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School adjustment counselor skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Dawnette Cigrand Ph.D.,

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical school adjustment counselor skills. We ranked the top skills for school adjustment counselors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.2% of school adjustment counselor resumes contained behavioral support as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a school adjustment counselor needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 school adjustment counselor skills for your resume and career

1. Behavioral Support

Here's how school adjustment counselors use behavioral support:

Assisted special needs students with social-emotional issues and developed the necessary student behavioral support plans.
Coordinate and consult with classroom teachers in developing and implementing positive behavioral support plans.

2. Crisis Intervention

Here's how school adjustment counselors use crisis intervention:

Provided crisis intervention as needed and follow-up to assess and ensure a positive outcome and stabilization.
Facilitated case management and crisis intervention for students in need.

3. Group Therapy

Group psychotherapy or group therapy is the practice of treating a group of clients together in one sitting throughout multiple sessions. This practice allows people to receive encouragement and support from their peers who are taking the same group therapy.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use group therapy:

Provided individual and group therapy for special education and regular education students.
Facilitated weekly group therapy in Social Skills training, self-care and new student transitions.

5. Mental Health Issues

Here's how school adjustment counselors use mental health issues:

Participated in curriculum development and provided staff training on mental health issues and their effect on learning.
Consulted with staff regarding student mental health issues!

6. Education Plan

Here's how school adjustment counselors use education plan:

Write and implement Individualized Education Plans.
Enforced guidelines for properly writing & implementing Individual Education Plans.

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7. Family Therapy

Here's how school adjustment counselors use family therapy:

Provided therapy to chemically dependent persons and their families in individual family therapy sessions and in a multiple family group format.
Provided therapeutic support to families towards reunification and return home where appropriate; providing brief family therapy and intervention when needed.

8. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution is an often necessary skill in business, employed for processes such as contract negotiations, legal matters, and even personal, emotional situations and conflicts. It is the ability to find and create an appropriate and peaceful solution to some sort of dilemma or argument in which two or more parties are involved. The resolution itself must benefit and satisfy all parties and this is what makes it so difficult to reach a peaceful point sometimes.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use conflict resolution:

Implemented Anti-Bullying Curriculum; provided mediation, conflict resolution, and anger management.
Led psycho-educational conflict resolution group to ELS students.

9. Behavior Intervention

Here's how school adjustment counselors use behavior intervention:

Develop and implement FBA's, Behavior Intervention Plans, 504's, and social/emotional goals for IEP's.
Create Behavior Intervention Plans for students with a variety of behaviors CPI Certified

10. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use community resources:

Make referrals to community resources for services outside of the school setting as needed.
Served as liaison between the school and community resources.

11. Behavioral Issues

Behavioral issues are the tendencies of individuals displaying unpleasant behavior as a result of sickness or addiction.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use behavioral issues:

Provided individual and small group counseling to students with social-emotional and behavioral issues.
Implemented group projects, encouraged participation, responded to and resolved behavioral issues according to management code of conduct.

12. Substance Abuse

Here's how school adjustment counselors use substance abuse:

Organized a middle school program on teen substance abuse awareness and prevention.
Developed and implemented an extra intensive out-patient program for individuals struggling with repeated relapses while in out-patient treatment for substance abuse.

13. Crisis Management

Here's how school adjustment counselors use crisis management:

Provide crisis management and subsequent counseling.
Provided individual counseling in response to student needs, requests and/or crisis management.

14. Anger Management

Anger management is a program that helps with anger prevention and control. The process involves identifying signs of anger and learning how to prevent outbursts or destructive behavior.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use anger management:

Group Counseling: Anger ManagementAnti-Bullying coordinator and trainer.
Facilitated anger management and parenting groups.

15. DCF

DCF (discounted cash flow) refers to a valuation technique used to determine an investment's present value based on its projected future cash flows. The foundation of DCF analysis is the concept that a dollar received today is more valuable than a dollar you'll receive in the future because the former can be invested.

Here's how school adjustment counselors use dcf:

Communicated with DCF in regards to students as needed

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What skills help School Adjustment Counselors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on school adjustment counselor resumes?

Dr. Dawnette Cigrand Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, Winona State University

-Creative problem solving
-Ability to engage students who are overwhelmed or disengaged
-Technology proficiencies
-Resilience and perseverance

What soft skills should all school adjustment counselors possess?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills are important, including openness to work with people with varying religious views. The ability to easily connect with others and put people at ease in your presence is valuable in working with clients and collaborating with a treatment team. As more and more agencies interact with the medical field, spiritual leaders, and other holistic approaches to health, counselors need to see their role in an interdisciplinary approach to healing and work effectively with other departments. With teletherapy/virtual therapy, just the simple difficulty of creating eye contact when one's camera is not directly aligned with their viewscreen can complicate important connections in the therapeutic relationship. Learning to effectively connect through screens is essential.

What hard/technical skills are most important for school adjustment counselors?

Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.

Associate Professor of the Practice, Program Director, Master's Program in Mental Health Counseling, Boston College

-Differential diagnosis to determine whether a person is experiencing an adjustment problem related to everyday life stressors or mental illness
-Knowledge and application of developmental and personality theory to human behavior.
-Experience in using multiple evidence-based psychotherapy models
-Psychological assessment, especially in neuropsychological testing
-Research design and implementation to study
-Program development
-Curriculum design and teaching skills

What school adjustment counselor skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Laura L. Gallo Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Boise State University

If a student takes a gap year- I think looking for opportunities to work with children/adolescents, especially in diverse settings, would be most beneficial, or even working abroad would be great. School counselors who can bring diverse views into the school setting will benefit everyone (staff, students, and families). As far as how they go about doing it, networking is helpful, or working with organizations who organize these types of experiences for counselors and educators (use the skills you've been trained in!).

What type of skills will young school adjustment counselors need?

Chris Hennington Ph.D.

School Counseling Program Coordinator, Lubbock Christian University

School counselors will be tasked with the usual school counseling responsibilities while also encountering trauma that students experience outside of school and in school. Being well versed in trauma response is going to be a vital aspect of being a school counselor. Kids are experiencing more trauma, but we are getting better at recognizing and treating trauma as well.

What technical skills for a school adjustment counselor stand out to employers?

Dr. Cecy Brooks

Visiting Assistant Professor, Mississippi University for Women

Due to the pandemic, many graduates had to finish their classes online, meaning that for most, that required more independent learning and virtual team work. Employers will definitely look at how well you function in a virtual environment, especially whether you can conduct and host virtual meetings. Being aware of how multiple systems such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Go-to-Meeting, and Zoom work can help distinguish a potential candidate. Written skills are also important as email communication may be the primary way to communicate with those within and outside of the organization. Understanding how to write in a clear and concise manner can help boost your resume to the top. Additionally, in some work settings, in-person meetings may not be possible, so you may be writing more messages when you are unable to "see" or call someone on the phone.

Do you want to know more?

List of school adjustment counselor skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a school adjustment counselor resume and required skills for a school adjustment counselor to have include:

Behavioral Support
Crisis Intervention
Group Therapy
Social Work
Mental Health Issues
Education Plan
Family Therapy
Conflict Resolution
Behavior Intervention

Community Resources
Behavioral Issues
Substance Abuse
Crisis Management
Anger Management
DCF
Group Sessions
Individual Therapy
Learning Disabilities

FBA
K-5
PBIS
Behavior Management Systems
School Administration
IST
Community Agencies
Individual Sessions
Behavioral Problems

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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