Academic Counseling
I offer academic counseling for students in middle school, high school, and college students. The academic counseling I provide helps students by building success in the process of being a student – academically, emotionally, and socially.
Academic counseling can be helpful to almost any student whether succeeding or struggling, as it helps them to identify the processes that are enabling him or her to be successful in certain areas and struggle in other areas. It is also about helping students build motivation and engagement with their own education and keeping academic goals in balance with their overall wellness and healthy psychological and social development.
Academic process counseling does not include tutoring or teaching the content of specific subjects, such as reading, writing, math, or science. Subject specialists or tutors are most appropriate in teaching and reinforcing specific course content or fundamental reading, writing, or mathematical skills. I have numerous educational specialists to whom I can refer when building skills in a specific subject area is needed to help a student achieve success.
Here are some examples of some of the goals and content involved in my academic process counseling:
• Develop confidence with academics and in the school setting
Students receive support and feedback from me throughout the counseling process. Teachers, parents, and sometimes siblings may also be involved in giving feedback on positive changes and stuck points.
• Increase interest and commitment to education
Students make quarter or semester academic goals and objectives with me based on their areas of strength and weakness. Students also spend time discussing their current level of motivation with academics, social activities, and other areas of life (reasons to change, reasons not to change). Parents can be a part of this process, but ultimately, it is the student who determine his or her goals.
• Learn relevant academic process skills
Students may focus on the following types of academic skills – identifying how they learn and remember information best, building organizational and time management skills, developing a study schedule and a study plan, learning active reading skills, practicing active note taking skills, enhancing test taking skills, and developing a review system to catch errors.
• Learn relevant emotional skills
Students may focus on the following types of emotional skills – identifying which emotions facilitate schoolwork and which do not, learning how to get into a mood that facilitates schoolwork, understanding how they feel about themselves as students and how that helps or hurts them with academics, and learning how to cope with emotions at school and at home (ex., test taking anxiety, anxiety about class presentations, frustration with peers or teachers, sadness about social difficulties, concern about peer pressure).
• Learn relevant social skills
Students may focus on the follow types of social skills – building peer relationships at school, learning how to work in a group, developing assertiveness skills, and learning how to deal with bullies.
• Build a family communication and support system
This component of academic process counseling involves the student and the parent(s). We work together to identify how parents can best support their student and a system for family check-ins on progress. This can be done in person or remotely (which students are in college, for example) and often involves checking in on the online grade system (ex., Progress Book, Carmen, etc.)