Andrew Stegenga

Interview with Clinical Mental Health Counselor

I’m not in contact with any counselors, so finding one that would follow up with me and actually

had the additional time proved to be exceedingly tricky. I interviewed Becky Peele who is a

Guidance Counselor at Trindale Elementary school. While she isn’t exactly a Clinical Mental

Health Counselor, she assured me that while different, her credentials are very similar and that

she could give an interesting insight into working within a school environment. After

undergraduate, she immediately launched into a master’s degree in School Counseling, which

was spread over 14 months as well as four summer sessions and two normal semesters. Her

degree acquisition also required her to participate in a year-long internship with a local K-12

school. In order to become licensed, she took the Praxis II for School Counseling in NC. She has

various additional training and certifications that have been relevant and required for her work in

the school setting. She also stated that due to the number of credit hours and courses that her

master’s program required, she is considered to have an advanced master’s degree. She had

training in crisis prevention (CPI), suicide prevention (ASIST), trauma-informed resiliency

training (Reconnect for Resilience), and child sexual abuse prevention (Darkness to Light)

among others. Mrs. Peele specializes in school counseling and has worked in three elementary

school locations in North Carolina, one in Roxboro where she served K-2, Seagrove, and

Archdale, where the populations she works with are K-5. Her current place of employment is at

Trindale Elementary school in Archdale, North Carolina. Here she continues to serve a

population of young students that are majority White/Caucasian and lower Socioeconomic

Status. The counselor student ratio of her population is 1:370 if you include the pre-Kindergarten

students, but the vast majority of her work takes place with students K-5, a ratio of 1:305.
 Andrew Stegenga

         When asked about what she found particularly rewarding and most challenging she

strongly emphasized that she loves helping students; ”It is especially rewarding when a student

who previously had a lot of anxiety or anger start using the coping tools you have given them

and they begin to feel better.” She finds it both challenging and rewarding when dealing with

students in difficult family situations; “it is rewarding when you are able to help make a

difference but very it is difficult in all of the situations where things are out of your hands.” She

recounted that she had some students with violent tendencies which proved to be challenging

mentally and physically, but the rewarding feeling she had when she was able to make a

connection with them proved to be greater than the challenge. She strongly values the ability to

work with students, families, and staff cooperatively on improving skills they will need their

entire lives. “I feel that a counselor has a different relationship with many of the families than

either a school social worker or teacher, allowing us to work together in a different capacity on

issues facing the student or family.” When requested to elaborate further on the role of

collaboration, Mrs. Peele enthusiastically explained that collaboration with other professionals is

essential to the daily functioning of her position at the school. Without collaboration with other

school staff members, she would have little access to the students while they are in class and

would miss out on referrals and pertinent information from families. Much of the time, referrals

originate with teachers, teaching assistants, or office staff who have either heard from families

about their needs or made environmental observations, such as in the classroom or on a field trip,

which she would otherwise miss as she does not see each student on a daily basis. She had given

a great overview of her work and it seemed appropriate to ask if she’d do it all over again. She

told me “I love my work as a school counselor, and I do feel like I would choose this path again

if given the opportunity.” She previously considered becoming a teacher or a fully-fledged

 Andrew Stegenga

Clinical Mental Health Counselor, but her role as a school counselor combines both of her

passions, allowing her to merge working with students and taking care of their physical, social,

and emotional needs within an educational setting. While she has worked in very similar settings,

she compared the benefits and challenges between the various school areas she’s worked in. Her

first school had two counselors, one serving K-2 and one serving 3-5. It was a larger school, so

the counselor-to-student ratios were roughly equal to her other settings, but she said it was

beneficial to have another person to plan with and to help with school-wide events. Her

challenges have varied depending on the setting and the different mental health needs of the

students enrolled. Some of her schools had students with far more violent outbursts when

compared to her current place of employment, though each setting has presented its own unique

challenges.

         As mentioned previously, Mrs. Peele works at a K-5 elementary school, therefore the

organizational structure is quite different than that of a Clinical Mental Health Counselor. For

instance, there is not a traditional financial structure, like a sliding scale, as the school is publicly

funded which makes all services that she provides free as a part of public education. She

mentioned that Trindale is a Title I school, which is determined by the number of students

eligible for free or reduced lunch and therefore receives more federal funding combined with that

of the state and local tax funds. The execution of these funds is mostly up to the discretion of the

principal, after a need’s assessment is conducted so that he can best allocate the funds. She also

uses funds allocated to the county’s Student Services department and her local counseling

program. A more detailed breakdown of the population served is students that are generally

between the ages of 5-11 years old. The breakdown is approximately 70% white, 10% Asian,

10% Hispanic, and 10% other ethnicities (African American, Native American, Multiracial). A
 Andrew Stegenga

large percentage of students served are in a lower SES as measured by the number of families

who qualify for free/reduced lunch. The most common diagnoses that she deals with are ADHD

and different levels of Autism. There have been other issues to arise, but they are not always

officially diagnosed for one reason or another. Mrs. Peele offers various services to the students

and their families. She provides individual counseling, small group counseling, and classroom

guidance lessons for the students in order to address immediate reactionary needs, as well as,

provide preventative education on coping skills and problem-solving. She assists families in

finding resources including food, Christmas assistance, clothing, or other financial needs. While

the school does not market its services through external advertising, there are frequent campaigns

that help to raise the awareness of the services to parents and guardians, typically by way of take-

home fliers or open meetings. Due to the nature of a school, there are many moving parts and

various important roles that ensure that day to day operations proceeded smoothly. Mrs. Peele

provided a detailed breakdown of the employees, which is as follows:

Full-Time Part-Time or Shared (~33-50%)

Principal Assistant Principal
Lead Teacher AIG Teacher
Classroom Teachers (General Ed.) ESL Teacher
Teaching Assistants (General Ed.) Art Teacher
Office Staff Music Teachers
Cafeteria Staff PE Teacher
Custodial Staff Nurse
Exceptional Children’s Teacher Social Worker
Functional Skills Teacher and Assistant Daycare staff
PreK Teachers & Assistants (Serving Gen. Ed. & EC students)
Speech-Language Pathologist
Reading Specialist
Media Specialist
School Counselor
 Andrew Stegenga

As far as anticipate mental health concerns, she believes they are seeing an uptick in

students arriving in school with mental health issues (diagnosed or otherwise), who will

need increasing support to meet their social-emotional and educational needs.

The interview as a whole was very informative to me and helped to nudge me further into

the direction of counseling that I want to pursue. I’ve always been a bit apprehensive with

children and while I am not voiding therapy with them outright, I do think that I’d like to be in a

setting where I more frequently deal with adolescents and older. The structure of a school is

incredibly complex, and I think that I would like to work in an environment with fewer moving

parts and more information exchanged in both directions. While she does not advertise her

services to the public as a school counselor, I will need when I enter private practice. I started

thinking about this when she explained how important referrals and the exchange of information

with her colleagues are, this also me made think of how that will play out in practicum,

internship, and career after graduation. She was very passionate about her job and you could tell

that she knows that she is doing good for the students and their families and I want to be that

passionate when talking about my career as a CMHC.