New Guidance and Counseling Support
Sean Dougherty, MA, LPC, NCC
My name is Sean Dougherty. I was brought on in March 2019 as an Educational Improvement Consultant for Guidance and Counseling at Oakland Schools. This is a grant funded position designed to work with Statewide Systems of Support buildings through the regional assistance grant. You've likely met with some of my colleagues who are part of the same grant program.
In reaching out, I hope to communicate a little bit about my background as well as give you some ideas for how you might make use of my expertise in expanding supports for improving student outcomes in your buildings (whether or not you have school counselors on your staff).
My Background
Sean Dougherty MA, LPC, NCC
Experience:
- 11 years as a school counselor at Lakeland High School in Huron Valley Schools
- 5 years as an adjunct instructor for the School Counseling graduate course at Eastern Michigan University
- 2 years as a technology integrator at Lakeland High School
RAMP Recognized (twice)
Through leading my department in obtaining this recognition I gained a wealth of experience designing programs and measuring outcomes to determine effectiveness and impact.
Oakland Counseling Association
Whole Student Focus
- Academic Achievement
- Career Pursuit
- Social and Emotional Development
By approaching student support holistically, we can improve achievement and help students overcome adversity along the way.
Supporting Non-Counseling Staff
If you don't have a counselor on staff, I might partner with other staff roles in the following ways:
- Working with a principal to design whole-school initiatives that establish a culture of achievement or exploration (ex. standardized test prep, postsecondary exploration, service learning experiences)
- Working with teaching staff to find opportunities in the existing curriculum to include counseling lessons (ex. financial aid lessons in Economics, college admissions or scholarship essays in ELA)
- Working with other support staff (social worker, psychologist, interventionist) to design curriculum for small-group interventions (ex. study skills group, career exploration group)
- Educating all staff on resources and opportunities for students (ex. dual enrollment, scholarships, postsecondary options)
- Designing interventions and data collections strategies to measure outcomes
Supporting Counselors
If you're fortunate to have a counselor on staff, you probably know what a valuable resource they can be. I might partner with your school counselor(s) to:
- Identify gaps in student achievement and design interventions to address those needs
- Design action plans for impacting student outcomes in any of the three domains
- Leverage technology to increase student and parent access to resources and timely information
- Design core counseling curriculum lessons for delivery in classroom or large group settings
- Review best practices in school counseling to strengthen programs already in place
- Organize and access resources for supporting students
- Partner on addressing challenging and unique barriers to student success
You will find my contact information below. I look forward to getting out to your school in the near future to meet you and your staff!
Sean Dougherty, MA, LPC, NCC
Educational Improvement Consultant - Guidance and Counseling
Leadership and School Improvement
District and School Services
Oakland Schools
sean.dougherty@oakland.k12.mi.us
248.209.2458 (office)
248.238.8293 (cell)