Personal counseling is also subsumed within the general duties of the professional staff within the Counseling Division. The nature of the personal counseling performed is threefold: developmental, remedial, and preventive.
The developmental function enhances student development and facilitates optimal use of Foothill's services and resources. It also encourages positive and realistic self-appraisal, intellectual development , appropriate personal and career choices, positive interpersonal relationships, and general personal well-being.
The remedial function addresses various students' problems with personal adjustment and adaptation within the context of college attendance and its concomitant challenges. For example, remedial personal counseling addresses current or long-standing family, economic, relationship, and work pressures which may be impeding academic progress, positive student-professor relationships, lack of self-discipline, poor study habits and/or time management skills, and academic underachievement.
The preventive aspect of the personal counseling function anticipates and eliminates or minimizes the impact of environmental stressors through various intervention strategies.
The Counseling Division provides developmental, remedial, and preventive personal counseling by providing the following services to students, and to some degree, the general Foothill College community:
- Individual counseling in the areas of personal, educational, career development, interpersonal relationships, family, and social problems.
- Classes (for credit) which assist students in such areas as effective study skills, career development, assertiveness training, etc.
- Psychological testing and other assessment measures to foster self-awareness and decision-making.
- Counseling support to students on academic probation or those seeking academic reinstatement after academic disqualification.
- Staff and faculty programming dedicated to professional development and organizational change.
- Referrals of students with serious personal adjustment problems which require immediate professional attention and fall outside the domains of counseling expertise to Psychological Services.
