Theoretical Orientation Paper

Developing a Theoretical Orientation to School Counseling

Identify your own theoretical orientation toward school counseling, integrating or selecting from the theories and applications presented in this course. You may also integrate additional theories with which you are familiar, but you must support your main ideas with information gleaned from scholarly literature and address their relevance to the practice of school counseling.

The purpose of this Project is to demonstrate your ability to understand, integrate, and apply theories of counseling in your school counseling specialization based on the knowledge you have gained in this course. This project is intended to be beneficial for your professional development by having you actively think about how your personal attributes, skills, emotions, and knowledge influence and shape your selection and application of theory in school-based settings.

The Assignment:

In a 5- to 7-page (not including references), double-spaced, APA-formatted paper, summarize the theory or theories you intend to integrate into your work as a school counselor. Structure your Assignment to the following key questions or areas and connect your responses to theoretical foundations, while offering scholarly support for your ideas. In addition to the course materials, you must include at least five scholarly sources.

• Explain your theoretical orientation and how your chosen theory(ies) addresses the role of the school counselor, which includes promoting students’ academic, career, and personal/social development.
• Addressing Adlerian as my primary and Reality and Choice Theory as my integrations.
• Describe the nature of the school counselor-student relationship and its relative importance, both according to your view and the perspective of your chosen theory(ies).
• Describe the key goals, according to your chosen theory(ies), of the school counseling process. (In other words, how will students be different, as a result?)
• Describe developmentally appropriate techniques and procedures of your approach and their application to school-based settings.
• Identify key factors that promote and enhance student success, both according to your own views and the perspective of your chosen theory(ies). (Explain what key factors facilitate positive change).
• Describe specific student populations, presenting issues, or developmental concerns best suited and least for this approach.