Starting a Peer Counseling Program in the High School

Peer counseling has become more prevalent in high schools and junior high schools across the country. When reviewing the various programs, it was discovered that they fall into two general categories based on the program's purpose and group composition. The two basic models can be described as students trained to help troubled students in their school (open), and troubled students trained to help themselves (closed). The terms open and closed were chosen to distinguish the two models because these terms describe whether or not the group's focus and objectives are closed or open to students outside the group. The purpose of this article is to give a practical, working description of the open model as implemented in a large, suburban high school.