Abstract
In response to the lack of literature, we conducted a phenomenological study of 10 school counselors in four states and nine school districts exploring their experiences providing virtual school counseling services during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many K–12 schools were closed. Results of this study indicated that overall, school counselors found the experience of providing virtual services during the initial stages of the pandemic to be negative, with their stated experiences centering around three themes: (a) difficulty meeting with students in virtual settings (i.e., feeling frustration and grief due to challenges meeting with students virtually), (b) abrupt adjustment (i.e., sudden changes and the need to pivot quickly, due to the pandemic), and (c) the challenge of addressing mental health complexities (i.e., difficulty in meeting nuanced mental health needs). We provide implications for practice, preparation, school/district policy, and research surrounding virtual school counseling during times of crisis and recovery, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Last, we discuss implications for virtual school counseling within the future of school counseling.
COVID-19 first caught the United States (U.S.) by surprise with 43 confirmed cases on January 20, 2020, with a swift increase to 195,703 confirmed cases by March 30, 2020 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). This deadly and highly contagious virus forced the U.S. education system to make rapid decisions to protect students, faculty, staff, families, and communities. In March 2020, COVID-19 forced K–12 schools throughout the U.S. to close their doors to in-person learning, causing faculty, staff, administrators, students, families, and communities to quickly develop interventions for virtual learning to limit direct contact (Varela & Fedynich, 2020). An article in Education Week (2021) presented an overview of COVID-19-related school closures in the 2019–2020 school year based on compiled state data. Findings indicated that a minimum of 55.1 million K–12 students in 124,000 U.S. schools were impacted by the pandemic-related school closures (Education Week, 2021).
At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, school counselors shifted to meet the needs of students using various counseling modalities: virtual, in-person, and hybrid. Nevertheless, although studies have investigated the impact of COVID-19 with a focus on teacher training and teacher experiences (Kaden, 2020; Trust & Whalen, 2020), the literature lacks a rich, detailed account of school counselors’ experiences providing virtual services during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. School counselors are responsible for serving the academic, career, and social/emotional needs of students (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2019a), making research pertaining to school counseling and the COVID-19 pandemic crucial for addressing K–12 student success. Our phenomenological study investigated school counselors’ (N = 10) experiences providing virtual school counseling services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 and K–12 Virtual Counseling
Scholars have suggested that the evolving and high-stakes nature of the COVID-19 crisis would likely have lasting impacts on U.S. K–12 education related to mental and physical health needs, safety plans (Johnson et al., 2021), changes in administrative policies (Varela & Fedynich, 2020), and permanent virtual schooling options (Li & Lalani, 2020). Indeed, due to the benefits of the virtual school setting (e.g., flexibility, expanded course options, reducing impacts of social anxiety; Arizona State University Prep Digital, 2019), many districts moved to permanent virtual school options (Li & Lalani, 2020), meaning school counselors also had to provide virtual counseling options to meet the needs of off-campus students.
Student Needs
During the beginning stages of the pandemic, when many K–12 schools were initially closed, students were forced to attend school virtually, typically for the first time in their educational careers. Many also lost access to in-person resources such as food and health services (Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Martin & Sorensen, 2020). Moreover, as schools had to deliver their programs virtually, K–12 professionals faced the challenge of continuing to meet student needs. For instance, during initial school closures, students encountered multiple challenges related to adjusting to a virtual learning environment that, for many, included hardships beyond maintaining academic standing (e.g., food insecurity, access to health care, social isolation; Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Johnson et al., 2021; Martin & Sorensen, 2020).
In total, “racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. have had higher rates of infection, hospital stays and death caused by the COVID-19 virus than white, non-Hispanic people” (DeSimone, 2022, para. 1) Thus, students of color may have experienced higher rates of loss of loved ones and grief throughout the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the negative and long-term effects of historical racism and racial discrimination on individuals of color (Addo, 2020). This double pandemic resulted in heighted student needs related to racial trauma, racial discrimination, and racial inequities. School counselors must be prepared to meet the needs of students in all settings—virtual, hybrid, and in-person—that have evolved and are continuing to evolve as pandemic-related stressors are exposed.
School Counselors
School counselors are essential in serving students who face COVID-19-related academic, career, and mental health issues; thus, their role was critical during the phases of COVID-19. ASCA lists 12 crisis prevention and support practices in The School Counselor and Safe Schools and Crisis Response position statement (2019b), all of which could be applied to COVID-19 response and are also applicable in the virtual counseling environment. Thus, school counselors are considered crisis response leaders (ASCA, 2019b) and are a crucial part of crisis response teams and policy making. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis impacting all K–12 schools to some capacity, school counselors play a critical role in meeting students’ needs during the pandemic crisis and recovery.
Emerging literature has begun to address the role of school counselors as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a conceptual article, Pincus et al. (2020) illustrated how school counselors were well equipped as mental health professionals to provide services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to COVID-19, Pincus et al. suggested that school counselors can aid in crisis response, use screening tools to assess student needs, utilize suicide prevention inventions, aid in technological addiction, implement school safety interventions, and address mental health needs. At the same time, these researchers described school counselors’ roles in the pandemic by tier, such as a Tier 1 focus on prevention. However, the Pincus et al. article was purely conceptual, lacked an empirical base, and also did not mention virtual school counseling services.
Next, Villares et al. (2022) analyzed how school counselors provided school counseling services during the initial phases of the pandemic, by looking at both individual counselor and school characteristics. Findings indicated that counselors who spent less time with students faced higher burnout rates than those who spent more time providing direct student services. Further, Villares et al. suggested that school counselors would have been better prepared to provide virtual school counseling services during this initial phase if they had had a comprehensive school counseling program in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this study provided innovative content on school counselors’ services during the pandemic, the need remains to develop insights into the lived experiences of school counselors providing virtual counseling services.
Finally, in a mixed-methods study that looked at school counseling during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, Savitz-Romer et al. (2021) surveyed 1060 school counselors, asking about adapting to remote schooling, factors that influenced their work, challenges faced, and support received. Reportedly, school counselors had difficulty defining their professional roles, ultimately due to a perceived lack of support and ambiguous policies that hindered their work (Savitz-Romer et al., 2021). Savitz-Romer et al. also found that school counselors had difficulty connecting with students virtually, specifically during school hours and when pulling students from class. Although this mixed-methods inquiry surveyed 1,060 school counselors and interviewed 47 participants through focus groups, the qualitative data (i.e., open-ended survey responses and focus groups), lacked (a) an in-depth exploration of individual experiences through one-on-one interviews and (b) a specific focus on virtual school counseling. Hence, although these researchers found that school counselors were challenged to connect with students virtually, there remains a need to explore this finding in more depth.
Purpose of the Study
Exploring the role of school counselors in their provision of virtual counseling services during the initial phases of the pandemic is essential, especially in light of the dearth of available published literature that addresses this area of school counseling. Therefore, the research question that guided this study was: What are the lived experiences of U.S. public school counselors providing virtual services to K–12 students throughout the COVID-19 pandemic?
Method
Phenomenology is an approach used in qualitative research to understand participants’ first-hand experiences (Moustakas, 1994). Further, phenomenological research is often used for exploratory purposes, to gain an in-depth understanding of a phenomenon (Hays & Singh, 2012). As such, we utilized a qualitative, phenomenological approach to describe the experiences of U.S. public school counselors providing virtual services to K–12 students during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic until the initiation of data collection. In tandem with this approach, and as is common in qualitative investigations, we subscribe to a social constructivist perspective, acknowledging multiple and varied subjective realities (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Hays & Singh, 2012).
Reflexivity Statement
Reflexivity statements typically provide insight on researchers’ positionality and thus offer context for a study (Hays & Singh, 2012). All members of the research team completed master’s degrees in school counseling and doctorates in counselor education and supervision, with a focus on school counseling. The second and third authors were previously employed as school counselors and were full-time school counselor educators at universities during the time of this study. The first author identifies as cisgender female, able-bodied, and of White/European descent; she was a full-time doctoral student studying counselor education and supervision with a specialty in school counseling at the time of this study. The second author identifies as cisgender female, able-bodied, and of White/European descent. The third author identifies as a cisgender female, able-bodied, and of Sri Lankan/South Asian descent. All three researchers were teaching university-level courses during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of virtual learning; thus, as educators, we possibly engaged in a parallel process for which we studied, and were mindful to use reflexive journaling and debriefing to bracket our assumptions and biases.
Participants
Participants (N = 10) identified as female (80%; n = 8) and male (20%; n = 2), identifying their race/ethnicity as White (60%; n = 6), Black/African American (10%; n = 1), Asian (10%; n = 1), Hispanic or Latino (10%; n = 1), and mixed races (10%; n = 1). Participants represented four states and nine school districts and had a mean of 6.6 years of school counseling experience (range: 2–12). Participants were employed in settings including elementary (10%; n = 1), middle (50%; n = 5), and high school (20%; n = 2), with some in multiple settings: both elementary and middle (10%; n = 1), and both middle and high school (10%; n = 1).
Data Collection Procedures
We received approval from our university’s human subjects review committee before beginning participant recruitment. Literature suggests that a phenomenological investigation is conducted by exploring the experiences of 10–15 participants (Creswell, 2013; Goodman-Scott & Cholewa, in press). The present study consisted of 10 U.S. public school counselors across four states. Because the focus was the experiences of school counselors providing virtual services during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, participants had to meet the following inclusion criteria: (a) being employed as a school counselor by a U.S. public school for at least one academic year since 2019 and (b) providing virtual school counseling services (e.g., email, video, phone, etc., with students, families, staff) at some point during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We recruited participants through convenience and snowball sampling. Specifically, we invited school counseling organizations (state and national level) and school counseling professionals (e.g., practicing school counselors, counselor educators, district coordinators) to share the recruitment materials through their professional networks and to recommend possible participants through snowball sampling; we also advertised our study through social media. Prospective participants received a description of the study’s purpose and an informed consent form, confirmed meeting the inclusion criteria, noted their availability, and shared their demographic information.
In following the phenomenological tradition (Moustakas, 1994), we utilized semistructured individual interview protocols. In particular, we asked open-ended questions to encourage elaborate and detailed responses from participants and asked probing questions as needed; this style of interview allows the interviewer to discover information beyond the original protocol (Hays & Singh, 2012). Phenomenological research typically consists of two overarching interview questions (Moustakas, 1994), providing the participant flexibility to elaborate. Interview questions for the present study asked about the context, experiences, and major impacts related to the participants providing virtual school counseling during the pandemic. In particular, the first question asked about the school counselor’s experiences within the context of virtual school counseling during COVID-19 (starting at the beginning of the pandemic until the time they participated in the study). The second interview question was designed to elicit participants’ responses regarding the factors that influenced their experiences providing virtual school counseling. Probing questions largely asked participants to elaborate on their feelings and reactions within their descriptions. The semistructured interviews were conducted and recorded via Zoom, a university-sponsored, interactive, web-based video platform. The audio recordings were then submitted for transcription via Scribie, an online confidential audio transcription service. Last, the first author reviewed transcriptions and cross referenced with audio recordings to ensure accuracy.
Data Analysis
After conducting and transcribing interviews, we used Moustakas’s (1994) data analysis framework to conceptualize participants’ lived experiences. Specifically, we engaged in the following seven steps: (a) initial grouping of data, (b) condensing similar data, (c) developing clusters and themes of data, (d) identifying patterns and themes, € developing descriptions of themes based on patterns, (f) describing the overall experience(s) based on patterns and themes, and (g) constructing a “description of the meanings and essences of the experience” based on patterns and themes (Moustakas, 1994, p. 121).
Beginning with Step 1, the first author read through the transcripts and noted her thoughts and reactions. The first author and a peer debriefer, who provided feedback and consultation during data analysis, reviewed the first author’s notes and discussed the transcripts. During Step 2, the first author read through the transcripts, highlighting and assigning preliminary codes to meaningful content. The peer debriefer reviewed the coded transcripts and noted areas of agreement and disagreement. During Step 3, the first and second authors and peer debriefer met to discuss the transcripts and ultimately came to a consensus on all coded transcripts. The first author exported all codes and corresponding transcript quotations into a Google sheet, developing a codebook. Then, throughout Step 4, the three met to review the codebook, made notes of quotations that fit better under certain themes, and co-created final themes. During Step 5, the first author and peer debriefer met and developed rich descriptions of the themes using the codebook. Step 6 consisted of a final meeting where all three discussed the overall experiences of participants and the significance of their shared experiences. Last, in Step 7, the first and second author continued meeting to refine the essence, or final results.
Trustworthiness Strategies
Given the nature of a phenomenological study, the researcher is a primary tool in determining the research focus and exploring participant experiences (Goodman-Scott & Cholewa, in press). Considering the integral role of the researcher, the influence of their bias, world view, and values on results is relatively inevitable (Hays & Singh, 2012). For this reason, we used multiple trustworthiness strategies to minimize researcher impact and convey participants’ experiences in their purest form possible. Using Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) four criteria for trustworthiness, we outline the following: (a) credibility, (b) transferability, (c) dependability, and (d) confirmability.
Credibility refers to how well researchers portrayed participant perceptions (Goodman-Scott & Cholewa, in press; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Our methods to ensure credibility included: (a) member checking (i.e., transcripts sent to participants for review), (b) frequent research team meetings, (c) an external auditor, and (d) a peer debriefer (an individual external to the study who provided feedback and consultation during data analysis) who assisted with the coding process. In regard to transferability, Goodman-Scott & Cholewa (in press) stressed the importance of illustrating participant experiences and research procedures in depth so that the reader can draw conclusions between the study results and participants’ experience. Thus, we described the process using thick descriptions.
Dependability refers to how clearly researchers illustrate the steps taken throughout a study (Goodman-Scott & Cholewa, in press; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). As such, we created an audit trail (i.e., journaling, memos, codebook) to illustrate the research process and engaged in triangulation by collecting data through multiple sources (i.e., participants) and maintaining a research team with three members. Last, confirmability strategies included reporting data using direct interview quotations as examples to display the relation to main concepts and themes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985), an external auditor, and researcher reflexivity statements and journals.
Findings
This phenomenological investigation explored school counselors’ provision of virtual services during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when school shutdowns first took place. Three themes emerged from our analysis of the data: (a) difficulty meeting with students in virtual settings: feelings of frustration and loss; (b) abrupt adjustment; and (c) the challenge of addressing mental health complexities.
Theme 1: Difficulty Meeting with Students in Virtual Settings: Feelings of Frustration and Loss
According to the school counselors in this study, their experiences providing virtual services during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic were impacted by the challenges in meeting with students in the virtual setting. The first theme, difficulty meeting with students in virtual settings: feelings of frustration and loss, resulted in three subthemes, (a) hindering relationships: blank screens and students not responding; (b) grieving spontaneous interactions; and (c) having concern for students’ well-being.
Hindering Relationships: Blank Screens and Students Not Responding
Participants shared that relationships with their students and students’ families were negatively impacted by their lack of access, including providing services to students with blank computer screens (i.e., students without cameras/video off) and navigating new strategies for coordinating communication with students and families. One participant shared their challenge related to students keeping their cameras off: “It was really difficult to get them to turn their cameras on…. It was hard to know if I was just teaching to a blank screen or if they were actually children on the other end” (P4). Another participant stated: “It’s like you were talking to this land out there, you don’t know who’s behind the screen. Some students, you couldn’t see that, [and] that really made the job really hard” (P5).
Grieving Spontaneous Interactions
With regard to providing virtual services, school counselors also described the lack of spontaneous interactions with students, such as check-ins in the hallways and having students unexpectedly stop into their offices. When describing missing students spontaneously visiting their office, one school counselor expressed: “The kids weren’t coming to you…. Being in-person, God, I love it so much. You have kids just pop into your office. [With virtual school counseling] it wasn’t necessarily easy or simple for kids to come see us when they needed to” (P2). One school counselor shared how providing virtual services resulted in feeling emotionally disconnected from students and parents: “It didn’t feel real. I didn’t have a kid in front of me crying, seeing cuts on their arm…. I didn’t…get into an argument in-person with a parent – because it was all through a computer” (P1).
Another participant shared how the lack of face-to-face interactions during the beginning of the pandemic seemed to impact the recognition of potential physical abuse. Thus, an influx of reports occurred when students returned in person: The limited access that I had to students early on, that’s something we’re still recovering from…. When kids initially came back last school year, I did more CPS [child protective services] reports than I’d ever done in my entire career…. I’m sure there are different theories on why that might be…. We didn’t have access [to students] for so long. (P4)
Having Concern for Students’ Well-Being
Due to school counselors’ lack of access to students, they worried about students’ well-being. For instance, multiple participants described going to students’ homes to check on them. One school counselor stated: “Sometimes I’d have to do home visits, because then I’d have to go and be like, ‘Hey you haven’t logged in 2 weeks. You okay in there? Is your mom home? Can we talk?’” (P1). Similarly, another described their concern for students’ safety: I wasn’t going to be aware of their safety issues. Are they getting taken care of?…What their home life is like?…We help them focus on school while they’re here…how are they going to compartmentalize when they’re at home? Because they’re having all of that at one time. (P3)
Similarly, a participant described how they felt “awful” about not seeing students: Awful – we want to connect with kids and we want to lay eyes on them and make sure that they’re okay…. It was hard because it’s like, “Where is this kid? Are they okay?”…I’ve let their parent know, and so I know that I’ve done my due diligence, but [in] my counselor heart, is this kid really okay? (P9)
Theme 2: Abrupt Adjustment
All participants described a sudden, emergency adjustment to providing virtual school counseling services. This second theme, abrupt adjustment, resulted in three subthemes: (a) facilitating reactive practices and feelings of failure, (b) maneuvering ethical concerns, and (c) navigating new technology.
Facilitating Reactive Practices and Feelings of Failure
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced school counselors to provide virtual services, participants described serving students reactively, thus resulting in feelings of failure. When asked about their experiences, one participant expressed that providing virtual school counseling services “constantly makes it feel like you’re just spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere and not making a difference and not doing any good” (P1). Similarly, another participant stated: “I felt pretty worthless…. It was just more running around…. I felt like I just wasn’t doing anything” (P8). Participants also described how their preparation and training for providing virtual school counseling services impacted their experience: “Nobody gave us classes on how to do that [virtual school counseling] and what are the best techniques…. A lot of it was just learning as we go” (P4).
Maneuvering Ethical Concerns
Providing virtual school counseling services resulted in school counselors having to maneuver through various ethical concerns. For example, when speaking about confidentiality and parents overhearing group counseling sessions, one participant shared: “‘If your parent might know my parent, and so, if you say something, and my parent hears that, my parent might say something to your parent’…The confidentiality pieces…[are] so murky when it comes to virtual” (P9).
Further, multiple participants shared that managing crisis situations with students online posed ethical challenges. One participant shared: “The most…heart palpitating, frustrating thing was trying to deal with crises online. Because…you would get an email from a teacher talking about an assignment that they received in class 2 days ago that was concerning to them” (P2). Another participant shared: I can look in their files and I can see where they’ve had suicidal thoughts…but then I knew that they’re still going through it, they told me as much, but…how do you really check on a kid…and how do you know if they’re really okay? (P1)
Navigating New Technology
While adjusting to the changes, participants described having to shift their school counseling programs online using new technologies. For example, a participant explained their use of a virtual office and resources, including “a virtual office using Bitmojis and links that kids can do when they’re stressed and anxious” (P6). Participants also shared their leadership role in supporting students and teachers in navigating new technology: “I did a couple workshops in regards to that…in March and April…of having to connect with kids and how to do a virtual environment” (P6). Another participant shared their enthusiasm to teach students and stakeholders how to navigate new technology: “Sharing my screen and showing a video, it’s cool you know? Teaching kids technology…now we have third, fourth graders that are really good on a computer. They can zoom around on Zoom. It’s awesome” (P7).
Although participants shared some positive experiences in navigating technology, they also shared challenges to their role because of stakeholders’ lack of savviness with virtual platforms. Most notably, participants faced challenges in collaborating with teachers to provide services in their virtual classrooms. As one participant shared: All teachers had Zoom meetings…for each of their classes, if you needed to come to their class, you had to have the Zoom link for all the different classes…. It was very difficult in that sense of the technology piece in trying to use that. [There] wasn’t really a whole lot of support in that tech piece. (P8)
In contrast, one participant described training offered by their district for faculty, staff, parents/guardians, and students: “There was a lot of training on Zoom and etiquette, and all the settings…the communication with parents” (P10).
Theme 3: The Challenge of Addressing Mental Health Complexities
During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, stakeholders’ mental health needs heightened because of their concern with political, societal, and health stressors, on top of adjusting to virtual learning. The final theme, the challenge of addressing mental health complexities, contains three subthemes: (a) creating boundaries, (b) maintaining awareness of stakeholders’ intersecting and multifaceted needs, and (c) struggling with their mental health.
Creating Boundaries
Participants described the challenges related to creating boundaries while providing virtual school counseling services. One participant characterized their experience as “very frustrating…. I would call families…at that time…everyone’s mental health was kind of suffering…. I was trying to work from home with two very little kids. I felt like…my time to do certain things was limited” (P9). Another participant described “the boundaries of families wanting us to be accessible…24/7 outside of traditional office hours, and feeling those blurred lines of feeling we needed to be providing services all the time” (P5). Similar, a school counselor shared: Not having those boundaries between work and home…I don’t have any downtime anymore…. I used to have time to kind of recover from the emotional exhaustion of work, and I don’t have that anymore. There is no break in between. I go straight from one to another…. There’s no processing time, no transition time, and so…just in general that has been more challenging for me. (P4)
Another participant expressed feeling worried and explained the ethical challenges related to addressing mental health complexities while creating boundaries: But the students who I know, their home life was bad or just they’re struggling or I’m worried about their mental state, my ethics just…went out the window and I’m like, “Nope. Do I need to drive over there and I can talk to you from your driveway? Here’s my cell phone number, do you need to text me?” But then we became on-call 24/7. So that was hard too, because the working hours…were not…we were a mobile crisis unit…and that was hard ’cause, like, you’re not gonna be able to…turn that off. So from home, it’s hard to do. (P3)
Maintaining Awareness of Stakeholders’ Intersecting and Multifaceted Needs
Multiple participants shared that students were impacted by the emotional and physical well-being of the adult stakeholders in their lives—in school and at home. Political and societal concerns beyond COVID-19 were also impacting the needs of participants. The school counselors shared their concerns that stakeholders in schools were handling stressors within their own families, making it difficult to balance their roles with students. One participant described: “Political…unrest and…I realized that people were dealing with lots of things…in very different ways…. The teachers came in burnt out…. We came in not okay or fully prepared and worried about our health and safety” (P2).
Participants also shared that being virtual caused challenges in developing trusting relationships to broach issues related to the racial justice movement happening while students were at home. One explained: That’s something that they would wanna go talk to the counselor about…“My mom is sick with a disease.” It’s awful, right? That is I think the biggest situation of COVID-19 and everything along with it. The fear, the anxiety…. Students were really afraid…. Another big situation is…in the middle of our virtual experience online, there were a lot of racial tensions…going on across [the] United States with the Black Lives Matter marches…. I addressed that virtually, but that’s another situation where I think a lot of our students were struggling and I wanted to help them…but I felt like it was tougher not being in person and not being able to have that connection. (P7)
Another participant shared how their experience providing virtual school counseling services were impacted by serving students from historically oppressed groups, and how those students were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic: My school is in [location], and it’s majority Black and Latinx…. We had students who have multigenerational homes, and a lot of fears with COVID…. We had students with a lot of loss, not just death to COVID, but other things. (P8)
Struggling With Their Mental Health
Last and perhaps most important, school counselors spoke about the need to take care of themselves. As a result of providing virtual school counseling services, participants experienced severe burnout. For example, one participant shared: It circles back to the guilt…. Everyone handles it different professionally…. It was [the] guilt of wanting to do more or wanting to solve the problem…every time I get an email or every time wanting it to be better for a student. (P5)
Similarly, another participant stated: Tending to other kids’ mental health needs while trying to deal with my own…being stuck at home with two little kids was insane…. I’m trying to support other people and I’m like, “I need support. Who’s supporting me?”…Kind of feeling that weight like, “Oh my gosh, these people are counting on me to take care of these things and …I’m struggling to take care of myself right now.” So that was hard. (P9)
One participant described their experience as a “professional crisis.” They explained: “The end of the 19–20 school year when we all first went out during COVID, I was in a professional crisis of like, ‘How do I even be a counselor virtually?’” (P1). Last, a school counselor explained how they struggled providing virtual school counseling services and that they remained in their role for the students: We were seeing all of these issues [racial and health inequities] as students were starting to return to school more, but there was just nothing you could do in the way the system was set up. It was like, “Oh, we still have to focus on academics.” And we’re like, “Our kids are losing their [minds]…there’s a lot of things going on right now.” It just fell on deaf ears, it seems like. It was just not how I’m used to being a counselor, and it was a huge struggle for me the entire year, to just mentally stay there…. I only really stayed for the kids. (P8)
Discussion
This study explored the experiences of school counselors in the United States pertaining to virtual school counseling during the first phases of COVID-19, when school shutdowns first took place. As previously mentioned, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face learning was disrupted as many schools were forced to operate through virtual modalities. Understanding the ways in which school counselors conducted virtual school counseling during this period can inform the development of practices, preparation, and policies. Overall, the results of this study underscored the crucial importance of relationships—with both students and stakeholders—within the counseling process. Similar to the findings of Savitz-Romer et al. (2021), we found that the difficulty of accessing students in a virtual setting hindered school counselors’ establishing and maintaining trusting relationships with them and their families.
According to the present study, due to the virtual school counseling modality, school counselors lost the spontaneous interactions they previously had with students who stopped by their offices or interacted with them in the hallway, or whom they saw while popping into a classroom. Since all virtual interactions had to be planned in collaboration with teachers and students, providing direct student services on a consistent basis became challenging for school counselors. Further, participants shared challenges in developing a connection to students because students often kept their cameras off. The participants in this study shared feelings related to burnout (e.g., poor mental health, feeling frustrated and worthless in their roles) due to the changes in how they supported or accessed students because of their limited ability to provide direct services. The results of our study regarding the severe burnout that school counselors were experiencing during the initial phases of the pandemic are consistent with the findings of Villares et al. (2022). In our study, participants related their experiences of burnout to guilt, a lack of support, and experiencing a professional crisis.
The diminishment of direct services also seemed to be heavily impacted by the technological logistics of virtual school counseling. For example, one participant described the challenge in providing classroom interventions because teachers’ classes would have different Zoom links for each class. Having multiple Zoom spaces to navigate created challenges in collaborating with teachers to identify student needs. Research has shown that the social isolation experienced during lockdown (i.e., the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic) exacerbated hardships students were already experiencing (Hanover Research, 2020). Relatedly, a participant in our study described the increase of Child Protective Services reports when students returned to in-person learning as a result of the difficulty in informally assessing mental health, physical health, or signs of abuse during virtual learning because of the lack of impromptu interactions school counselors could have with students. Our study highlighted the need for a wide range of research pertaining to school counseling during all phases of the pandemic (e.g., crisis, recovery), including their experiences and serving specific student populations (e.g., in poverty, in historically marginalized racial groups, in rural America, identifying as part of the LGBT community).
Unfortunately, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, school counselors received little guidance on adjusting to and delivering a virtual school counseling program. Previous literature has described teacher and administrator roles providing virtual services during the COVID-19 pandemic (Borup et al., 2020); however, researchers have not investigated school counselors’ first-hand experiences specifically. Thus, not only has the present study provided novel research in a much-needed area, but this gap in the literature mirrors participants’ experiences of reactive practices—that school counselors were typically responding without content or knowledge for the virtual modality.
Next, given the nature of virtual school counseling, participants were tasked with navigating new technology. They described learning to operate technology while also teaching stakeholders how to use technology. At the time of this study, no research had explored the school counselor’s role navigating technology or teaching stakeholders how to use technology while providing virtual school counseling services; as such, the present study addressed an important dearth of literature, adding new insight to an area otherwise understudied.
Based on the present study, school counselors faced multiple challenges while attempting to create boundaries within the virtual setting. Due to school closures, many school counselors were forced to work from home, which included caring for family members and being out of their office, while attempting to meet stakeholders’ evolving needs. Relatedly, the pandemic had a profoundly negative impact on communities’ economic status and physical health (Armitage & Nellums, 2020). Students and families faced challenges related to food insecurity, health, and social isolation (Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Johnson et al., 2021; Martin & Sorensen, 2020). While supporting students in coping with the economic and physical impacts of the pandemic, school counselors in the current investigation were navigating political stressors, societal distress, and racial inequities throughout the K–12 education system; these findings parallel scholarship on the role of the multifaceted school counselor generally (Levy & Lemberger-Truelove, 2021), although the present study provides context specific to virtual school counseling. Furthermore, Pincus et al. (2020) illustrated that school counselors are mental health professionals, making them critical in addressing the impacts of COVID-19 on the K–12 student population, and the present study expands upon their conceptual recommendations.
COVID-19 has brought about new student concerns related to health and safety (Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Baron et al., 2020; Martin & Sorensen, 2020), social isolation (Hanover Research, 2020), family support (Bansak & Starr, 2021), and academics (Middleton, 2020), all of which school counselors are required to address. Expanding on this previous research, participants in the present study echoed similar sentiments pertaining to school counseling explicitly, and described attempting to maintain boundaries while meeting the evolving and heightened needs of stakeholders and the greater society as a whole. Thus, the school counselors in the current investigation paralleled the literature base, reinforcing the immense mental health needs in the greater society, as a result of the pandemic, through the lens of school counseling.
Limitations
Although phenomenological research and individual interviews can provide rich information, the present study has a few limitations to consider. In following trustworthiness strategies listed previously, our research team members bracketed assumptions and biases through reflexive journaling and memos after each interview, coding session, and coding meeting. At the same time, in alignment with our philosophical underpinnings/theoretical lens, a researcher can never fully remove their biases and assumptions in any research study, and these will impact the study to some degree. Further, although interviews can generate valuable content, this study could be strengthened by using multiple types of data (e.g., focus group interview, observations, participant journal, etc.) to bolster trustworthiness. Future research could add focus groups to capture conversations and interactions between participants.
Implications
In the current study, school counselors expressed that a lack of ability to spend time with or access students significantly impacted their ability to provide virtual school counseling services. To ensure support for students, school counselors can collaborate with school leaders to maintain up-to-date contact information. Now that school counselors, teachers, families, and students have become more familiar with virtual platforms, school counselors can also establish virtual school counseling offices and office hours. Again, to ensure strong school and family partnerships, school counselors can capitalize on stakeholders’ ability to navigate technology to foster stronger collaborations with families through virtual school counseling offices. Establishing virtual office hours for students and families, either during the school day or in extension to school hours, can make school counseling services more accessible to families and can help school counselors establish clear boundaries between their personal and professional lives. Our findings also highlighted the need for text messaging applications or the issue of school-issued cell phones for school counselors who are providing virtual school counseling services; this could reinforce/establish boundaries (i.e., set automated out-of-office message with information to emergency services) and address confidentiality concerns (i.e., use of a locked or secure platform solely for school counseling communication).
Another finding from this study was the challenge of school counselors managing their new role in the virtual learning world. Although many schools have resumed in-person learning in the transition or recovery phase of the pandemic, school counselors must be prepared to deliver their school counseling programs virtually in the event that future in-person K–12 closures take place (e.g., related to natural disasters, pandemics). Because school counselors are tasked with prevention and intervention to support the mental health of students, educators and school leaders need to establish efficient and effective pathways in virtual settings to provide direct student services that closely mirror services provided in person (e.g., classroom lessons, professional development, small group counseling). This may require that school leaders (e.g., district counseling supervisors, school principals, district technology services) provide structures that help school counselors maintain students’ confidentiality (e.g., Zoom spaces with waiting rooms, ensuring licensing of legally compliant software, providing headphones for students) and work in collaboration with teachers (e.g., inviting school counselors to virtual planning meetings with teachers, establishing classroom lesson schedules together).
Because the topic of mental health emerged on multiple occasions during this study, considering how mental health practices in schools can shift to virtual platforms is important. Beyond what is included above to enhance structures for virtual school counseling support, educational leaders must show their commitment to supporting mental health needs by considering the ecological impact of educators’ mental well-being on students. Participants shared their concern for how stakeholders’ physical and mental well-being may impact students. School counselors can develop boundaries and practice self-care activities, but may experience burnout if they continue to work reactively to students’ needs. Thus, school counselors can develop collaborative relationships with teachers and school leaders to proactively address student needs, resulting in the alleviation of some stakeholder stressors (e.g., responding to multiple student crises, providing remediation).
The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed the need for school counselor education/preparation programs to prepare counselors to provide virtual school counseling services. The current study highlighted the importance of virtual school counseling program preparation specifically related to accessing students, planning for the transition from in-person to virtual counseling, and addressing mental health concerns. Fortunately, school counseling in-person practices can serve as a framework for virtual practices; however, the access to students and other stakeholders is drastically different. Therefore, we recommend teaching school counselors how to implement strategies to increase access to students and stakeholders, such as how to utilize various virtual techniques to increase student engagement through interactive platforms (e.g., Kahoot, Google Slides, Google Jam Board, Zoom whiteboard). Our study also highlighted the need for and access to virtual school counseling ethical standards and practices. Some school counselors in the present study were unaware of ethics pertaining to accessing students, documentation, confidentiality, and handling crises. We recommend that school counselor educators and trainers incorporate ethics specific to virtual counseling in their curricula. Last, counselor educators and trainers should teach strategies for advocating for the school counselor’s role within the virtual school environment.
This study also exposed the need for the establishment of policies related to virtual school counseling services: (a) communicating with stakeholders, (b) crisis response, and (c) virtual counseling duties/expectations. Policies should vary and evolve based on student needs and available resources. Participants described challenges communicating with stakeholders related to access and boundaries. Thus, schools and districts should develop, or update, policies on how school counselors should communicate with stakeholders (e.g., phone call or text from school-issued phone, email, school platform). Policies should also include standard communication hours and how to direct stakeholders after hours through an automated messaging and answering system. As previously mentioned, school counselors are responsible for providing academic, career, and social/emotional support to all students in all K–12 settings (i.e., in-person, virtual, and hybrid settings; ASCA, 2019a). Therefore, the duties and expectations of school counselors should be similar or identical regardless of the setting (in-person or virtual).
Given the evolving impact of COVID-19 on K–12 school counseling, this study serves as a catalyst for more specialized future research. For example, future studies could focus on school counselors meeting the needs of specific student groups (e.g., LGBTQ+, students receiving special education or gifted services, grade levels). As future studies are conducted, researchers can focus on diving deeper into the role and experiences of the school counselor during COVID-19 (e.g., working with families, providing community support, collaborating with colleagues, returning to the school building, experiences at various phases during and after the pandemic, hybrid services) to expose more specific information. Last, the research to date has investigated the impact of the pandemic on school counseling, but has been focused primarily on professional roles. Given the global mental health crisis resulting from the pandemic, including the impact on helping professionals, investigating the impact of the pandemic on school counselors is important. Such studies could be both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial and likely long-lasting impacts on school counseling, including necessitating the use of virtual school counseling. This study highlights the experiences of school counselors providing virtual school counseling, depicting how they were faced with challenges unique to the virtual environment (e.g., supporting students, adjusting to technology and their role, addressing mental health complexities). Since K–12 schools have reopened their doors to in-person learning, multiple districts have opted for a permanent virtual or hybrid option for students (Li & Lalani, 2020). With an increase in virtual K–12 schools, virtual school counseling is considered as a permanent modality within the K–12 system, making our study and future related research a critical component in the development of practices, preparation, and policies surrounding virtual school counseling in general and in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
