What Can School Counselors Do to Support Students With Learned Helplessness?

Learned helplessness is a psychological condition that school counselors may encounter through their work with students. The term refers to a coping mechanism young people may employ as a means of dealing with perceived negativity in their lives. People engaged in learned helplessness will act as if a problem is insurmountable or completely out of their control, even when a solution may be found. Supporting these students can involve both cognitive and study strategies.

Recognition

• The first step in supporting students is recognizing when learned helplessness is occurring. Children may regularly demonstrate reluctance toward trying a specific task. They may feel that they are bound to fail, even if there may be solutions available. Kids with learned helplessness often won’t attempt to solve a problem and won’t show initiative in achieving goals. Overall, their general self-esteem is low, and they may fear unfamiliar situations and even making choices that aren’t obviously correct. Those with learned helplessness seek reassurance on decisions and may frequently look to others to solve their problems.

Cognitive Thinking

• A school counselor may seek to employ cognitive strategies to help the student cope. Whenever the child is being negative or demonstrating a lack of faith in her ability to perform a task, the counselor should look for a positive example to balance the negativity. The end result should be that the child learns to think more positively whenever she begins to sink into negative thoughts. For example, if the child feels she can’t handle an academic assignment, the counselor could encourage the student to think about an essay that she received a good grade in, as an example of positive thinking.

Study Strategies

• Often students feel they are helpless to complete assignments and are unable to cope with other challenges associated with school. Developing study strategies is one way counselors can support the child. For example, some kids benefit from revising or learning from index cards containing questions and answers, as the Hands and Voices website notes. This could aid the student in preparing for an exam. The important thing is that the student discovers a strategy that not only works but does so independently, so that he no longer looks to others for constant guidance.

Set Goals

• One aspect of learned helplessness is that the student refuses to seize the initiative and come up with her own solutions to problems. This feeling of no way out is often self-enforced and may easily be broken if the student puts her mind to it. If the student is displaying this behavior during a session, the counselor can attempt to encourage the child to think about solutions. Establishing positive schemes and goals that can be achieved will help the student to think in terms of what can be done, not what can’t.