School Counseling

“Guidance Counselor” vs. “School Counselor”: Which Title is Accurate?

Did you know that in the 1960s and 1970s there began a shift in school counseling from a focus exclusively on career development to a focus on students’ personal and social issues? This shift fostered the goal of providing a comprehensive, developmental, data-driven school counseling program for all students.

It allowed counselors to focus on:

• Academic achievement
• Social/emotional development
• Career readiness

The broad scope of what School Counselors do include a long list of responsibilities. As primary advocates for students, they collaborate, consult, coordinate, counsel, guide, refer, support, teach, provide in-services, connect with parents, network and seek educational for all students while recognizing the need for systemic changes necessary to allow all that to occur for all students.

Over 30 years ago, the American School Counselor Association issued an official statement calling on the profession to change the title to “school counselor” rather than the previous title of “guidance counselor,” believing that this term no longer encompassed the wide range of work that was done by these professionals in schools.

School Counselors do so much more than “guide.” Let’s thank them for all they do by recognizing their title as “School Counselor.”