1. Introduction and Group Formation

Mental health within an academic setting has become a contentious and complex subject for society. Here, students are faced with a much more perverse social environment that has severe implications for their overall mental health and well-being. Compounding these issues, are socioeconomic instances that further exacerbate and already negative mental health environment. These issues are not only complex, but are becoming more pervasive within society. Elements such as income inequality, lower wages for low skilled jobs, rising crime, and other issues all can plaque students. Still further issues relate to media and its indirect impact of teenagers. Here, these elements include very aggressive video games, unrealistic expectations based on social media posts, television ads, and inappropriate music. All of these elements coalesce to form an environment in which active and engage counseling within an academic setting. Counselors will not only be able to improve the mental health of students dealing with the elements presented above, they can also improve social-emotional well-being of participants as well. As it relates to the group description, many of the students who will participate in the counseling session are considered at-risk in many respects. These students often suffer from poor family dynamics which makes it difficult to succeed both personally and professionally. These dynamics could potentially include physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse or other forms of family dysfunction. These students also suffer from poor academic performance as a result of past traumas or current experiencing within there community. Here, these elements can take many forms which include a community heavily engaged in crime. Lack of role models within a particular community or low socioeconomic status. The duration of the sessions will last 24 months. When forming the psychoeducational group, it is important to have both similarities and differences within all group members. Here, group members will be screened based on the severity of their circumstances and their potential ability to rectify their current situation. The group will be formed by those with differing cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to help reinforce a diversity of opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints. To identify these potential candidates, it is important to create relationship with teachers, staff, school leaders, and coaches. These individuals can better identify students who could benefit from intervention services, thus providing a high quality and reputable input (Alexander, 1990).

2. Theoretical Foundation

To begin, the theoretical foundations of psychotherapy are based heavily on the theory of personality and the overall etiology of emotional trauma. Here group theoretical foundations will be based on the view that psychoneuroses reflect the conflict of instinctual desires and the limitations and circumstances imposed by society. This can come in many forms but often results in adverse consequences for the child and their overall community. It is important, from a counseling perspective to recognize that different theoretical approaches will have different impacts on different individuals. As a result, it is important for counselors to leverage a variety of different theoretical frameworks to better adapt to the needs of their high school clients. As a result, the theoretical foundations for this proposal will utilize various components of the psychodynamic, humanistic and behavioral counseling principles (Broderick, 2010).

The theoretical foundations of the group counseling sessions will be based heavily on group cooperation and involvement. In addition, the next theoretical foundation will be based on properly developing the conscious, subconscious, and unconscious mind of the individual. Here, all three categories have a direct impact on the effectiveness of the overall counseling sessions. Those who are attending the sessions often have unconscious biases and heuristics that harm their ability...

…Armed with these understandings, counselors will be a much better position to understand, related, and even show empathy to minority students.

Likewise with proper context and understanding, counselors can be advocates for students in both the academic and professional setting. By advocating on the behalf of their students, counselors can help improve the circumstances of their students, provide a positive example, while also fostering trust. This ultimately help improve the overall profession as more counselors become aware of the diverse needs of their clients and their communities respectively.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, the proposal looks to help improve the outcomes of at-risk high school teenagers. As discussed throughout the proposal, a variety of techniques will be implemented throughout the intervention process. This diversified approach is designed to appeal to students with a variety of different backgrounds, cultures, and socioeconomic conditions. This ultimately, will help to improve the overall intervention process as students have a diverse group of experiences in which to drawfrom.

Likewise, the counseling sessions themselves will rely on a variety of different counseling principles to better aid teenage students in their development. Here, these program looks to recognize the heavy social burden teenagers are going through. As noted above, teenagers are struggling with physical change, confusion related to social constructs, finding a meaning in life, and a need to connect with others. As a result, it is important for counseling sessions to address these needs in a creative, engaging and proactive manner. To properly accomplish, the proposal includes a variate of create intervention solutions that leverage music, art, dance, and other activities that teenage students are passionate about. It does so in a manner that allows them to overcome many of their traumatic circumstances while also helping them to improve their overall soft skills (Elligan, 200). These improvements will ultimately allow these…