Each campus employs a qualified, full-time counsellor. Berengarra School Counsellors are part of the school’s Wellbeing Team and contribute to a school-wide approach to wellbeing for students, families and staff.
The role of the School Counsellor is to work with students and families around issues that are barriers or are impacting on students’ ability to successfully engage in school life. Most students will have access to formal counselling outside of Berengarra School to work around broader issues. If this is not in place, the School Counsellor will support students and families to locate and engage with external counselling if required.
Berrengarra School counsellors draw on a range of evidence-based methodologies to address the needs of students and families. These include, but are not limited to:
Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy- Trauma-informed Practice
- Positive Psychology
- Motivational Interviewing
- Brief-session Counselling
- Solution-focused and strengths-based approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Interventions employed by school counsellors include:
- Crisis intervention
- Brief session counselling
- Formal counselling
- On-the-spot advice and feedback to students, parents/carers and teachers
- Developing and reviewing focus and safety plans for students
- Support to teachers around student wellbeing issues
- Short-term work with parents/carers around issues relating to school attendance/engagement
- Referral to and coordination with external services
- Coordination and/or participation in internal and external meetings
- Involvement or delivery of classes, programs or projects to students around student wellbeing