TPC Journal-V6, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 4 355 In an effort to reduce school counselors’ burnout and potentially increase their delivery of direct student services, practitioners and supervisors can initiate wellness-related activities. Butler and Constantine (2005) noted that peer supervision or consultation along with social support from colleagues and administrators might be helpful for reducing the effects of burnout. Furthermore, Lawson and Myers (2011) reported on the highest rated career-sustaining behavior, which provides potential to support the wellness of school counseling practitioners. As Meyer and Ponton (2006) noted, counselors as a whole tend to put their own wellness to the side in order to provide services to their clients. Therefore, another consideration for school districts and school counseling organizations is to offer wellness-focused training that could raise attention to counselors’ level of stress and burnout and provide strategies to enhance their wellness. Additionally, school counselors should remember to advocate for the profession and for themselves (Young & Lambie, 2007). It is important that administrators understand the critical wellness needs of school counselors, and school counselors should be among the first to advocate for this cause. As these findings indicate, there is a relationship between burnout and the quality of services offered by school counselors. Therefore, it is important that counselors “learn to be their own advocates and help dysfunctional workplaces become well” (Young & Lambie, 2007, p. 99). In summary, this study examined the association of practicing school counselors’ degree of burnout, perceived stress and frequency of direct student services. The findings indicated that higher levels of burnout contribute to a decreased frequency of direct student services. Furthermore, school counselors’ perceived stress does not contribute to their facilitation of direct student services, but was positively associated with burnout. Overall, these findings are encouraging because the descriptive statistics indicate that school counselors operate at a low level of burnout and perceived stress and provide a moderate to high frequency of direct student services. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics . Alexandria, VA: Author. American School Counselor Association. (1999). The role of the professional school counselor . Alexandria, VA: Author. American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (1st ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author. American School Counselor Association. (2012). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author. Baggerly, J., & Osborn, D. (2006). School counselors’ career satisfaction and commitment: Correlates and predictors. Professional School Counseling , 9 , 197–205. doi:10.5330/prsc.18.1.428818712j5k8677 Barnett, V., & Lewis, T. (1994). Outliers in statistical data (Vol. 3). New York, NY: Wiley. Burnham, J. J., & Jackson, C. M. (2000). School counselor roles: Discrepancies between actual practice and exis- ting models. Professional School Counseling , 4 , 41–49. Butler, S. K., & Constantine, M. G. (2005). Collective self-esteem and burnout in professional school counselors. Professional School Counseling , 9 , 55–62. doi:10.5330/prsc.9.1.17n4415l163720u5