School-based family counselling

1. Introduction

Version followed: the SBFC metamodel as organised in Gerrard, Carter & Ribera (Eds.), School-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner's Guide (Routledge; print date July 2019, usually cited as 2020), using its published chapter structure. The five-area version (school intervention, school prevention, family intervention, family prevention, community intervention) comes from Gerrard, Hernandez & Deb (Eds., 2023), School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster. Confirmed from publisher and bookseller pages and the Cal State LA SBFC faculty pages: the chapter list and titles, the five metamodel areas, the book's fixed chapter format (background, procedure, evidence base, multicultural considerations, challenges and solutions, resources), the existence of the decision tree, and that multiculturally focused conjoint family counselling drawing on parents' information and strengths is the core method of the Cal State LA SBFC clinic. Not confirmed: the chapter texts themselves, including the decision tree's branches, the conjoint session format and the crisis procedures [uncertain]. Step lists therefore remain [synthesis] unless a source is given. [source: Routledge 2020 and 2023 pages; BVB TOC; genialokal bookseller description; Carter and Hernandez faculty pages]

What it is. School-based family counselling (SBFC) is not a single manualised therapy. It is an interdisciplinary metamodel: a framework that organises mental health work for students so that school and family are linked. The people who practise it include school counsellors, social workers, school psychologists, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists and special-education teachers. They usually work on the school site, or from a community agency that works closely with schools. [source: Wikipedia SBFC; Routledge 2020 page; T&F 2023 chapter abstract]

Origins. Its lineage runs back to Alfred Adler's guidance clinics attached to Vienna schools in the 1920s, where staff counselled parents and teachers, often together. Rudolf Dreikurs popularised the approach in the United States. The contemporary SBFC movement grew around Brian Gerrard and colleagues. Gerrard was at the University of San Francisco, chairs the Institute for School-Based Family Counseling and directs the Oxford Symposium in SBFC. The movement also includes the International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling and a university–school counselling programme, the Center for Child & Family Development. [source: Wikipedia SBFC; Routledge 2020 editor bios]

How change happens. The model is ecological. Family and school are the two main settings that shape a child's functioning (Bronfenbrenner is the stated basis). A student's difficulties are best changed by joining the two systems: one practitioner or team works at the same time on the family (treatment and prevention), on the school (teacher and classroom treatment and prevention) and on community resources. The aim is to build protective factors, and to repair the family–school relationship itself. [source: Wikipedia SBFC; Shechtman 2026]

2. Framework

Structure: the metamodel areas. These are not sequential phases. They are areas of intervention that are combined case by case. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC; Routledge 2023 page; Shechtman 2026]

The 2020 practitioner's guide treats community work as a separate chapter ("Developing community resources"). The 2023 volume makes community intervention a fifth metamodel area. Shechtman (2026) gives a simplified 2×2 version (school or family × prevention or treatment). [uncertain] Whether the 2020 book itself calls community work a fifth quadrant is not stated in the cited sources.

What the metamodel covers. An SBFC-associated account (University of Pretoria, on van Schalkwyk's work) describes the metamodel as a broad systems frame that places a child's problem within all their interpersonal networks: family, peer group, classroom, school (teachers, principal, other students) and community. It sets goals that cross the usual line between school counselling and family counselling. [source: Univ. of Pretoria van Schalkwyk page] How each chapter is built. Every intervention chapter in the 2020 guide uses the same headings: background, procedure, evidence base, multicultural considerations, challenges and solutions, and resources. Online video lectures and simulations of specific interventions accompany it. A clinician with the book should therefore find a procedure section for each item in section 4. [source: genialokal product page; Routledge 2020 page]

Process across a case [synthesis: the sources name case conceptualization and a decision tree for choosing interventions, but their procedure is not reproduced here]:

1. Referral and engagement (about 1–2 contacts). Referrals come from a teacher, a parent, a student-study team or a self-referral. The practitioner frames the work around school success and contacts parents flexibly (phone, letter, email, video, home visit, extended hours). Move on when a caregiver (or, failing that, the student) has agreed to work together.
2. Assessment and SBFC case conceptualization (about 1–3 contacts). The practitioner gathers information from the family, the teacher, school records and observation; carries out a family strength assessment; and writes a conceptualization that covers all metamodel areas. Move on when there is a shared formulation and a written plan that names at least one family-side and one school-side intervention.
3. Intervention. Interventions are chosen from the areas (the book provides a decision tree, its branches are [uncertain]). Typical formats:
   • parent consultation and conjoint sessions, often brief and as needed;
   • teacher consultation (several short meetings);
   • groups with fixed lengths in the cited school studies: 12 weekly class sessions for a democratic-values classroom programme, 6 affective-teaching lessons, and 15-session therapeutic student groups and parent groups [source: Shechtman 2026].
4. Review. Teacher, parent and student data are compared against the plan. Elements are added, stopped or referred out.
5. Closure or step-up. Closure comes when school functioning and home–school communication have stabilised. Step-up means referral to community or specialist services (see the referral process).

Session count. No fixed number is published for SBFC as a whole. [uncertain] The cited sources give no typical length for an individual case.

Certification and fidelity. The cited sources describe no licensing, certification or fidelity monitoring for practising under the SBFC name. Training routes: the Cal State LA graduate SBFC programme (an MFT+PPS/CWA track, co-coordinated by Michael Carter and Emily Hernandez, with an SBFC clinic where Carter is director and Hernandez co-director); the University of San Francisco programme in the past; and the annual Oxford Symposium in SBFC, sponsored by the Institute for School-Based Family Counseling. The practitioner's guide comes with online video lectures and simulations. Named evidence-based programmes that SBFC writers cite as exemplars have their own training requirements, which must be checked separately: Families and Schools Together (FAST), LIFT, Coping Power and Place2Be. [source: Routledge 2020 page; Carter and Hernandez faculty pages; FAU newsletter 2012; Wikipedia SBFC; encyclopedia.pub entry] [uncertain] The exemplar programmes' requirements are not covered here.

3. Guiding principles

[source: Wikipedia SBFC, which summarises Gerrard & Soriano 2013 and Gerrard, Carter & Ribera 2020, for all principles except where another source is noted]

• Link school and family in every case. Never treat the student only at school or the family only at home. Each plan carries both a school strand and a family strand.
• Integrate remediation with prevention. Alongside the referred case, look for a classroom, school-wide or parent-group action that would prevent the next one.
• Strength-based. See the family as a source of strength. Assess and name strengths before problems, and build interventions on them.
• Parents as equal partners. Treat parents and guardians with respect, as co-experts. Decisions about their child are made with them, not reported to them.
• Advocate for all three: child, family and school. You are not the school's agent against the family, nor the family's agent against the school. Hold a position that serves the child's success.
• Educational framing. Present family involvement as being about helping the child succeed at school rather than as "therapy". This lowers stigma and raises attendance.
• Cultural humility and multicultural competence. Adapt the form of involvement to the family's values. For example, some families centre familia and educación and may support the child at home rather than coming to school events.
• Transform the school, not only the family. Change school practices that marginalise immigrant or low-income parents, such as meeting times, language and how invitations are worded.
• Promote student engagement. Belonging, teacher support, friendships and fair discipline are treated as protective factors against bullying, dropout and violence.
• Accessibility. Services are often free. Offer extended or weekend hours, home visits, phone, email, video and letters.
• Interprofessional collaboration. Cross professional "turf" lines. Use inclusive language and learn the other disciplines' frameworks.
• Ecological view. Assess and intervene at the levels of child, family, classroom, school and community. [source: Shechtman 2026]
• Proactive by nature. Intervene before difficulties consolidate where possible. [source: Shechtman 2026]
• Group formats where they fit. Many SBFC-based school interventions are delivered as groups, which are less stigmatising for parents and give peer learning. [source: Shechtman 2026]
• Adlerian heritage: counsel parents and teachers together. Where possible, bring the adults around the child into the same room. [source: Wikipedia SBFC history]

4. Intervention inventory

How to read this inventory. Every intervention named here is named in a cited source: a chapter title, a programme description or the Wikipedia/Shechtman summaries. Where the chapter text itself is not reproduced in any available source, the step lists are marked [synthesis]. They are written from general good practice and are not the chapter authors' procedures. Example language throughout is illustrative.

4.1 Flexible outreach and engagement of parents

• Purpose and when to use: at every referral, and whenever a parent has not been reached. SBFC writers treat access barriers as the practitioner's job to solve: extended or weekend hours, home visits, phone, email, video and letters. [source: Wikipedia SBFC]
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Before contact, check the family's preferred language and whether an interpreter is needed.
  2. Make the first contact by the parent's preferred channel. Open with a strength or positive observation about the child before stating the concern.
  3. Frame the work as helping the child do well at school.
  4. Offer at least two time and place options, including a home visit or video call.
  5. Confirm in writing in the family's language.
  6. If there is no response after two or three attempts by different channels, ask the teacher or another trusted adult to pass on an invitation, and document every attempt.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm the family counsellor at Lincoln. Ms Rivera tells me Daniel is great with the younger kids. I'd like to work with you so school goes better for him too. Would an evening call or a visit at home suit you better?"
• Watch for: parents who expect blame; a history of bad experiences with the school; work schedules; immigration fears. Working looks like the parent proposing a time or asking questions.

4.2 Family strength assessment

• Purpose and when to use: early in every case, so the plan is built on assets. It is named as an SBFC practice. [source: Wikipedia SBFC] [uncertain] No specific instrument is named.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask each family member (and the teacher) what is going well, what the family is proud of, who helps them, and what has worked before with this child.
  2. Map the supports: extended family, faith community, neighbours, community organisations.
  3. Record cultural values relevant to schooling, such as respect for teachers or the importance of education.
  4. Feed the strengths back to the family in plain words.
  5. Write each strength into the case conceptualization, alongside the intervention that will use it.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we talk about the problems, tell me what you've done that has helped Daniel, even a little."
• Watch for: a list made of empty praise; strengths that are never used in the plan. Working looks like the family adding strengths unprompted and relaxing in the session.

4.3 SBFC case conceptualization

• Purpose and when to use: after the initial information-gathering, before choosing interventions. It is the subject of its own chapter. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 2 (Gerrard)] [uncertain] The chapter's format is not reproduced here.
• Steps [synthesis, organised by the metamodel areas]:
  1. State the presenting problem as seen by the student, each parent and the teacher.
  2. List the family factors that maintain the problem, and the family strengths.
  3. List the school factors that maintain the problem (classroom, peers, discipline, learning) and the school strengths.
  4. List the community factors and resources.
  5. Write a short systemic hypothesis that links the home and school patterns. For example: the more the teacher sends notes home, the more the parent punishes, the more the child disengages.
  6. For each metamodel area, name an intervention (treatment or prevention), who delivers it, and how often.
  7. Define measurable outcomes: attendance, referrals, work completion, teacher and parent ratings.
  8. Share the formulation with the family and the teacher in non-blaming words.
• Example language (illustrative): "It looks like a loop: the notes home, the arguments at home, and Daniel switching off in class all feed each other. Let's see where each of us can break it."
• Watch for: a formulation that blames one system; a plan with only family or only school actions. Working looks like parent and teacher both accepting a role.

4.3a Collage Life-story Elicitation Technique (CLET) as a conceptualization aid

• Purpose and when to use: an optional, expressive way to bring out the relational patterns between child, teacher and family before writing the SBFC conceptualization. It is useful with children who struggle to describe these patterns in words. The CLET comes from G. J. van Schalkwyk, who works within the SBFC frame. It is not part of the Gerrard, Carter & Ribera chapter list. [source: Univ. of Pretoria van Schalkwyk page]
• Steps: the source names four components only: (1) collage-making; (2) storytelling about the collage; (3) positioning of the self within the story and the collage; (4) juxtaposition, setting elements side by side to bring out relational patterns. [source: Univ. of Pretoria van Schalkwyk page] [uncertain] Materials, prompts and timing were not found. [synthesis] Use it in one session with the student (or the family), then carry the patterns it brings out into step 5 (systemic hypothesis) of 4.3.
• Example language (illustrative): "Make a picture of your week using these magazine cuttings. Then tell me the story of it. Where are you in it? Who is next to you, and who is far away?"
• Watch for: reading too much into images. Check every inference with the child. Working looks like the child naming a home–school pattern you can test with the parents and the teacher.

4.4 Choosing interventions with the decision tree

• Purpose: the practitioner's guide includes a decision tree to guide the choice of intervention. [source: Routledge 2020 page] [uncertain] The tree's branches are not reproduced here. Do not present any tree as Gerrard's unless you have the book.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Start with family intervention whenever caregivers can be engaged.
  2. Use family counselling with the individual student only when they cannot (see 4.7). [source: Wikipedia SBFC, "rare cases"]
  3. Add school intervention if classroom factors maintain the problem.
  4. Add prevention elements if several students share the problem.
  5. Add community referral if needs exceed what the school can provide (see 4.17).

4.5 Parent consultation

• Purpose and when to use: described as the most common form of SBFC counselling. Use it when a parent can attend but the full family cannot, or when the issue is parenting strategy and home–school coordination. [source: Wikipedia SBFC]
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Agree on one or two specific concerns.
  2. Explore what the parent has already tried and what happened.
  3. Share school observations factually.
  4. Plan together one home strategy and one school strategy that reinforce each other, such as a shared daily report.
  5. Agree how the parent and teacher will communicate.
  6. Review at the next contact, by phone if needed.
• Example language (illustrative): "You know him at home, the teacher knows him in class. Let's put those together and agree one thing each of you will do this week."
• Watch for: the parent hearing advice as criticism; overloaded plans. Working looks like the parent reporting a strategy they used and its effect.

4.6 Conjoint family counselling to build family–school collaboration

• Purpose and when to use: the core family intervention. Family members, and where useful school staff, meet together to repair the family–school relationship and coordinate around the student. At the Cal State LA SBFC clinic, conjoint family counselling is the core method. It is described as multiculturally focused and collaborative, and it draws on the parents' own information and strengths. Its authors present it as an alternative to a mainly Eurocentric model built on individual diagnosis and treatment, and the clinic reports one of the highest appointment attendance rates for underrepresented groups. The procedure is in ch. 3, "How to Build Collaboration Between the Family and School Using Conjoint Family Counseling Processes" (Hernandez, Ribera & Carter, pp. 68–118), and in Carter's earlier chapter "How to do Conjoint Family Counseling" (Gerrard & Soriano, 2013, ch. 9). An immigrant-family variant is Gopaul-Knights, Hernandez & Carter in School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants (2022/23). [source: Carter and Hernandez faculty pages; Routledge 2020 TOC] [uncertain] The session structure in these chapters was not seen. The steps below are not the authors' procedure.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Prepare the parents and the teacher separately: hear each side's concerns and ask each to come ready to name one strength of the other.
  2. In the session, set a collaborative frame ("we all want X to succeed") and ground rules.
  3. Invite each person, the student included, to describe the problem and what they want.
  4. Track the interaction pattern between home and school (who contacts whom, about what, with what result).
  5. Reframe blame as a shared, stuck pattern.
  6. Negotiate concrete agreements with roles and a communication channel.
  7. Schedule a follow-up to review.
  8. Between sessions, follow up with each party individually.
• Variant: grief and loss. The 2023 volume has a chapter on conjoint family counselling with grief and loss. [source: Routledge 2023 TOC, ch. 11 (Carter & Hernandez)] [uncertain] The chapter's content is not reproduced here. [synthesis] Use the same format to coordinate how home and school acknowledge the loss, plan for anniversaries and adjust academic demands.
• Example language (illustrative): "Mrs Lee, what would you most like Mr Patel to know about how Amy is at home? Mr Patel, what have you noticed she does well?"
• Watch for: power imbalance (school staff outnumbering the parents); language barriers; the student being blamed in front of adults. Working looks like agreements both sides keep and less hostile contact.

4.7 Family counselling with individuals

• Purpose and when to use: family-systems work with the student alone, used in the rare cases where parents cannot be reached or will not attend. The family is still worked with "in the room" through the student. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 4 (Gerrard); Wikipedia SBFC] [uncertain] The chapter's techniques are not reproduced here.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Explore the student's family relationships and patterns, using a drawn family map if the student is willing.
  2. Identify the student's role in recurring family sequences.
  3. Help the student try one small change in how they respond at home, and predict reactions.
  4. Rehearse conversations with a parent or sibling.
  5. Coordinate the school-side supports in parallel.
  6. Keep inviting parents (letters, phone), and move to conjoint work as soon as possible.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you and your dad argue about homework, what happens just before? What would happen if you did one thing differently?"
• Watch for: the student carrying responsibility for the parents' behaviour; safeguarding disclosures. Working looks like the student reporting a changed interaction at home.

4.8 Teacher consultation: functional behaviour assessment model

• Purpose and when to use: school intervention for observable classroom behaviour problems. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 5 (Garcia & Wallace)] [uncertain] The chapter's procedure is not reproduced here.
• Steps [synthesis, standard FBA practice]:
  1. With the teacher, define the target behaviour in observable terms.
  2. Collect antecedent–behaviour–consequence observations over several days.
  3. Form a hypothesis about the function of the behaviour (escape, attention, access, sensory).
  4. Design a plan: change the antecedents, teach a replacement behaviour that serves the same function, and change the consequences.
  5. Share the plan with the parents so home responses are consistent.
  6. Monitor with simple data, and revise in a follow-up meeting.
• Example language (illustrative): "When does it happen most, and what usually happens right after? Let's see what it gets him."
• Watch for: vague definitions; plans the teacher cannot run alongside a full class. Working looks like falling behaviour frequency on the teacher's own records.

4.9 Teacher consultation: process consultation

• Purpose and when to use: when the problem involves the teacher's relationship with the student or parents, or the teacher's own stress, rather than a discrete behaviour. It is named alongside FBA in chapter 5. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC] [uncertain] How the chapter applies process consultation is not reproduced here.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Treat the teacher as the expert on the classroom.
  2. Ask questions that help the teacher examine the interaction rather than giving a prescription.
  3. Reflect patterns the teacher describes.
  4. Jointly generate options; the teacher chooses which to try.
  5. Debrief the result.
  6. Keep the consultation confidential, and separate from appraisal of the teacher.
• Example language (illustrative): "What goes through your mind when he does that? What have you noticed changes how he responds?"
• Watch for: the teacher feeling evaluated; the consultant drifting into counselling the teacher's personal issues. Working looks like the teacher generating and testing their own ideas.

4.10 Classroom meetings

• Purpose and when to use: school intervention when a problem is class-wide or relational, such as exclusion, conflict or bullying. It also gives the referred student a changed peer context. Chapter 6 covers facilitating a classroom meeting. Shechtman (2026) describes a related classroom programme based on democratic values: 12 weekly whole-class sessions that build a shared class contract, examine classroom dynamics, address bullying, teach communication skills and identify leadership. Its methods include writing, structured questionnaires, bibliotherapy and role-play. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 6 (Macias & Ribera); Shechtman 2026] [uncertain] The chapter's meeting format was not seen.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Agree the goal and the teacher's role with the teacher; co-facilitation is preferable.
  2. Seat the class in a circle.
  3. Set ground rules: one speaker at a time, no names when describing problems, the right to pass.
  4. Introduce a theme or a short story.
  5. Invite experiences and feelings.
  6. Move to class-generated solutions or agreements.
  7. Record the agreements as a class contract.
  8. Close with an appreciation round.
  9. Repeat weekly. Review the contract and handle new issues.
• Example language (illustrative): "Without naming anyone, has anyone here felt left out at lunch? What could our class do so that happens less?"
• Watch for: the meeting turning into public shaming of a student. Never make the referred student the topic. Watch for a teacher who overrides the class's decisions. Working looks like the class referring back to its own agreements.

4.11 Affective teaching

• Purpose and when to use: school prevention. Teachers add a third level to ordinary lessons, alongside facts and concepts, that addresses the emotional and social content of the material. Shechtman's cited studies used six lessons, compared against control classes. [source: Shechtman 2026]
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. With the teacher, pick a lesson whose content has emotional resonance (a story, a historical event).
  2. Plan two or three questions that invite students to connect personally and empathise.
  3. Model accepting responses without judging them.
  4. Close by linking back to the subject matter.
  5. Debrief with the teacher afterwards.
• Example language (illustrative), for the teacher: "How do you think she felt when she left home? Has anyone here ever had to start somewhere new?"
• Watch for: disclosures that need follow-up; agree a referral route with the teacher in advance.

4.12 Short-term therapeutic student groups

• Purpose and when to use: school intervention for students with emotional or behavioural difficulties. These are emotion-focused groups (about 15 sessions in the cited studies) that first build trust, then help members identify, express, understand and regulate emotions. Tools include bibliotherapy, phototherapy, art and therapeutic games. [source: Shechtman 2026]
• Steps [synthesis within that structure]:
  1. Screen members, and obtain parental consent as local rules require.
  2. Set group norms and confidentiality, including its limits.
  3. Run early sessions focused on trust and cohesion.
  4. In the middle sessions, use a story, a photograph or an art task to open a feeling theme. Invite personal connection, explore it, and practise new responses.
  5. Run closing sessions that consolidate gains and say goodbye.
  6. Keep teachers and parents updated in general terms.
• Example language (illustrative): "Look at this picture. Pick the person you feel most like today and tell us why."
• Watch for: members disclosing more than is safe in a school group; contagion of risk behaviour; stigma attached to the group's name. Working looks like members linking group themes to their own lives, and teachers reporting calmer behaviour.

4.13 Parent education workshops

• Purpose and when to use: family prevention, offered to a whole class, grade or school community. Shechtman describes short-term psychoeducational parent groups covering parenting skills, active listening, empathy, cooperative communication and problem-solving. Topics include peer difficulties, adolescence, screen use and boundaries. These groups are described as less stigmatising, with a shared "we're all in the same boat" feeling. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 7 (Rosenbledt & Ribera); Shechtman 2026, translated] [uncertain] The chapter's workshop format was not seen.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Survey parents for topics, preferred times and languages.
  2. Advertise as a school-success event. Remove barriers: childcare, food, interpreters, evening times.
  3. Structure each session: welcome, a short input, a demonstration or role-play of the skill, small-group practice, Q&A, and a take-home idea.
  4. Collect brief feedback.
  5. Offer individual follow-up to parents who ask.
• Example language (illustrative): "Tonight's idea is one thing: listening first before solving. Let's try it in pairs with a real example from this week."
• Watch for: low attendance by the families most in need (go to them: see 4.1); lecturing. Working looks like parents trying the skill and returning.

4.14 Parent support groups

• Purpose and when to use: family prevention, or treatment for parents under stress. Groups give mutual support and learning. Shechtman describes emotion-focused therapeutic parent groups (15 sessions, led by a school counsellor) that provided strong group support and mutual learning. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 8 (Morotti); Shechtman 2026] [uncertain] The chapter's format was not seen.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Recruit parents with a common concern (for example, parents of children with behaviour difficulties, or newly arrived families).
  2. Hold a pre-group meeting with each parent.
  3. Set norms and confidentiality.
  4. In each session, check in, explore a theme raised by members, share experiences, consider options, and check out.
  5. Encourage contact between members.
  6. Taper and close. Offer follow-on resources.
• Example language (illustrative): "Who else has felt that the school only calls when something's wrong? What helped you handle that call?"
• Watch for: one parent dominating; grievances against the school taking over the group (acknowledge them, then channel them into the 4.18 advocacy route); confidentiality about other people's children.

4.15 Student engagement programme

• Purpose and when to use: school prevention. It strengthens belonging, teacher support, friendships and fair discipline, through a positive school climate, a strengthened school organisation and facilitated student interactions, in order to reduce bullying, dropout and violence. Chapter: Hernandez, "School Prevention: How to Increase Student Engagement" (2020 guide, ch. 9, pp. 258–282). Related: Hernandez (2015), an International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling article on reducing bullying and preventing dropout through student engagement, and Hernandez & Elasmar (2023, ch. 16) on preventing school violence. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC; Hernandez faculty page; Wikipedia SBFC; Routledge 2023 TOC] [uncertain] The chapter's procedure was not seen.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Gather data on attendance, discipline, and student-reported belonging (use an established engagement survey).
  2. Identify disconnected students and the settings where they disconnect.
  3. Pair each identified student with a trusted adult.
  4. Create structured peer activities such as clubs, buddy systems and lunchtime groups.
  5. Review discipline practices for fairness and consistency with administrators.
  6. Re-measure each term.
• Watch for: programmes that reach engaged students only. Working looks like changes in attendance and referrals among the targeted students.

4.16 Anti-bullying programme development

• Purpose and when to use: school prevention, at whole-school level. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 10 (Slee)] [uncertain] The chapter's procedure is not reproduced here.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Form a working group of staff, students and parents.
  2. Survey bullying, cyberbullying included.
  3. Write or revise the policy with clear definitions and response procedures.
  4. Train staff.
  5. Deliver classroom curriculum, for example through classroom meetings (4.10).
  6. Supervise hotspots.
  7. Set up response protocols that include contacting both families.
  8. Re-survey annually.
• Watch for: punitive-only responses; ignoring online bullying; the families of targeted children being left out of the response.

4.17 Developing community resources

• Purpose and when to use: community intervention, when needs (housing, food, health, legal, specialist mental health) exceed what the school can meet. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 11 (Kelly); Routledge 2023 page]
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Map the local services, including eligibility, language capacity, cost and wait times.
  2. Build personal contacts with key agencies.
  3. Negotiate service on-site at the school where possible (clinics, family nights).
  4. Recruit volunteers and university partners. An SBFC example is a university/K-12/nonprofit partnership [source: Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 15 (Ribera)].
  5. Keep the resource list current.

4.18 Referral with multicultural safeguards

• Purpose and when to use: stepping up to specialist or community care. Chapter 13: Carter & Hernandez, "Effective Referral Processes in School Mental Health: Multicultural Considerations in a Eurocentric System" (2020 guide, pp. 351–360). The same authors contrast their family-centred approach with mainstream, individually focused diagnosis and treatment, which they see as one reason underrepresented families do not take up referrals. [source: Routledge 2020 TOC; Carter and Hernandez faculty pages] [uncertain] The chapter text was not seen.
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Explain the reason for referral in the family's terms and language.
  2. Ask about the family's beliefs about help-seeking, stigma and past experiences.
  3. Choose services with linguistic and cultural fit.
  4. Make a warm hand-off: a joint call, or accompanying the family to the first appointment.
  5. Obtain consent to share information.
  6. Follow up to confirm the family attended, and keep the school strand going.
• Example language (illustrative): "This isn't because you've done anything wrong. This clinic speaks Spanish and has helped other families here. Would you like me to call with you?"

4.19 Crisis and disaster applications

• Purpose: the 2023 volume is a "how to" handbook. It applies all five areas to crisis and disaster, both as prevention (resilience in students, schools and families; crisis planning; a trauma-sensitive school) and as intervention during and immediately after an event. It names these components: the principal's leadership role; systems for crisis intervention with school personnel (Hernandez, Saeki & Gopaul-Knights, ch. 5); helping students cope with the stress of a major disaster; lowering stress and strengthening executive functions; group counselling after a crisis; solution-focused brief therapy with traumatised students; conjoint family counselling with grief and loss (ch. 11); narrative, poststructuralist-couples and family-based approaches; trauma-sensitive (ACEs) schools; teacher–parent engagement for crisis preparedness; community psychosocial child-protection work; and a volunteer psychological first aid organisation (the Disastershock Global Response Team). The Institute for School-Based Family Counseling runs a Disaster Coping Recovery Services Team. [source: Routledge 2023 page and TOC; Hernandez faculty page] [uncertain] The procedures in these chapters were not seen. Deliver each with its own source protocol (for example, Psychological First Aid training). Do not treat this list as SBFC-specific technique.

5. Handling problems

The cited sources name system-level barriers. Chapter 12 of the practitioner's guide covers overcoming barriers to SBFC, and the SBFC literature discusses:

• inter-professional barriers and turf;
• socio-cultural barriers to entry;
• leadership failure, including the dismantling of an SBFC leadership programme;
• difficulties in university–school partnerships;
• stigma, and income- and race-based disparities in access.

The counter-strategies named are inclusive language, learning other disciplines' literature, collaborating across disciplines, gathering evidence, and securing administrator support. Inter-professional barriers are the subject of Carter, Garner, Geiger, Gerrard & Soriano (2017), "Reducing inter-professional barriers affecting School-Based Family Counseling", International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling, 9, 2–17 (not drawn on). [source: Routledge 2020 TOC; Wikipedia SBFC; encyclopedia.pub reference list; Carter faculty page] Clinical responses at the level of the individual case are not given in the sources and are [synthesis].

• Parents will not engage (the most common SBFC problem) [synthesis]:
  • Change the channel (4.1).
  • Ask about practical barriers.
  • Use the child's success as the frame.
  • Use a trusted intermediary (a community liaison or the teacher the parent likes).
  • Offer a home visit.
  • Meanwhile work through the student (4.7) and the school strand. Keep inviting without pressure.
• The family feels blamed by the school, or the school blames the family [synthesis]:
  • Meet each side separately first.
  • Name the shared goal.
  • Reframe the problem as a stuck pattern between systems (4.3).
  • Do not let a conjoint meeting become a school-staff tribunal. Limit staff numbers, and let the parent speak first.
• Teacher resistance ("it's a home problem", "no time") [synthesis]:
  • Offer process consultation (4.9) rather than prescriptions.
  • Start with interventions that cost the teacher little.
  • Show data quickly.
  • Get administrator backing for consultation time. [source for administrator support: Wikipedia SBFC]
• Role confusion and confidentiality across school and family [synthesis]:
  • At intake, state in writing what you share with the school, what you share with the parents and what stays private.
  • Obtain written consent before sharing clinical information with teachers. Give teachers functional recommendations, not details.
  • Keep records separate from the educational file where the law requires it.
• Stuck case: no change after the agreed review period [synthesis]:
  • Revisit the case conceptualization. Is a metamodel area missing? Is the hypothesis blaming one side?
  • Check that agreements were actually carried out by both home and school.
  • Add a prevention or community element.
  • Consider referral (4.18).
• Non-adherence to home or classroom plans [synthesis]:
  • Shrink the plan to one action each.
  • Check that the plan fits the family's culture and schedule.
  • Use a simple shared tracking card.
  • Problem-solve the barrier without judgement.
• Rupture with a parent (for example, after the parent heard the counsellor sided with the school) [synthesis]:
  • Name it directly and own your part.
  • Restate your advocacy role for the child and family.
  • Repair individually before the next conjoint meeting.
• Overwhelm in family or student (multiple stressors, crisis) [synthesis]:
  • Pause problem-solving and attend to basic needs and community resources (4.17).
  • Reduce demands at school with the teacher.
  • For crises or disasters, use the crisis components and protocols (4.19).
• Cultural mismatch (the school's expectations of involvement versus the family's) [source: Wikipedia SBFC; Routledge 2020 TOC, ch. 13]:
  • Accept home-based support of schooling as real involvement.
  • Use interpreters rather than children to translate. [synthesis]
  • Change school procedures rather than demanding that the family adapt.
• Safeguarding, suicide risk and domestic violence [synthesis, standard practice]:
  • School practitioners are usually mandated reporters. Explain the limits of confidentiality at intake.
  • Follow the school's and your jurisdiction's procedures for child-protection reports.
  • For suicidal ideation, conduct or arrange a structured risk assessment, notify parents unless doing so increases the risk, develop a safety plan, and arrange urgent referral.
  • With caregivers, give lethal-means counselling: secure storage or removal.
  • Do not hold conjoint sessions where a family member is unsafe.
• Group-specific problems (4.10–4.14) [synthesis]:
  • Members dominating or disclosing too much: set norms and redirect, then follow up privately.
  • A group becoming a forum for complaints about the school: acknowledge, then channel concerns to the administration.
  • Peer contagion in student groups: screen, and mix in members with protective factors.
• Service and system problems (programme dismantled, partnership failing) [source: titles in the encyclopedia.pub reference list; detail synthesis]:
  • Secure administrator sponsorship in writing.
  • Collect outcome data from the start.
  • Build the role into school structures rather than relying on one champion.

Sources

Web pages consulted:

• School-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner's Guide – Routledge product page
• School-based family counseling: an interdisciplinary practitioner's guide – table of contents (BVB catalogue)
• School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster: Global Perspectives – Routledge
• The school-based family counseling approach to strengthening families and schools in crisis and disaster – chapter abstract (Taylor & Francis)
• School-based family counseling – Wikipedia
• School-based family counseling – encyclopedia.pub entry
• Shechtman, Z. (2026), article on the SBFC model and group interventions, Lewinsky-Wingate Academic College journal, issue 5 (Hebrew)
• Book review of Gerrard, Carter & Ribera (2020) – Kaplan Toren & Brown (2025), CiteDrive record
• Brian Gerrard – USF faculty profile
• Gerrard, Carter & Ribera (2020): bookseller description and contents (genialokal).
• Michael J. Carter – Cal State LA faculty page
• Dr. Emily Jo Hernandez, LMFT – Cal State LA faculty page
• FAU Counselor Education practicum newsletter, Fall 2012 (Oxford Symposium report)
• Prof. G. J. van Schalkwyk – University of Pretoria visiting professor page
• Gerrard, Selimos & Morrison (2022), School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants: bookseller listing (Bokus).

Books and papers cited:

• Gerrard, B. A., Carter, M. J., & Ribera, D. (Eds.) (2020). School-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner's Guide. Routledge.
• Gerrard, B. A., Hernandez, E. J., & Deb, S. (Eds.) (2023). School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster: Global Perspectives. Routledge.
• Gerrard, B. A., & Soriano, M. (Eds.) (2013). School-Based Family Counseling: Transforming Family-School Relationships (Carter's faculty page calls it the Handbook of School-Based Family Counseling). Includes Carter, "How to do Conjoint Family Counseling" (ch. 9), and Carter & Hernandez on the Cal State LA MS in SBFC (ch. 44, pp. 693–708).
• Gerrard, B. (2008). School-based family counseling: overview, trends, and recommendations for future research. International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling.
• Carter, M. J., & Evans, W. (1997). Urban school-based family counseling: role definition, practice applications, and training implications. Journal of Counseling and Development.

Also cited: Gerrard, Selimos & Morrison (Eds.) (2022). School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants (Routledge). Carter, Garner, Geiger, Gerrard & Soriano (2017), International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling, 9, 2–17. Hernandez (2015), International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling.

[uncertain] Not reproduced in any available source: the chapter procedures of the 2020 and 2023 books, the 2013 volume, and the procedures in the International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling and on the Institute's own site. The decision tree, the conjoint session format and the crisis procedures therefore remain [synthesis] or [uncertain].