School Counseling

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Welcome to School Counseling!

My name is Raymond Smith (Mr. Raymond) and this is my third year as a school counselor, and first year at Haw Creek Elementary. When I was in elementary school, I had a negative interaction with a counselor (outside of school) that influenced me greatly, leading to me avoiding counselors at all costs. As a result I struggled with effective emotion management and regulation, which impacted my ability to interact with peers and teachers. While attending AB-Tech, I took a general psychology class and instantly fell in love. This set me on a path of realization that what I wanted to do was assist students in their learning of social emotional skills to positively impact their growth in a way that I had not experienced.

I received my BA in Psychology from UNC-Asheville in 2016 and my M.A. Ed. in School Counseling from Western Carolina University in 2022. In addition to being a licensed school counselor, I am a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counseling Associate and a Nationally Certified Counselor.

My desire to specifically work at the elementary level was influenced by the fact that early social emotional learning (SEL) sets the stage for positive future outcomes. Impacting long term growth and success with emotional regulation, self-esteem, and self-worth. As the school counselor, my caseload is the entire student body and all will be supported via monthly SEL lessons on topics such as emotional identification and regulation, problem solving, bullying awareness and prevention, skills for learning, stress and anxiety management, and career awareness. I also provide individual and small group counseling services for students identified as needing additional support in the above areas and more. Students can be identified and referred to individual or small group counseling by myself, teachers or admin, families, friends, or by themselves.

Contact me via email raymond.smith@bcsemail.org or phone (828) 298-4022 ex. 5660