Saint Mary Magdalen maintains a guidance office with two full-time counselors who provide emotional support to every student enrolled at school. The counseling program is meant to help all students become the best version of themselves primarily through classroom guidance, group sessions, and individual counseling. The school counseling program is aligned with the American School Counseling Association standards and focuses on Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL teaches students how to identify feelings, solve problems, show empathy, navigate relationships, and improve their emotional health. SEL focuses on the whole student and research shows that individuals with SEL skills have been shown to have more success personally, socially, academically, and in future careers.
Classroom guidance is taught in the classroom by our licensed and certified school counselor consistently throughout the school year. These lessons cover a wide range of topics such as: problem solving, bullying, goal setting, understanding feelings, friendships, as well as topical issues related to emotional health.
Small group guidance is offered for groups of 6-8 students who meet with our school counselor and discuss a topic they all have in common. Small group topics can really be anything but some more common ones are: anger management, perception management, navigating family issues, and new student transitions, among others.
Individual guidance occurs in the guidance office directly with our school counselor. Personal counseling is available to each student and the topics that are covered are anything and everything. During this time, all information is kept confidential unless a student wants to hurt themselves, hurt others, they feel threatened, or they know of someone else being harmed. The school counselor works closely with families and school stakeholders to help resolve any student concerns and works to help process the emotions a student may be feeling.