International School Counseling (as well as School Counseling in general!) definitely has it's challenges and I have discovered quite a few already. Below, I have listed some of the challenges I have experienced. Have a suggestion or an AWESOME resource that may help? Please share it with me!
1. Language Barrier: With the exception of one student (out of almost 300), ALL of my students have a different first language that they use at home. This can not only be challenging within the classroom (thankfully I work with awesome teachers and ESL support), but also in the counseling aspect as well. With respect to confidentiality, I work one-on-one with many of my students. This can be a recipe for a challenging counseling relationship:
Take one counselor who knows very little Vietnamese + One student with limited English-vocabulary = ???
But I have been trying to use as many visuals as possible, lots of sand tray activities, play therapy interventions, and art therapy interventions. I know, I know, we are not "therapists"...but the interventions have been very helpful in facilitating conversations. A lot of times, misinterpretations have been my worst enemy...on my part. I had one student tell me their sister was in the hospital...only to find out they were in the nurses office in school...hmmm....
2. Cultural Barrier: I have found the culture of my students is vastly different from my own culture. There are a lot of things that are acceptable with my students and with my student's families that are not acceptable within my own culture. For example, discipline is very different within the majority of my students' families. Slapping, pushing, hitting, and lashing is very common within my students' families. There are no DFACS or CPS here (which I will address in my next bullet point). Young children at the school are given a lot of freedom and are very pampered (we have nannies who will clean-up after them, comb their hair, tie their shoes, etc.); this also tends to be the case in many of the children's homes. It appears that once students reach about 3rd grade, their parent's expectations change and they face extreme discipline at home.
3. Limited Resources: Like I mentioned before, no DFACS or CPS. The local authorities rarely step in, unless it is life-threatening. Also, if I want to contact a parent who doesn't speak English, I have to get a translator and then my confidentiality can be compromised. It is difficult to get counseling books shipped here as well. Thankfully, I have been using Teachers Pay Teachers a lot and some of the awesome school counseling blogs out there.
What have been/ were some of your greatest challenges as a new counselor?
What helped you overcome them?
No comments:
Post a Comment