Transformative School Counseling

Introduction

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA, 2016) and American Counseling Association (ACA, 2014) ethical guidelines require counseling professionals to advocate on behalf of clients and address barriers to success. Transformative School Counseling involves ideology and practices geared to meet these expectations and create spaces of equity and justice for students (Shields et al., 2018). At the core of this concept is the idea that school counselors have a base level of clinical knowledge and skills, but also acquire specialized areas of training. Professional identity is the result of a developmental process that facilitates individuals to reach an understanding of their profession in conjunction with their own self-concept, enabling them to articulate their role, philosophy, and approach to others within and outside of their chosen field (Brott & Myers, 1999). Both ASCA and ACA note that professional identity is a prominent issue within the field (DeKruyf et al., 2013; Kaplan & Gladding, 2011). The role of the school counselor is a somewhat ambiguous concept. The professional school counselor is an amalgam of the mental health and education fields. Stone and Dahir (2016) explained that not only are today's school counselors mental health professionals; they are collaborators, leaders, and advocates who work diligently to create rigorous and comprehensive counseling programs to promote student success and social justice. This fusion of specializations births a very unique, yet sometimes confusing, skilled hybrid. The confusion may result in a professional crisis that predisposes school counselors to create an identity that is built on surviving the work environment as opposed to thriving in the work environment. Although school counselors receive advanced levels of training, role ambiguity is a common occurrence in this line of work. No matter what area of school counselor role functionality one might identify most with, educator or mental health professional, the most commonly agreed upon role function is the ability to meet the needs of all students regardless of race, ability, or sexual orientation. This chapter discusses identity development in connection with transformative school counseling. The authors provide an overview of related issues and share culturally affirming practices to assist school counseling professionals in their work to create an atmosphere that nurtures learning, living, and personal growth.