Parental expectations of school counsellors and their role in supporting student mental health and wellbeing: A qualitative study

By working in partnership with parents, school counsellors can assist in the early identification of mental health and wellbeing issues and facilitate timely access to professional support. However, very little is known about parents’ understanding of the role of school counsellors and the barriers and enablers influencing the relationship between parents and school counsellors. Therefore, this qualitative study employed one-on-one interviews of 10 parents and employed a reflexive thematic analysis approach. Results revealed that parents expect school counsellors to provide a safe and supportive environment for students. Parents believe the school counsellor should be offering curriculum and behaviour support to teachers, individual and group work to students, and career counselling. In terms of the barriers and enablers influencing collaboration between school counsellors and parents, participants overwhelmingly felt that the role was hidden away and ill-defined. Advertising services more and getting the counsellor out into the school community at times suitable to working parents were seen as important considerations. Parents value the role of school counsellors. Future research on parental attitudes towards school counsellors could gain insights by diversifying participant profiles, including various genders, socio-economic backgrounds and occupations, to capture a wider range of perspectives.