This week is officially National School Counseling Week. For those of you who don’t know, it is a week of national recognition of counselors who work in schools, and it highlights the importance of the student-counselor relationship. WA celebrated this week with daily tips on WA Live about self-care, stress relief and mindfulness in addition to various events around campus. On Tuesday, they held an event called “selfie love” in order to emphasize the importance of self love and forgiveness.
Counselor Tonya Dedeaux provided more insight into this week. She believes the week’s focus is about ensuring students are a top priority.
“The most important part of this week is to keep the focus on the students, so it’s less about necessarily highlighting the counselor,” Dedeaux said. “As a school counselor, my first priority is always the student that I’m working with, and this is a celebration of that relationship.”
Dedeaux stresses the importance of making sure students have a support system in their life.
“We [counselors] are their cheerleaders and their tour guides through life,” Dedeaux said. “We are the people who kind of hold students’ hands when they need their hands held, or help them refocus their goals when obstacles get in their way. Our role really is a supporter of the student in whatever aspect of life that they’re going through at that time.”
She thinks it’s important that every student has a safe space that they can feel free to come to whenever they need to.
“It’s always good to have somebody,” Dedeaux said. “A counselor can be that somebody we are impartial [because] we’re not necessarily in their live. We’re not going to make judgments about things that they say. We’re just a person that they can utilize as an asset in the times that they need to.”
Dedeaux provides advice for students about preserving through difficult times and adds that counselors are always there if students need someone to talk to.
“You have strength, you have tenacity, you have resilience,” Dedeaux said. “You’re able to do anything that is put in front of you. All you have to do is focus on that goal and you can achieve it and then use your support system as you go. School counselors are one of those people who can be utilized for that purpose.”
