Professional Disclosure Statement

School guidance counselors employed by Carroll County Public Schools must have, at a minimum, a Masters' Degree in school guidance and counseling and be certified as a school guidance counselor by the Maryland State Department of Education. Counselors provide individual and small group counseling as well as individual, small group and classroom guidance activities. They also conduct assessment activities; consult with parents, teachers and others as needed; provide an information management service to the school, provide referrals, and manage programs and services to benefit students.

All counselors have been trained in at least nine different counseling approaches. During counselors' training, they are given the opportunity to practice each of the individual theories and the specific techniques of each theory during role play activities in the classroom setting. Counselors further develop their skills in counseling through practicum courses and internships where they work with actual clients in a supervised setting.

A survey during the 1996-97 school year identified the counseling techniques most frequently used by counselors in Carroll County Public Schools. These techniques are acceptance; clarification; reflection of feeling; open-ended questions/statements; summarizing; use of empathy, support, warmth, collaboration; stress of client strengths and responsibility through confrontation; task setting; acceptance of client uniqueness; logical reasoning; homework assignments; focusing; evaluating; helping the student make a plan and commit to it; not giving up on the student; role playing; using humor; role modeling; setting limits; and feedback.

There are several techniques that Carroll County Public Schools has determined to be inappropriate for use with students in the school setting. They are hypnosis, psychoanalytic interpretations, interpretive dream work, free association, and techniques that are designed to access the unconscious mind.

Information about individual counselors, including their training and their theoretical orientation, may be included in school prepared materials for distribution by print and/or electronic means