Counsellors Corner

Merici College offers School Counselling on campus throughout the school year and is delivered by qualified mental health professionals with experience working with young people who have mental health concerns. As school counsellors, it is our role to serve the educational enterprise of the school by fostering conditions that maximise educational equity, student wellbeing and the learning success of all students.

Merici College has two dedicated school counsellors available to students during the week. Chelsea is at Merici on Monday through to Thursday and Xian is at Merici on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

What is school counselling?

School Counselling is a short-term, goal-focused therapy available to support students to reduce the impact that their mental health is having on their learning and life.
All counsellors are professionally qualified Social Workers or Psychologists who participate in regular clinical supervision and professional development.
School counsellors work collaboratively with principals, teachers, learning and support teams, parents and carers and other agencies to support learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.
Counsellors are not employed as specialists in any area and at times will suggest referrals for specialist services. Counsellors also do not provide cognitive or learning assessments or court reports. Families requiring these will be referred to another service.
It is important to know that School Counselling is not a long-term support service and is therefore not always able to provide the length or depth of support that some students may need to maximise their chance of recovery.

How to access school counselling

Students under the age of 14 need parent/guardian consent to participate in school counselling.
Parents/guardians, teachers, and students can refer to school counselling should there be social, emotional, behavioural, or academic concerns that are affecting a young person’s learning and engagement at school.
It is not always helpful for a student to be seeing a private psychologist/counsellor regularly and engaging in school counselling. We encourage you to speak with us about your daughter’s support needs so that we can tailor school counselling support without compromising therapeutic growth or overservicing.
Should you feel that your daughter may benefit from accessing school counselling, please speak with your daughter’s house co-ordinator or email us on:[email protected].
Reaching out to your daughter’s PC teacher or house co-ordinator can be an excellent first step so that your daughter can be holistically supported during the school day.
For example, anxiety about coming to school might be due to not understanding how to navigate SEQTA, and this can be addressed in a timely matter by the right person.
A referral to school counselling can also be made via the following link: https://bit.ly/3uHI3ZN

School counselling is not a crisis services and operates during usual school hours. Emails and phone calls outside of these times may be unsupervised.

For students and families who might need some additional or after-hours support, check out these resources: