When Leah saw the opportunity to become a guidance officer, she took the opportunity with both hands. Working with the Department of Education, Leah shares her experience supporting the wellbeing of her students and why she is passionate about her job.
What inspired you to study this course?
When I worked as a primary school teacher, I savored the brief moments I had to lend an ear and comfort a distressed or overwhelmed child, but I was always left with this underlying guilt that I couldn't do more. I loved being able to educate children but having spent my entire teaching career in schools within low socio-economic areas, I noticed that the success of some students depended on wellbeing intervention and support. As a result, I decided to explore the role of Guidance Officer to become better equipped at supporting students and advocating for their needs within the educational context. This is what led me to begin my Master of Education in School Guidance and Counselling.
What do you enjoy about your job?
I love the multifaceted nature of my role. As a high school Guidance Officer, I am qualified in counselling individuals as they navigate the ups and downs of life and making sure they are engaged in their education. Children and teenagers are in a phase of their life where they are so desperately trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into the world. Internal and external influences such as hormones, relationships, and peer pressure often force internalised behaviours such as detachment and anxiety or externalised ones including aggression and defiance to become their coping mechanisms.
Combining these common issues with adversity such as trauma, neglect and a lack of support and safety creates a recipe for dysregulated, insecure and confused students who simply don't have the capacity to engage in their education. Fortunately, I am the person that gets to intervene when it all becomes too much and can support these individuals in gradually improving their well-being. The best part about my job is breaking down barriers and building a rapport with students within an environment of unconditional positive regard.
The power of empathising with another human and being completely present in a safe space that they feel comfortable in is miraculous. There is something special about being the first point of eye contact a usually reserved child gives you when they tilt their head up after sharing something personal, or when an angry student uncrosses their arms when you respond to them with 'that must be really tough', or when a child breathes a sigh of relief at the end of a session and says, 'it felt really good to talk'. I feel like my role enables me to create a doorway between giving up and having hope; something that is so needed in schools full of children experiencing unprecedented adversity that attempts to riddle them with hopelessness.
How has this course helped you in your current role?
This course could not have been more relevant and useful to the Guidance Officer role. It was full of practical information and teaching staff who had been Guidance Officer's themselves and were able to deliver course content with a real-world perspective in mind. Not only has my study at QUT prepared me for my role as a Guidance Officer, but it has enabled me to become a member of the Australian Counselling Association and a qualified counsellor. I hope to one day open my own private counselling practice, and I know that this course and my time as a Guidance Officer will provide me with invaluable knowledge and experience as I pursue that career venture.
Please share some of your career highlights, interesting projects or moments you've been a part of.
As I'm nearing the end of my first year as a Guidance Officer, I've had the opportunity to 'see things through' with the students I support regularly and being able to witness the growth and resilience that comes from almost 40 weeks of students' engaging in school guidance has been truly heart-warming. My greatest career highlight would have to be last week when a student said to me 'you saved my life'. I was simply speechless, and those words stayed with me for hours after they were said. I went home and felt so grateful that I had the courage to go back to university and get my Masters. Other comments that have truly hit home and made me realise that I am exactly where I'm meant to be included a student telling me that my guidance helped them to graduate from high school, or another one saying that their sessions with me have inspired them to alter their career pathway and study counselling.
Learn more about a Master of Education (School Guidance and Counselling).
