Reflecting back on the very beginning of my Capella academic journey, I have really grown both professionally and personally. An original goal when entering Capella was to be able to help students because of the issues they face in the school setting. In the beginning of my program my idea of school counseling was supporting students through issues that occur at school that prevent them from succeeding. While this is a part of what a school counselor does, my understanding of school counseling has expanded immensely. For instance, now I understand that school counselors support all students through advocacy, collaboration, leadership, and social justice in the areas of social-emotional, personal, and college and career readiness. Further, school counselors do more than just deal with issues that only occur in the school setting. The school counselor provides services for students, advocates on their behalf and empowers them to advocate for themselves, and collaborates with families, and community…show more content… From initial courses, continued practice in track one and track two, and further course have consistently showcased how important empathy is in the counseling setting. In my practice role-plays as the counselor and client, one of the best ways to get clients to accept you and trust you as well as for the client to feel secure and safe is to provide empathy. As the client, when the counselor did not show empathy for what I was going through, I felt that they did not understand and it made me not want to go further into the counseling relationship. When I was the counselor, I could tell when I missed something and did not show empathy because students would not respond in an open way. Therefore, communicating genuine empathy to clients is essential to the counseling process and not much can get done without communicating empathy about what students are going
