Comparing Supporting Literature
Section 1: Comparing Supporting Literature
Children who get first-hand encounter with school shooting either as victims of witnesses undergo a serious trauma. The psychological distress that they experience might interfere with their life both on the short and long-term basis. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the therapists to offer high-quality counseling services that can meet their individual needs. To do so, the therapists must adopt some of the best strategies that can enable them to accomplish this. Since the delivery of counseling services is not a simple task, the therapists should ensure that they make right choices when facilitating the learners (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2013). When developing a work plan, a therapist should ensure that he or she adopts the most suitable facilitation style that can yield optimal results. The choices should come from the following facilitation styles: exploratory, delegating, participative, interpretive, sharing, and participative styles. Each of these styles can be effectively if properly utilized when counseling the children who require a psychological support as a result of their encounter with school shooting.
Given the nature of the people to be counseled, it can be a wise idea if the therapists choose to use exploratory and participatory styles because they are the most suitable alternatives for the school-going children whose behaviors need to be transformed. According to exploratory style, the therapy should be provided in an environment that encourages contribution and participation. This simply means that counseling services should be provided in an environment where each and everyone has an equal opportunity t of making their contribution because they have a role to play in enhancing the process. Hence, what the counselor should do is to allow the learners to ask questions and respond to the questions asked to them (Clark, 2014). The advantage of this style is that it gives the children a chance to ask for as many questions as they can. The freedom to ask question makes the process quite exploratory because everyone gets to explore and know much about the existing behavior and how to overcome it by adopting more acceptable ones.
Participatory style is also suitable for usage when serving the learners because it is applicable for the context in which the therapy should be provided. According to this style, the therapy process should be participatory. Meaning, each of the clients should be given an opportunity to participate in the process because they have got some contributions to make towards its success. An effective participatory therapy hence, requires that the learners should be allowed to chip in and give accounts of the experiences that they had and let others know about it. The advantage of this style is that it gives everyone a chance to take part in the therapy process. Meaning, the therapist does not have to unnecessarily dominate the process by having an absolute say and powers to dictate everything that takes place (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2013). It is good for the learners who are not mature enough and can still learn to change their behaviors by getting to learn from what others have done. When the learners participate, they cannot find it challenging to change their behaviors and get rid of the psychological distresses they undergo because they can be motivated by their peers who readily share what they have learnt. In this regard, it is advisable to apply these styles because they can be instrumental in providing an effective facilitation to the school-going children who have come face-to-face with mass shooting.
Exploratory and Participatory Styles: Best Facilitation Styles for School Children
Section 2: Theory and Group Leadership
Counseling therapy is one of the best strategies to use in addressing the needs of the children who have undergone a first-and experience of mass shootings. All the trauma and emotional distresses can be managed if appropriate and effective counseling services are rendered. Although most students and children, who are a witness to school shooting incidents, are resilient and bounce back after these difficult incidents, the events are found to interrupt their sense of safety and order. The intensity of the incidents often overwhelms the children. There are a range of interventions that the counselors that offer or employ, with the aim of creating a positive and safe school environment. This will directly reduce the suffering of the students who have been a witness (Bondü et al., 2013). Evidences have established the importance of addressing the coping skills of the children, which in turn teaches them to struggle with the trauma and suggests proactive ways to cope with the thoughts, emotions and feelings. Witnessing incidents that involve school shootings often lead to psychological, emotional and physical problems (Elklit & Kurdahl, 2013). Leadership approaches also focus on forming effective partnership with the parents of these children, to help them cope with the trauma (Flannery, Modzeleski & Kretschmar, 2013).
There are different types of approaches that can be adopted when counseling the children. These include the behavioral theory, psychodynamic theory, humanistic theory, and cognitive theory. Each of these approaches is important and can be effective in addressing the needs of the children if appropriately implemented. For example, the counselors can adopt a humanistic approach to provide assistance to the students to achieve their highest potential. Furthermore, this approach has shown benefits in self-growth of the individual and helps the children to embark on a path of self-actualization (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018). On the other hand, psychodynamic theory can be applied to explain how childhood experiences influence a person’s character as they grow up to maturity. Of all these theories, behavioral approach appears to be the most appropriate alternative for the school-going children who experience gun shooting because if it used well, it can help in managing the psychological trauma experienced.
According to behavioral theory, a person’s behavior represents that that of the immediate surroundings in which they live. Meaning, an individual becomes a product on the environment in which they live. The theory can be applicable in the children because it can shed more light on the impacts of mass shooting on their psychological growth as well as the changes that they are expected to undergo after the therapy process. The counselors utilize behavioral theory based on the belief that each kind of behavior is learned. This acts as a significant platform to understand the impact of these shootings on emotional and cognitive factors (Turunen et al., 2014). These major effects include creating conducting mental health screenings, utilizing threat assessments, and partnering with the mental health agencies. Young witnesses to school shootings often find it difficult to balance their intellectual and emotional maturation. Researchers have provided evidences for the fact that appropriate counseling therapies that are able to provide reassurance and satisfactory answers to the children regarding their doubts on their safety, and the effect of such events on their daily life, are most effective (Dumitriu, 2013). The theory can be helpful in two ways.
Theory and Group Leadership
These children are also benefitted by trauma-informed care services that work with the aim of recognizing the widespread impact of the trauma that the children have been subjected to (Cornett & Bratton, 2014). These services seek to actively present or eliminate re-dramatization by facilitating the service providers and the parents to respond and recognize the needs of the children. Children, having witnessed school shootings often display poor social skills, academic struggle, and heightened aggression and engage in risky behavior in the long run (Van der Kolk, 2017). Establishing effective interaction with these children helps them to cope with the triggers, by providing support on the emotional regulation skills and modifying their behavior. Transformational leadership is commonly exhibited by the teachers and the counselors, who demonstrate adequate leadership skills to idealize their influence, stimulate the intellect and inspire or motivate the children to cope with the traumatic event. This sets high standards for emulation. The inspirational motivation also provides the children with a clear vision for their goals and objectives (Keung & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2013). Individual consideration of the preferences and wants of each child provides appropriate growth opportunities. Thus, it can be deduced from most research studies that effective counseling strategies, which when applied to help the children brings about their moral maturity and also helps in moral uplifting (Bardeen, Kumpula & Orcutt, 2013).
Section 3: Multicultural and Ethical Issues
The delivery of counseling services is influenced by a number of factors. Some of the most significant factors to consider when delivering counseling services include ethical and legal factors. Counseling is an activity that is guided by certain ethical standards that must be adhered to whenever attending to clients. Hence, when attending to the school-going children who have encountered shooting, the therapists must comply with certain ethical principles that pertain to counseling. These include the principles of confidentiality, voluntary participation, and safety (Welfel, 2015). According to the standards of the ACA Code of Ethics, maintaining welfare of the clients is the primary responsibility of the counselors. The primary responsibility is to respect the dignity of the clients (A.1.a). Failures to adhere to the standard A.1.b can prevent maintain appropriate documentation of the patients, thereby giving rise to ethical issues (American Counseling Association, 2014). The counselors are responsible to take adequate steps that will help them ensure appropriate documentation. Owing to their young age, the children are unable to provide informed consent, before participating in the therapy sessions or counseling practices. Furthermore, legal issues can also crop up if the confidentiality of the clients are not maintained (A.2.e). Further issues pertain to screening prospective participants, whose goals and needs are compatible with that of the group (A.9.a). A breach of the codes of ethics that illustrate the need for respecting the rights of the clients and their family might also lead to severe legal consequences (B.1) (ACA, 2014).
Different Types of Approaches for Counseling School-Going Children
The other factor that must be put into account when attending to the school-going children is culture. The need for multicultural counseling refers to the ability of all professionals to approach the counseling session, through a context of the children’s perspectives and opinions. With the aim of providing appropriate services that will help the students cope-up with the mass shootings that occur in their school, there is a need to address bigotry that reflects the hate that is pervasive in the present society (Marsella & Pedersen, 2013). The counselors and therapists should be aware of their own cultural bias and values, thereby recognizing their limits of practice (Dutton, White & Fogarty, 2013). The cultural and racial heritage should be recognized, in addition to the effects of racism, discrimination and racism against the witnesses (Sandberg et al., 2014). An awareness of the worldview of the children will also influence the coping skills. Emotional reactions to the specific ethnic groups or races play an important role in familiarizing with culturally appropriate responses. Hence, it is essential for the school counselors to recognize the child’s culture and race, which might affect the coping strategies. Furthermore, the religious views and of a child might also affect the way by which mass shooting incidents affect them emotionally (Ratts et al., 2016). Hence, cultural competence must be demonstrated by the counselors to recognize the appropriate approach that might create an impact on the children. Hence, there is a need to engage in effective conversation with the children in a way that transcends nationality, race and eliminates prejudice.
Section 4: Action Plan for Group Activities and Interventions
The exposure to mass shooting by the school-going children ends up affecting them psychologically. Since such children should not be left to wallow in psychological trauma, they must be provided with the necessary therapy that can help in improving their health. To achieve this, a counselor should come up with a good action plan in which they should seek to adopt the following strategies.
First and foremost, the counselor should embrace the use of behavioral theory when counseling the children. It can be a good strategy for the school-going children because it can help them in different ways. First, it enables the therapist to understand the behavior changes in the child as a result of the exposure to gun shooting (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). Secondly, the theory can helping coming up with a strategy to introduce the behavioral changes that needs to be adopted by the child in order to overcome the distress and improve the psychological well-being of such children. The therapies and leadership approaches focus on creating a safe and comfortable environment where efforts are taken to help the children know that such incidents are incredibly rare (Orcutt et al., 2014). Family cohesion also forms an essential part of the approaches, where the operational links and relationships between family members help the children to cope with their trauma. However, to accomplish all these, the therapist should dedicate his or her time to serve the children well so as to provide them with the right quality of therapy that can leave a positive mark in their lives.
Multicultural and Ethical Issues in Counseling School-Going Children
The therapists should also, in their action plan, make a proper choice of the facilitation style to use. Given that the therapy is to be provided to the children, it should be upon the therapist to ensure that they apply the use exploratory and participatory styles of facilitation. These are the most appropriate facilitation styles because they create room for an interactive, reflective, and challenging therapy that makes it easier for the children to share their experiences and learn how to improve their psychological well-being (Clark, 2014).
Conclusion:
Exposure to mass shooting can leaves a negative impact on the school-going children. Witnessing or becoming a victim of such heinous acts might cause trauma and depressive experiences to them and can end up affecting their behavior. Furthermore, this violence also results in impairment in the educational experiences of the children and also led to poor mental development. Such children should not be left to wallow in depression, but deserve to be given an appropriate counseling therapy that befits them. The primary group leadership approaches are focused on providing assistance to the children to recognize their stressors. The leadership approaches also focus on helping the children to learn possible ways by which they can cope with the stressors. Thus, the major counseling approaches are beneficial in preventing the children to respond or react in volatile ways towards school shooting incidents. Working within the scope of practice of the ethical standards, and recognizing the religious and ethnic beliefs of the children that might play an impact in modifying their beliefs, is integral.
For a long time now, gun control has remained one of the most contentious issues in the USA. The regulation of the possession, sale, buying, and usage of guns has always elicited a hot debate because guns have been, on several occasions misused by engaging in homicides. Over the years, there are people who have been using the guns to indiscriminately shoot innocent Americans in the stadia, streets, churches, and even schools. School shooting has become an issue of concern because there are many people who have been using their guns to shoot the innocent learners, teachers, school workers, and members of the public. School shooting is disastrous because it negatively impact on the society in many ways. Apart from causing deaths, school shootings can negatively impact on the psychological development of the children because it causes trauma and distress.
Children are vulnerable members of society who require close attention given to them on daily basis. If a child suffers trauma or is bereaved they require someone to talk to them in order to help them avoid mental disorders associated with the kind of experience (Feldman & Reiff, 2014). This shows that the children who become victims of school shooting or witness it must be supported by providing them with counseling services. That is the best way through which they can be equipped with the skills they require to cope-up with or manage the trauma that they undergo in the hands of the merciless gun-wielding individuals. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to illustrate the group leadership and counseling approaches that have been adopted for such young witnesses, to help them recover from the trauma. It will also elaborate on the associated legal and ethical issues and will further explain the influence of cultural factors in this context.
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