Improving Counseling Communication Competencies of Guidance and Counseling Teachers in Creating Safe and Child-Friendly Schools

Improving the quality of Guidance and Counseling (BK) services is a strategic pillar in realizing safe and child-friendly schools (SRA). However, the communication style of school counselors in the field is often directive and reactive, reinforcing the stigma of counselors as "school police." This Community Service (PKM) program aims to improve and refresh (recall and refresh) junior high school counselors' counseling communication competencies (micro-counseling) in Bekasi City, Indonesia. Using a participatory action research (PAR) design and an experiential learning approach, the program organized structured training, small-group mentoring, role-play practices guided by a practical pocketbook, case studies through bullying video media, and student case consultations. A quantitative evaluation was conducted on 12 school counselors who completed the full pre-test and post-test series. The evaluation showed an increase in the average competency score from 62.50 to 68.75, with 58.3% of participants increasing their individual scores. Although the Wilcoxon test showed the increase was not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (Z = -1.622, p = 0.105) because the activity primarily refreshed existing skills, the program succeeded in transforming counselors' paradigms qualitatively and practically. The participants were able to apply the 9 flows of empathic counseling skills and handle real cases of students threatened with expulsion through an approach based on children's rights and best interests. The results imply that short-term micro-counseling training requires continuous clinical supervision to deeply internalize empathic communication, which ultimately fosters a psychologically safe space and increases students' self-referral to counseling services.