Individual and Group Counseling

Thank you for choosing Centerville ~Abington Community Schools for your child’s educational training and development. School social work is one part of the team that is here to help your child succeed.

School Social Work focuses on

1. Prevention
2. Assessment
3. Referral
4. Intervention

Prevention

Our school counseling website provides education and supports to parents and students on academics, behaviors, and helpful tips throughout a child’s life span. The bullying education and prevention effort is one example of school- wide prevention efforts.

Assessment

Through direct observation, parent, teacher and student reports as well as data analysis, we gather information for assessment purposes. Biological, social history, and current life events help in this endeavor.

Referral

Internal or external referrals to agencies such as Community In Schools, or outside agencies such as a local food pantry, or to a resource that may become the primary provider of mental health or social service needs for the student and family. You can call 211 to obtain information on local social services available.

Intervention

Intervention is determined by the assessment process and can include services in response to a crisis when immediate action is required or in response to a referral for a one time brief consultation. Sometimes ongoing services are warranted and permission is obtained by the parent or legal guardian. It can include individual or group counseling.

Individual Counseling

Topics students might see a school counselor for are: academic struggles, difficulty getting along with peers, family changes, death of a loved one, anxiety, depression, or family substance abuse issues.

School issues?

Home issues?

Personal issues?

There are also community mental health agencies available for mental health needs that can serve you and your family. A listing can be viewed at Waynet under their Social Services’ tab.

Social workers and/or counselors often meet with students who are having an upsetting event in their lives. Although the topics are quite diverse what remains consistent is the student’s confidentiality. After obtaining parent permission, what is said in counseling remains there, unless a student is threatening to hurt themselves, another person, or is reporting abuse or neglect, then the safety of the student takes top priority. If there are academic concerns then the counselor would be checking grades and checking with teachers as part of the child’s treatment team. If there are home concerns, then the parent is part of the treatment team and we would want to share progress and updates with the parent. Generally the student will be seen once a week for individual counseling using evidenced based treatment approaches.

Group counseling

Often the best way to reach students who are struggling with a particular issue is through a group intervention.

Group counseling is short-term counseling on a topic that is relevant for all members of the group, such as kindergarten students in a social skills group that takes place once a week for 25 minutes.