Question

Describe what types of collaborative efforts and/or consultations that a counselor might engage in over the course of his or her career.

Answer 1

Consultation and collaboration, as well as collaborative teamwork, are closely related processes that give counselors opportunities to engage in cooperative relationships with other adults. All these processes involve two or more persons working together to address a problem, share resources, stimulate change or improvement, and use specialized information to achieve a common goal. In schools, the common goal directly or indirectly involves student success.

This chapter presents different models, stages, and techniques to help counselors serve as productive participants in these processes.

Consultation is the process in which the consultant (counselor) works with the consultee (parent, teacher, administrator) with the goal of bringing about a positive change in the client (child).

Consultation is generally considered a process of helping someone understand problems as part of larger systems. Consultation has the twofold goals of enhancing services and improving functions.

Dougherty suggested that consultant roles may include that of advocate, expert, trainer/educator, collaborator, fact finder, process specialist, or other less common roles. Glosoff and Koporwicz indicated that consultation by counselors who work with children typically involves activities such as delivering professional development workshops and other types of assistance for teachers, program development for children with special needs, parent education, interpretation of student information such as standardized test results, and consultation with other specialists in the school and in the community.

Models of consultation include mental health, process (organizational), and behavioral. Mental health consultation focuses on primary prevention, with the consultant (considered to be an expert) diagnosing a problem and providing a solution while having no responsibility for carrying out the recommended changes. The four ways of approaching the consultation within this model are client-centered case consultation, consultee-centered consultation, program-centered administrative consultation and consultee-centered administrative consultation. Each of those forms of consultation focuses on different ways to address the problem area such as increasing knowledge, developing programs or providing remedial services

Process consultation focuses on the ways problems are solved as well as the system in which the problems occur. The consultant and consultee examine communication patterns, group member roles, group problem solving and decision making, group norms and growth, leadership and authority, and intergroup cooperation and competition. The goals of process consultation include having someone ask for help, having information emerge and building a team for problem-solving.

Behavioral consultation is the application of systems theory and principles of learning to the problem-solving process. The sequence of behavioral consultation is the following: (1) problem identification, (2) problem analysis, (3) selection of a target behavior, (4) behavior objectives, (5) plan design and implementation, and (6) evaluation of the behavior change program.

Interview guidelines for behavioral consultation in a non-crisis situation include establishing general objectives, agreeing on more specific goals, generating and prioritizing performance objectives, deciding on evaluation, and deciding on follow-up meetings. In a crisis or problem-centered interview, guidelines suggest collecting data from several sources in order to identify and define the problem, analyzing the conditions in which the behaviors occur, deciding on intervention and assessment plans, and scheduling future meetings.

Factors that may enhance the cross-cultural consultative relationship are trust, acknowledgement of diversity, avoidance of technical jargon, and consideration for the effects of interpreters. Among the strategies suggested are cross-cultural learning; bridging; matching methods to the consultee’s style; building confidence and self-efficacy; and working to increase knowledge, skill and objectivity. The text includes some questions to ask before making decisions about the consulting process in cross-cultural situations.

Kurpius, Fuqua, and Rozecki as well as Dougherty have suggested stages of the consulting process. The text merges and summarizes their ideas in the following six stages: (1) preentry, (2) entry, problem exploration, and contracting, (3) information gathering, problem confirmation, and goal setting, (4) solution searching and intervention selection, (5) evaluation, and (6) termination.

Myrick’s model of consultation can also serve as a framework for collaborating and teamwork. He suggested the following steps: (1) Carefully discuss and clearly identify the problem; (2) Continue to clarify the situation by determining emotional and value components, behaviors, expectations of others, previous efforts, strengths of people and/or systems, and resources; (3) Determine goals; (4) Gather necessary information; (5) Develop action play and determine responsibilities; and (6) Evaluate, revise, and plan for next steps. Some questions to encourage those discussions are listed.

Techniques that counselors may teach adults to try with children include the following: role shift, listing of behaviors, logical consequences, and isolation techniques. Some of the assessment tools used in consulting intervention are the interview, case histories, behavioral observations, and psychological and educational tests. Explanations of these interventions and assessment instruments are provided in this chapter.

The second section of the chapter deals with collaboration, which is a partnership of two or more equals who share in decision-making responsibilities and work toward a common goal. The components of a collaborative interaction include voluntary participation, equality or parity among all participants, agreed-on mutual goals, shared responsibility, shared resources and shared accountability. The steps for this process are coming together, defining a shared vision, developing a strategic plan, taking action on the plan, and evaluating progress. Bemak called for counselors to collaborate with school personnel, communities, and families. Within the school, counselors can collaborate with administrators to collect and share school performance data, to develop programs for overcoming barriers, to design strategies for school problems, and to emphasize a healthy school climate. They can collaborate with teachers to improve student performance, to understand cultural learning styles, to develop group skills and to develop conflict resolution strategies. With community agencies, collaborators can help with coordination of services and with outreach. With families, counselors as collaborators can enhance the school-home links and strengthen relationships.

Included are Dougherty’s guidelines for determining whether consultation or collaboration should be chosen. Also, three sample activities for advancing collaborative discussions and for building interactive formats are provided.

Collaboration can also take place in specialized groups called teams that have a particular work purpose. Teams share one or more common goals. Effective teams are committed to their constructive cooperation; have goals and identified roles; and are composed of members who are aware of the focus of the team, the responsibilities of the members, and the strategies of goal attainment. It has also been reported that teams are productive when team members trust, rely on and respect each other; have problem-solving, conflict-resolution, and relationship-building skills; feel accountable; and encourage and help every other person’s efforts.

Assessment is a consulting and counseling intervention aimed at attempts to understand children’s developmental and other problems. Counselors use a variety of tools such as self-report surveys, interviews, tests, case histories and behavioral observations in assessment.

One common interview is the Mental Status Examination (MSE), an inventory of the person’s behavior that includes general appearance, speech and thought characteristics, emotional status, thought content, orientation and awareness, memory, general intellectual functioning and insight. Formal assessment instruments include intelligence tests, projective techniques, achievement tests, aptitude tests and other scales and surveys.