Strength-Based School Counsellors’ Experiences of Counselling in New Zealand

Date
Authors
Bright, C
Devine, N
Du Preez, E
Goedeke, S
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Informa UK Limited / Taylor & Francis
Abstract

This article presents New Zealand school counsellors’ narratives of counselling adolescents from a strengths-based perspective. Strength-based counselling encompasses several counselling modalities including positive psychology, narrative and solution-focused brief counselling and promotes adolescents’ strengths to enhance wellbeing. Using semi-structured interviews, eight secondary school counsellors with a strengths-based practice focus were interviewed. Narrative analysis drawing on a categorical-content mode of reading across participants’ narrative data showed that the school context plays a significant role in shaping counsellors’ practice. Metanarratives of both strength and deficit, and metanarratives of the school context were identified as having an impact on counsellors’ strength-based practices. Dominant deficit metanarratives were juxtaposed with metanarratives of strength. Implications of how counsellors negotiate counselling in a school context are discussed.

Description
Keywords
School counsellor; Strength-based counselling; School context; Counselling in schools
Source
British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, DOI: 10.1080/03069885.2021.1981231
Rights statement
Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis. Authors retain the right to place his/her pre-publication version of the work on a personal website or institutional repository as an electronic file for personal or professional use, but not for commercial sale or for any systematic external distribution by a third. This is an electronic version of an article published in (see Citation). British Journal of Guidance & Counselling is available online at: www.tandfonline.com with the open URL of your article (see Publisher’s Version).