Essential Counseling Knowledge and Skills to Prepare Student Affairs Staff to Promote Emotional Wellbeing and to Intervene With Students in Distress

Abstract

The focus on helping students transform their lives has emerged as part of the mission of many colleges and universities. Campus-based student affairs personnel contribute to this endeavor through their efforts to create a campus ecology conducive to supporting and promoting well-being and by their engagement with students in their time of need. These two types of involvement with students necessitate that graduate studies programs in student affairs educate future student affairs professionals in the knowledge base and, at times, the skill base essential to being effective in both population-focused and individual assistance. This article delineates several aspects of the counseling and health promotion knowledge base and related competencies students should acquire during their graduate program in student affairs. It divides the knowledge and skill base into activities that are primarily growth and prevention oriented and those that are focused on helping students resolve existing challenges commonly encountered during enrollment in college.