Written by: Janesse Leung
You may have seen the “Guidance Counsellor” as a role in Hollywood movies and wondered about the role of guidance and counselling in our society today. What are the roles of guidance and counselling in the life of a teen or adult? What are the functions of guidance and counselling services?
The general importance of guidance and counselling, or guidance counselling is that both terms describe services that promote personal, social, educational, and career development. Organizations or institutions sometimes provide guidance and counselling as part of its service or mission but their purpose includes helping the individual’s broader development beyond the gates of the institution. In this way guidance and counselling can be an important resource during school, training, or at any time you want help in developing life and career directions.
What Can Guidance Help You With?
- Solve problems and find a path that suits your abilities and hopes
- Find the right instructors, resources, courses and activities for your needs within a school or training program
- Successfully adjust to school and work, preventing issues that might otherwise arise
- Plan for school or work
What Can Counselling Help You With?
- Address current difficulties that affect education and development
- Explore deeper emotional responses as well as intellectual choices
- Address issues that interfere with school and work
- Prepare for school or work
How Do Guidance and Counselling Work?
Guidance and counselling providers use psychology to determine the attitude, interest, intelligence, personality and abilities of the person. They understand about aspects of the institution that might benefit the person at the moment. Counsellors will consider the all-around development of the person and work with that individual at desirable adjustments in any particular area of experience. Guidance providers have up-to-date knowledge of employment, internship, and future study possibilities and will be able to support the student in exploring his or her own options.
Guidance and counselling can be a continuous process starting in childhood and continuing through adolescence and older age. The providers might change over time however, at every age people can use help to adjust to the present and planning for the future.
Good guidance services can help with your process of development rather than pushing you in a direction of development. Every individual’s guidance process should be different and based on his or her own changing needs and dreams.
Do I Need Guidance and Counselling?
Guidance and counselling should help you find worthwhile and attainable goals and match your daily activities to those goals. If this sounds like an area in which you could use help you might benefit from guidance or counselling.
An important fact to keep in mind is that people of all ages struggle within tough social, economic and politic conditions. In many cases a person’s skills, experience, and ambitions don’t match his or her prospects. Good guidance can help people face complicated and challenging realities.
Here are some other specific scenarios in which guidance might help you succeed:
- Your ambitions are threatened by your lifestyle, such as substance use
- You are unsure about how to choose education or training options
- It is unclear what kind of career would match your interests
- You worry that you won’t succeed in your chosen career
- You anticipate a challenge or problem in your chosen field
- You’re in a period of turmoil and confusion that may affect school or work
- Time management is difficult in or outside class time
- You feel you lack self-discipline
- You would like to prepare to be self-employed
If you are struggling or unclear of what to do next, guidance can be a great resource. Guidance might take hard work on your part. It will challenge you to make tough choices and changes, but it should also leave you with a sense of confidence and hope.
What Should I Look for From Guidance?
In preparation for guidance be ready to lay out your tough decisions. You may want to jot down notes—perhaps make a list of things you’re certain about, things you’re wondering about, and things you don’t know.
The provider uses tools to get to know you—through evaluations or they may ask you to do tests or quizzes and answer questions. Try to give as clear a picture as possible of your positives and negatives remembering everyone has both. If you find some things extremely difficult, such as sitting still for long periods of time, waking up early, or controlling anger, this can be an opportunity to problem-solve and get help.
Guidance providers can give you an outside perspective, helping you find ways to do things that you see as difficult, or make a plan to meet your objectives. Counselling can help you deal with difficult issues, spot and resolve obstacles that stand in the way of your dreams before you run into them. The right guidance and counselling can help you face realities, overcome difficulties and find your way to a worthwhile future.
Edited by: Mayte Parada, PhD Psychology. Montreal Therapy Centre.