The W&M Blog

Each day, school counselors work with teachers and administrators to help students and their families navigate diverse challenges that affect students’ abilities to learn, develop and thrive—from academics and socialization to food insecurity, language barriers and mental health struggles.

A career path as a school counselor will be rich in its challenges and fulfilling in its rewards.

In addition to the experience and expertise you'll gain, online guidance counseling programs provide flexibility and convenience: You can study from anywhere, while keeping your current job, without being limited by geographic location.

Why is student mental health the concern of school counselors? A mental illness is a condition that impacts a young person’s thinking, emotions, and mood such that it interferes with his or her daily functioning at home and school.

Several factors can affect the total compensation for a school counselor. The salary number isn’t always the biggest consideration.

Decades of research supports a strong correlation between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Career counselors facilitate this happiness by helping people find their dream jobs through assessments, evaluations and personalized advice.

Exploring non-traditional career options can help you find the right fit for your skill set and discover new passions.

As the need for mental health help continues to grow, so does the demand for counseling professionals in varied settings. Explore several opportunities and challenges that could be part of your future as a counselor.

School counselors play a vital role in the development of children and teenagers. These professionals help students navigate academic, emotional and social challenges.

Two students in William & Mary’s Online M.Ed. in Counseling program have been selected by the Tillman Foundation as 2022 Tillman Scholars. The prestigious scholarship, founded by the family of Pat Tillman, annually recognizes military service members, veterans and spouses who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to service, scholarship, humble leadership and impact.

Social workers and counselors share many similarities and make some of the most valuable contributions to society. Professionals in both lines of work help people who need the knowledge and compassion of trained mental health practitioners to improve their lives.

“School counselors play an essential role in creating an equitable, inclusive school culture, promoting success for all.” If you’re a teacher considering making a move out of the classroom and into the counselor’s office, you’re not alone.

Two students in William & Mary’s Online M.Ed. in Counseling program have been selected by the Tillman Foundation as 2022 Tillman Scholars. The prestigious scholarship, founded by the family of Pat Tillman, annually recognizes military service members, veterans and spouses who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to service, scholarship, humble leadership and impact.

Curriculum decisions have far-reaching consequences for students and teachers in K-12 schools. The decisions made in public schools are often hotly debated. The triggers for controversy include societal issues and agendas, the goals and effectiveness of the education, and funding. These debates underscore the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning.

What are the symptoms of PTSD in veterans and what treatments are available to help them cope? Explore the treatment options for veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

Navigate the educational landscape and unlock the secrets to successful teaching with our blog on lesson planning for student success. Explore its significance to teachers and understand why a lesson plan is important in teaching.

Explore the types of veterans assistance available to veterans suffering from PTSD, and learn more about how counselors can specialize in working with active military and veterans to make a positive difference to this population.

Drafting a personal statement for graduate school can be a challenging prospect for even the most confident writers. To make this process less daunting, let’s break it down into actionable steps that will help you shine.

Explore special education master’s degree specializations. There are several areas of special education master’s specializations that drill down to meet the needs of specific populations.

Becoming a counselor for active military and veterans comes with special considerations. Let’s explore in greater depth how trauma counselors can work to the benefit of veterans. A trauma counselor works with clients who have been through a traumatic event in their lives and helps them find healthy ways to cope.

Professionals working in curriculum design must receive additional training and education beyond what is needed to be a classroom teacher, meaning they must already have, or must gain and sharpen, specific skills to achieve success.

Whether you are a curriculum specialist, teacher in the classroom or an educator at a non-traditional institution, it’s important to know the eight most common types of curriculum and how they interact with one another.

For many, earning a master’s degree is a great way to increase their earning potential, or a graduate program is their way to get ahead in their careers and move into a supervisory position or one with more and better responsibilities. For those interested in curriculum and instruction jobs, however, earning another degree or certificate has a much bigger impact and not just on their careers.

As our world experiences a global crisis, counselors continue to provide care to the general population. Currently, our communities are experiencing a collective trauma related to COVID-19. To hel...

There are plenty of factors to consider before taking the next step and earning your Master’s in Counseling. One of them might be financial, but that shouldn’t be what prevents you from advancing in your career and developing the skills to be a culturally competent counselor.

In counseling, the relational depth between you and your client is of the utmost importance. Developing a strong and trusting relationship formed with evidence-based practices matters greatly, because the better the relationship, the greater the likelihood that your client will experience positive results.

If you’re just beginning to explore grad school application deadlines, you may be surprised to learn that the academic calendar at the graduate level may not be quite as rigid as you remember it from your undergraduate years.

As anyone who has spent any time at all working as a counselor can tell you, the skill set, competencies and demeanor necessary to succeed in the field cannot be learned in a classroom alone. All counselors—clinical mental health counselors, military and veterans counseling specialists, school counselors, or any other type—benefit immensely from hands-on, practical experience working face to face with clients.

Nearly all graduate schools and programs you might apply to have at least one thing in common: They will want to hear about you from those who know you best. Requesting letters of recommendation for graduate school is a rite of passage for nearly everyone who is interested in pursuing an advanced degree, and they can be one of the most powerful assets among your application materials.

Self-disclosure refers generally to a counselor’s sharing of personal information to clients during or outside the counseling session. Types of counselor self-disclosure can range from the sharing of information about the counselor’s personal life and experiences to the sharing of his or her personal opinions about particular issues and events.

Thoughtful and impactful counselors understand that it is critically important to develop a bond of trust and respect with their clients. It is this bond that frees clients to feel as though they can be open and vulnerable without fearing judgment or a betrayal of confidence.

Like many professionals, school counselors benefit from an environment in which they can communicate and collaborate regularly with their peers. But if you work in a small school or a sparsely populated school district, you may find yourself on your own, lacking the kind of robust community that can offer much-needed mutual support.

Are you in search of professional counseling organizations, or questioning if you should even join one at all? Consider this: When English poet John Donne first coined the well-known phrase "No man is an island," he was expressing the idea that people need to be a part of a community in order to thrive

If you want to learn how to help veterans, active-duty service members and military families address the harrowing mental health issues that can arise from military service, consider pursuing a career in military and veterans counseling. Military and veterans counselors provide crucial support and coping tools to a population that arguably needs mental health care more than any other in the U.S.

The decision to attend graduate school, whether for to become a licensed professional counselor or any other advanced degree, can be both exhilarating and daunting. But if you have ambition, a financial plan, discipline and a passion for bettering the lives of others, a master’s in professional counseling can open the door to your dream career.

By Charles "Rip" McAdams, Ed.D. Professor and Chair, School Psychology and Counselor Education William & Mary

Explore Master’s in Counseling Salary and Job Growth Statistics If you are considering becoming a counselor, you have a number decisions ahead of you, among them: What program will you choose? Which specialty will you pursue? What type of workplace environment do you prefer?

By Charles “Rip” McAdams, Ed.D. Professor and Chair, School Psychology and Counselor Education William & Mary

Choosing the right type of counseling degree is crucial to ensuring you provide skillful care to future clients and find professional and personal fulfillment. No pressure, right?

If you are interested in becoming a professional counselor, you have probably heard the acronym "CACREP" or the phrase "CACREP accreditation." So what is CACREP, and how does CACREP accreditation benefit counseling students?

Williamsburg, Va. - (May 31, 2019) The William & Mary School of Education is proud to announce a new Military and Veterans Counseling specialization within its CACREP-accredited Online Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Counseling program. This specialization aligns with William & Mary’s rich history of supporting our military and veterans, and it responds to an urgent need—in Virginia and across the nation—to provide high-quality mental health services to this population.

By Laura Pignato Laura Pignato, MS, is a third-year doctoral student (PhD in Counselor Education & Supervision) at William & Mary. Why is social justice important in counseling?

Succeeding in an online counseling program means you'll most likely be earning a CACREP-accredited master’s degree. If you are a working professional or an individual who requires a certain amount of flexibility in your graduate coursework, an online counseling degree can help you pursue your passion without putting your life on hold.

School counseling arose as a discipline in response to the Industrial Revolution more than 100 years ago. The history of school counseling can be traced across the development of several counseling models, as educators and politicians have debated the exact nature and purpose of the school counseling profession, refining a vision of how to best help children develop personally and professionally throughout their school years.

The realities of on-the-job stressors are present in almost every occupation, which means the signs of job burnout are equally present. They can have a significant impact on how well mental health professionals are able to do their jobs. However, for health care professionals, on-the-job performance is directly related to health outcomes for their patients, and diminished or impaired performance is a considerable liability.

If you are pursuing a graduate course of study in counseling, you may have your sights set on increasing your knowledge of practical theory, such as theoretical orientation. Understanding the theories themselves is vital, but understanding and developing your personal theoretical orientation in counseling is just as, if not more, important.

Rip McAdams, Ed.D., faculty member and chair of the Department of School Psychology and Counselor Education at William & Mary, shares why he became a counselor. From his beginnings as a hopeful marine biologist to his Naval career to how he developed counseling skills over long hours working at a wilderness therapy program, you can read his story below.

During the past decade, some important achievements have been made that greatly benefit the work of clinical mental health counselors. These include the establishment of counseling licensure in all 50 states; the approval of mental health counselors for employment by the Veterans Administration; the acceptance of mental health counselors for reimbursement by TRICARE, the insurance provider for the U.S. Military; the expanded recognition of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) as the gold standard for counselor training for licensure; increased use of technology in counselor training and practice; and the introduction of a national “portability” model for recognizing counselor licensure between different states across the country.

The Locke-Paisley Outstanding Mentoring Award was given to Patrick Mullen, assistant professor of counselor education in the William & Mary School of Education, during the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES) annual conference in Myrtle Beach Oct 11-13, 2018.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) defines counseling as the process of building therapeutic relationships that help individuals reach goals in their mental health, education and/or careers. Counseling is a collaborative partnership between counselor and client, in which the client can be an individual, couple, family or group.

Applications to graduate degree programs tend to require more details than undergraduate applications, in large part because graduate admissions review committees are interested in a much more holistic picture of you. Thus, as part of your graduate school application package, most universities will require a resume.

If you are called to serve others, then perhaps you’ve already made the choice to become a counselor. Even so, you may be wondering what the job prospects are for you if you pursue a career in this field.

A clinical mental health counselor isn’t the same thing as a psychiatrist. For one thing, counselors can’t prescribe medication, but that’s not all. While clinical mental health counselors may work in a clinical setting, they work toward equipping their clients with strategies and frameworks to help them encounter life in mentally healthy ways

A competent counselor is able to work with clients to help them understand themselves and their relationships more deeply, and to use this information to make better, healthier decisions. Basic competency in this field requires a baseline understanding of psychology and therapeutic theory. But the counseling relationship is as variable as your clients.

The days of your high school guidance counselor handing you a college application and sending you on your way are long gone. These days, school counselors are viewed as indispensable members of a school staff, with 93% of school counselors holding a master's degree.1

William & Mary Prepares the Next Generation of Counselors With Our New Online Graduate Program