School Counseling

The vision of the Souderton Area Middle School Counseling Program is to be successful collaborators with all stakeholders and advocates for all students. As an advocate for all students, we will work diligently to find any disparities that may exist and create opportunities for students to be happy and successful in school. More specifically, we believe in following a comprehensive model for school counseling that focuses on collecting meaningful data in order to continually improve and monitor our school counseling program. Our vision as school counselors is to be a positive influence on the school community by creating partnerships with faculty and staff, parents, and community resources. We envision that by working with all of these stakeholders, the students of the school will be even better supported in order to create positive relationships with one another and accomplish their academic and post-secondary goals.

The mission of the Souderton Area Middle School Counseling Program is to support all students in their journey towards academic and personal/social growth, while also providing them with the opportunity to gain knowledge and an increased awareness of post-secondary and career options. We strive to create a positive school climate where all students can thrive and learn, as they prepare for a successful future.

The Souderton Area Middle School Counselors are dedicated to meeting the academic, personal, social and career developmental needs of our student population. We aim to support our students and their families in successfully navigating the middle school years by providing a comprehensive school counseling program aligned with the American School Counseling Association National Model. We work closely with teachers, staff and administrators to provide a safe and effective learning environment for all of our students.

Counselors are available during the school day to meet with students. Our offices are located within Student Services. With a teacher's permission, a student may come to see a counselor or make an appointment. We also meet with students based on teacher or parent referrals.

Counseling Services include:

• Individual student counseling
• Small group counseling
• Career development
• Developmental classroom lessons
• Collaboration with other student services
• Consultation with parents, teachers and other professionals

The 6th Grade Guidance Class is designed to support students in developing skills and strategies to be successful across three domains: academic, social/emotional, and career. 
In this course, students will expand their understanding of academic tools, social strategies and career awareness and readiness. Topics to help foster self-awareness across these three domains will include: study skills, organization, stress management, conflict resolution, and skills and qualities that they possess that would make them a valuable employee in the 21st Century. In addition, students will use the following program, pathwayMANAGER, which is their primary resource for documenting Career Readiness Artifacts through their K-12 educational experience. Through the completion of personality assessments, engaging activities, and relevant projects, students will gain pertinent skills and knowledge to make personal plans to implement these important life skills. This personal plan will be the culminating project for students to turn in at the end of the course.

For further information, please see our Grade 6 UNITS OF STUDY and visit our Schoology Page (Parents of 6th Grade Students Only).

SAP provides resources for students that are experiencing problems that interfere with their ability to achieve, academic, personal/social, and career success. SAP is a student assistance program that is implemented to help with:

• substance abuse
• mental and physical health issues
• eating disorders
• grief and loss
• family concerns
• anxiety/stress
• peer relationships
• self harm behaviors
• depression

The Souderton Area School District has instituted SAP teams district wide consisting of professional staff who have received specialized training in identification and referral of "at-risk" students. SAP teams seek to promote healthy, safe, and substance-free lifestyles by connecting these students and their families with appropriate school-based or community resources. Although the SAP team promotes healthy lifestyles by connecting potential at-risk youth with school-based or community resources it is not a treatment program. Parental consent and active participation are both very necessary for the SAP process to be effective.