This study explores how adolescent clients construct the purpose and outcome of counselling. A narrative analysis was performed on interviews with 22 clients (aged 16--18) who had used a school-based counselling service. The aim was to identify the purpose and outcomes that participants attributed to their counselling experience. The analysis…

Careers provision for young people in the UK is being re-formulated on the basis of a central role for career websites but this policy is based on unproven assumptions about their value. In this article we consider the use and impact of the two main career websites in Scotland on pupils' career management skills. We found that pupils at risk…

This article reports the outcomes of a study, undertaken from a phenomenographic perspective, of career practitioners' conceptions of social media usage in career services. Fifteen Finnish career practitioners--representing comprehensive, secondary and higher education as well as public employment services--were interviewed in focus groups.…

This narrative ethnographic study aims to explore students' attitudes towards guidance and counselling services in one secondary school in Malaysia. Semi-structured individual interviews, group interviews and observations were conducted with school students of different racial backgrounds. They were identified as referred clients,…

This is a case study from Singapore. The purpose of the study is to critically enquire into the ways in which school counsellors working in Singapore's secondary school system describe and experience their role, and to identify key themes arising from the study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 participants, and an adapted grounded…

The personal development of students is an essential component of school guidance and counselling programmes, but no published research on guidance and counselling has investigated the effects of regular classroom teaching on students' self-efficacy for personal development. In this study, questionnaire items were constructed to measure classroom…

Schools in Hong Kong are concerned about the growing enrolments of students with special educational needs (SEN) and how these students could be included in school guidance. This study examines teachers' narratives of the inclusivity of school guidance. The study was qualitative, being a case study of a Hong Kong secondary school. School documents…

The professional identity of counsellors and guidance practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand is currently under review as a result of the passing of legislation regulating health professionals and the proposed introduction of national registration of counsellors. In this paper I explore this debate, and examine the professional identities claimed…

This small-scale study, based in a semi-rural South Wales Local Authority, sought to explore how both school-based counsellors and link-teachers perceive their school-based counselling services. The research aimed to answer three research questions: 1) what are the perceived impacts of the service? 2) what are the perceived attributes of the…

Inspired by positive psychology, the present research explores the manner in which school counsellors perceive the meaning of success in their work. Data were collected by means of a narrative questionnaire in which 66 school counsellors were requested to write a detailed description of a well-remembered successful experience and to answer two…

The success of schools' counselling services often depends on the support of various key stakeholder groups. This study reports on the attitudes of key stakeholders working within the Welsh Government school-based counselling strategy. Using a survey methodology, the opinions of local authority leads/service managers (n=25), school management…

This article explores how school-based counselling might impact young people's capacity to study and learn. Previous research has indicated that counselling in schools has an indirect positive impact on academic achievement. A mixed methods approach, using a semi-structured qualitative interview and a brief rating scale, was employed with 21 young…

The aim of this article is to explore self-healing processes in young people, and to develop an understanding of the effects of school-based counselling (SBC), by analysing changes in young people who did not receive this intervention. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 young people on a waiting list for SBC. Participants…

This study examines secondary school students' perceptions of inhibiting factors in seeking counselling. Responses to a questionnaire completed by 1346 secondary school students were analysed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Exploratory factor analysis highlighted that within 21 pre-defined inhibiting factors, items loaded strongly on…

The study is part of a larger project involving a phenomenological inquiry into the lived experiences of tongzhi students in Hong Kong public schools. The research question of this article focuses on the counselling experiences of nine Chinese lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning/queer (LGBQ) students aged 14-18 in Hong Kong Chinese secondary…