Private counselling sessions are becoming the new school grinds, according to an education expert.
In an article with The Irish Times, Lecturer in Education, Guidance and Counselling at Maynooth University’s Department of Education, Dr Clare Finegan, has asked if in wanting to comfort children and ease their burden, are we in danger of depriving them of learning for themselves?
Dr Finegan said what she is focusing on is “the overreaction to typical teenage growing-up anxiety that challenges them daily” – which she describes as “the natural anxiety needed for them to develop life skills, coping strategies and independent living”.
On Lunchtime Live, Dr Finegan said that as she has worked in a medical practice as well as in the educational system, she’s coming at this from both perspectives.
“I'd say that as a guidance counsellor, I've seen more adolescents in a week than I would ever do in the medical practice,” she said.
“I'm certainly an advocate for counselling and psychotherapy, obviously, but not when it's not necessarily warranted.
“It shouldn't necessarily be the first port of call, certainly for typical teenage anxiety, because the danger is that pathologizing element, where, you know, students or teenagers can develop a victim mentality, rather than empowering the child to develop coping strategies and become, perhaps, over dependent or reliant on the counsellor.
“[They could end up seeing] the anxiety as a deficit in themselves, as opposed to, you know, befriending it, expecting it, suffering it, like any kind of panic and knowing that it would pass.”
A State Examinations Commission sign on the a door at Beneavin De La Salle College, Finglas. Picture date: Wednesday June 9, 2021.Dr Finegan said she wants parents to be careful about their kids “jumping in to therapy”.
“As educators, as a parent, you know, we want to pass the message on that we trust in our kids to find their own answers and not put our own agendas and expectations on them,” she said.
“There's lots of support in schools - you have One Kind Adult, they have their peer group where anxiety is normalised and they help each other, you have the guidance counsellor, and if we could only have more of them, you know, where their anxiety is not pathologized.
“There's psycho education to help them build the foundation blocks for building strategies to cope, you know, themselves.”
File photo of a primary school teacher marking work in a classroom. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock PhotoDr Finegan said the reason students do mock exams is to help deal with that pre-exam anxiety and that they don’t necessarily need therapy to deal with it.
“That's why we put students through mock exams - not necessarily to show what they know but really to give them the opportunity of facing their fears or anxieties and sitting with not knowing and getting past that, sitting with not getting the 100% and getting over that, and motivating them to learn from their mistakes,” she said.
“Anxiety can be there to signal when there are issues and if it is a red flag for underlying issues of course psychotherapy is most definitely warranted.
“But it's really important how that psychotherapy, I suppose, is worked with the child - as long as it's working with the child strengths and working with the family often.
“It's all about just getting a balance between addressing immediate psychological needs and fostering long term resilience, getting that balance.”
An upset child girl covering her face with hands. Image: AlamyDr Finegan said she is eager to push the services that are actually available in schools without needing therapy in an external setting.
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Stressed child sits alone in a hall, 21/04/2022 Alamy
