A school counsellor casebook

The school years tend to be the healthiest period of life, but it is also when mental health problems often begin or become more apparent, due in part to the challenges posed by unique educational and socialization expectations and physical and psychological developmental changes. The majority of youth negotiate these challenges well, drawing upon a range of resources to see them through: innate reserves of resilience, healthy coping strategies and supportive school and home environments. But every now and then, a young person falters and stumbles. Gentle support and guidance, informed by knowledge and skills, can make all the difference for the troubled youth. Providing this informed support and guidance is the role of the school counsellor. This casebook is intended to provide a solid foundation for counselling practice in schools.Part A of the casebook provides the basis for promoting positive mental health in children and adolescents and contains the following chapters: Child and Adolescent Development; Distress, Disorders and Disabilities; The Counselling Relationship; Case Management; Counselling Skills; Counselling Strategies, Settings and Formats; Counselling Ethics; and Becoming a More Effective School Counsellor. Part B contains twenty representative case studies of school youth with a range of mental health problems and practical case management approaches. While the case studies have some hallmarks of the Indian context, the case material is universally applicable to youth around the world.Each case study has two sections: the first section includes the specific child's presentation, mental status examination, case formulation and concludes with an individually tailored mental health approach following the guidelines from Part A; the second section contains the recommended general approach to the mental health problem presented in the specific case study, including the various diagnostic and therapeutic options that a counsellor should be aware of in order to deliver an optimal service to the youth. A School Counsellor Casebook is an accessible guide, training tool and resource for school counsellors, clinical supervisors of counsellors, educational and clinical psychologists, school principals and teachers, social workers and other mental health professionals and supervised paraprofessionals working in all countries to provide mental health services to school going youth (age 6-18 years).