Middle School Counseling

1
Middle School Counseling
2
Developmental Needs of Middle School Students

• Vernon (1999)
• Physical changes occur rapidly for ages 11-14
  more so than any other age except infancy
• Puberty begins at about age 11 for females 13
  for males
• Rate of growth varies among students, making for
  self-consciousness and anxiety
• Both males and females become clumsy with hands
  and feet that are disproportionate to other body
  parts

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Ages 11-14

• Locker-room phobia is common
• Shift from concrete to formal thinking begins,
  but is not completed until age 15
• Self-definition and integration begins push for
  independence and autonomy at the same time,
  still immature and lack life experiences
• Often contradict themselves want to be unique
  and just like their peers
• Very egocentric

4
Ages 11-14

• Look to peers for support, more vulnerable to
  peers making fun of them, rejecting, etc.
• Often have trouble looking at anothers viewpoint
  because of preoccupation with their own needs
• Ride an emotional roller coaster moody,
  emotional outbursts
• Troublesome emotions anxiety, shame,
  depression, guilt and anger also occur more
  frequently

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Comparing Elementary and Middle School Counseling

• Vernon (1999) case studies
• Muro Kottman (1995) differences

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Program Development

• Who is involved?
• What are the decisions?
• Where do we look?
• What guides our work?
• How do we determine the order of our work?

7
Applications
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Expressive Arts

• Therapeutic Fairy Tales (Erford, 2003)
• Writing fairy tales allows students to project
  themselves into another time dimension, where
  they can positively resolve particular issues or
  conflicts (Gladding, 1997, cited in Erford,
  2003).
• This works well in groups can be used in IC

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Directions for Fairy Tales

• Exercise is completed in 6-10 minutes
• Do the following
• A. set the scene in a place and time far away
  from the here and now
• B. within the setting, describe a problem or
  predicament
• C. solve the difficulty in a positive and
  gratifying manner, even if the solution seems
  unrealistic or bizaare

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Fairy Tales

• After students write stories, ask them to read
  them aloud
• To process what has occurred, the counselor asks
  facilitative questions
• A. In what ways are you like the main character
  in the story? Different?
• B. In what ways does the predicament affect the
  characters? Is the predicament, or the resulting
  emotion, familiar in any way?

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Fairy Tales

• C. How is the solution pleasing? How is it
  implemented? How does it compare with the way you
  typically solve problems
• As students read tales, look for use of symbolic
  and metaphoric language
• Metaphors provide insight into how students view
  the world and understand experiences
• Counselors can continue to use metaphors with the
  child to express empathic understanding

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Career

• Check out the following websites
• www.collegeboard.com
• www.bls.gov/oco/ this is the Occupational
  Outlook Handbook go specifically to the
  following site. Choose an area and bring back
  information to discuss in class
• www.bls.gov/k12/html/edu_over.htm
• www.careerkey.org
• www.pnc.edu/sa/discover/interests.html