. Because each of the populations discussed in the earlier chapters may be at risk for dropout or failure, this chapter builds upon previous strategies by providing a framework for targeting motivation and academic enabling skills (e.g., note taking, study skills). It describes risk factors (both membership in certain groups and personal risk factors) that may contribute to school failure or dropout. It also addresses the need to distinguish between skills/acquisitions deficits and performance deficits in identifying the reasons a student is struggling academically, is chronically truant, or is at risk of dropping out. Counseling strategies to address motivation and academic enabling skills include motivational interviewing, solution-focused brief therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and group counseling.

Counseling Students in Military Families

This chapter reviews strategies for working with students who are from military families. During peacetime, military children are nearly identical to civilian children in terms of well-being and academic achievement. When families face deployment, however, social, emotional, academic, and behavioral problems can occur. The chapter reviews risks and stressors faced by students and parents with military involvement; these include financial stress, familial changes related to stages of deployment, and reactions to the injury or loss of a family member. Counseling strategies to support students through relocation, deployment, loss, or injury to a parent are presented and include building coping skills, grief counseling, and group counseling. The chapter also covers how counselors can help schools to establish school-wide supports for their students from military families.

Counseling Students Who Are Pregnant or Parenting

This chapter reviews strategies for working with students who are pregnant or parenting. The chapter reviews the risks for becoming a teen parent, as well as the risks and pressures faced by pregnant and parenting students, including teen fathers. It covers issues such as choice counseling, building social support networks, and dropout prevention. The legal and ethical considerations specific to this population are discussed, and strategies such as solution-focused brief therapy, psychoeducation, group counseling, and vocational counseling are presented. Finally, the chapter suggests broad strategies that counselors can implement in efforts to provide effective, holistic pregnancy prevention and education programs in schools.

Counseling Students Living in Foster Care

This chapter presents information and strategies for counselors who work with students who are living in foster care. Students in foster care have experienced a series of significant negative life events that put them at great risk for mental health and academic difficulties that can persist into adulthood. Counselors working with students in foster care can help by using strategies that promote empowerment and self-determination and that focus on building students’ strengths and social support systems. The chapter discusses specific counseling strategies such as solution-focused brief therapy, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy, and Cognitive Behavior Intervention for Trauma in Schools. It also presents suggestions for planning for the time when students make the transition from adolescence to adulthood and thus leave the foster care system.

Counseling Students With Incarcerated Parents

This chapter reviews strategies for working with students who have incarcerated parents. The chapter reviews the risks associated with having an incarcerated parent, including familial and financial strain, disruptions with attachment, changes in caregivers, and the culmination of preexisting risks such as poverty, exposure to trauma, and parental substance abuse. Young people with an incarcerated parent often feel isolated from or different from peers and often have reactions similar to those that may occur after the death of a parent, including sadness, anger, developmental regression, and engagement in risky behaviors. Counseling strategies discussed in this chapter include supporting students as they learn their rights and privileges, addressing misconceptions and fears related to parental incarceration, building coping skills, and preparing for visitations and the re-entry of an incarcerated parent. Specific approaches covered include solution-focused brief therapy and group counseling.

Counseling Students Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning

This chapter presents information for counselors who work with students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ). These students experience increased discrimination, victimization, and bullying in schools, which can lead to mental health and academic problems. The chapter provides definitions for basic terminology related to sexual and gender identity, summarizes research on the development of sexual and gender identity, and briefly addresses changing personal attitudes and public policies that affect LGBTQ individuals. It stress that counselors who work with LGBTQ students need to be thoughtful about ethical considerations, such as maintaining confidentiality, and employ an affirmative counseling approach that supports positive identity development and decreases suicide risk. Specific counseling strategies discussed include LGBTQ-affirmative counseling and LGBTQ-affirmative cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Counseling Students Who Are Homeless

This chapter presents background information about homeless youth and suggested counseling strategies for use by school-based counselors who work with young people who are homeless. Homelessness is a growing problem for students, and students who experience homelessness are at increased risk for a host of developmental, academic, and mental health problems. Counselors working with students who are homeless must be aware of legal and ethical issues, such as the McKinney-Vento Act, which was enacted to ensure that homeless students are provided a free and appropriate public education, and mandated reporting requirements. Counselors can help promote resilience by focusing on students’ strengths and addressing issues related to stress, trauma, and family involvement. Specific counseling strategies discussed include solution-focused brief therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Introduction to Counseling Special Populations in Schools

This chapter provides an overview of school-based counseling, the approaches used throughout the book, and the special populations that are discussed in the later chapters. The chapter identifies a significant benefit of school-based counseling, which is that it often reaches young people who otherwise would not receive mental health services. It discusses strength-based counseling approaches that, instead of focusing on students’ psychopathology, promote resilience; these include solution-focused brief therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Finally, it introduces the specific student populations that will be discussed in greater detail in the later chapters: students who are homeless, students living in foster care, students involved with the juvenile justice system, students who are LGBTQ, students who are pregnant or parenting, students who are gifted, students with incarcerated parents, students in military families, and students who are at risk for school failure and dropout.