Existential theory: helping school counselors attend to youth at risk for violence

Professional School Counseling, June, 2003 by Laurie A. Carlson

One place for the school counselor to start is to affirm Jay of the personal strength it took for him to make the decision to come in and talk about his life. Jay's presence with the school counselor is a testament to the fact that Jay is already engaged with his life experience in a strong way. Jay recognizes and articulates his current understanding of his life situation and his fear of uncontrolled anger. Identification of these characteristics as strengths will help to engage Jay in a positive counseling relationship and will help him to realize that he is capable of making personal choices regarding his own experience. This strategy is also paramount to establishing trust with Jay. As Sandhu (2000) indicates, a trusting and therapeutic relationship is often difficult to establish with alienated, angry students. From a foundation of trust, the school counselor can engage Jay in a dialogue concerning the choices he has regarding his relationships, his illegal activities, his feelings of anger, and subsequently his future.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS

Existentialism appears to provide a base for understanding and intervening with youth at risk for violent behavior. The school counselor may better understand students through the existential issues of meaninglessness, isolation, freedom, and anxiety. Research shows that removing behavioral symptoms is not enough; school counselors must also understand the context and underpinnings of student behavior so that underlying factors do not manifest differently in the future (Cohn, 1997). Because violent acts are so much a part of how perpetrators express struggles with existential issues, it is imperative that the school counselor aspires to understand the student's "full" experience. School counselors who work from an existential framework, as a function of their theoretical view, strive to discover the fuller meaning of any phenomenon (Cohn).

Although there are benefits to using an existential approach, challenges do exist for school counselors desiring to use this perspective in working with youth at risk for violent behavior. One challenge is that there are no set techniques or agendas. Because of their very nature, existential factors cannot be compartmentalized, detached from a student, or easily explained. Working through an existential perspective can be a slow and arduous task. This is especially problematic in a setting such as a school where school counselors have a large number of students to serve and often do not have the luxury of time.

CONCLUSION

School violence continues to be studied by educators, psychologists, sociologists, and counselors. The perpetration of a violent act may be framed existentially as a desire for meaning and belonging, or as a reaction to the fear and anxiety caused by repressed anger or free choice. School violence is a complex and emotionally charged phenomenon. Existentialism as a humanistic psychology seems an appropriate choice for addressing such phenomenon as it embraces the notion that there are limits to the purely scientific understanding of human behavior (Harcum, 1996).