Advanced Strategies for Supporting Student Mental Health in International Schools

This course prepares international school counsellors to better understand, recognise, and respond to student mental health concerns. Counselors will learn how to gather and organise key school-based information, particularly presenting and perpetuating factors, in ways that are most useful to external professionals and families.

The training builds counsellors’ knowledge of depressive and anxiety disorders, as well as neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD and ASD. Participants will gain skills to:

1. Communicate clearly with families about diagnosis and treatment options, including therapy and medication.
2. Explain the features of Anxiety, Depression, ADHD, and ASD in ways that help parents and students make sense of what students are experiencing.
3. Support treatments at school by understanding how cognitions, behaviours, and physiology maintain symptoms and assisting students and families with this knowledge.

Intended Audience

Experienced Counselors

ISCA Student Standards

This course will support you in providing strategies for your students to be able to:

SE:A1:3 Develop self-awareness and self-management skills essential for mental health
SE:A1:4 Take action (individually or with support) to positively impact their own mental health
SE:A1:6 Develop healthy ways to identify, express, and respond to one’s emotions
SE:B1:1 Develop effective coping skills to manage challenges
SE:C1:2 Develop skills to utilize personal and community resources related to mental health
SE:A1:13 Identify the signs of stress and use techniques for reducing stress
GP:D2:5 Develop strategies to care for self and others during times of transition
GP: D2: 6 Manage the potential stress and loss associated with transition events.

ASCA Professional Standards and Ethical Standards and Practices

A.1 Supporting Student Development

(b, d, h, j) Culturally responsive understanding of disorders, treatment expectations, and school-based supports; emphasis on anti-bias, culturally sustaining communication with families from diverse backgrounds.
A.6 Appropriate Collaboration, Advocacy & Referrals

How to recognize when to refer, compile objective school data, provide multiple vetted referral options, collaborate with outside providers, and use releases of information appropriately.
A.14 Evaluation, Assessment & Interpretation

Emphasizes multi-source school data, developmental/language considerations, and communicating results in plain language to families; cautions against misusing screening data as diagnosis.

B.1 Responsibilities to Parents/Guardians

Trains counsellors to inform and support parents with accurate, unbiased, culturally respectful explanations of disorders, therapy, and medication; clarifies confidentiality boundaries.

Essential Questions

1. How can I recognize when a student’s difficulties may signal anxiety, depression, ADHD, or ASD?
2. How can I respond clearly and confidently when parents ask about therapy or medication?
3. How can I structure and share my observations (presenting, perpetuating and protective factors) in ways that are most useful for external clinicians?
4. How can I explain to parents and students how cognitions, behaviors, and physiology maintain depressive and anxiety symptoms, and why treatment must address all three?

Participants will have knowledge about:

1. A working understanding of how clinicians think diagnostically, including the role of formulation and the 5 P’s framework.
2. Awareness of the prevalence, risk factors, and cultural considerations for mental health disorders in international school contexts.
3. Knowledge of core features and treatment of anxiety, depression, ADHD, and ASD in children and adolescents.
4. An overview of evidence-based treatments; including therapy and medication.
5. Understanding of how cognitions, behaviours, and physiological systems interact to maintain symptoms of anxiety and depression.
6. Greater clarity on the respective roles of counsellors, families, and external professionals in the information gathering and treatment process.

Participants will be able to:

1. Ability to identify and describe presenting, perpetuating and protective factors in student cases.
2. Skill in identifying key information that supports external assessments.
3. Improved confidence in communicating with families about treatment.
4. Ability to discuss depression and anxiety with students and parents in accessible, supportive language.
5. Greater capacity to explain ADHD and ASD interventions to families and school staff.

Terese Schuts

Terese is a Clinical Psychologist with experience across forensic, clinical, and school-based settings. She has specialist expertise in domestic and family violence including designing and co-facilitating behaviour change programs, providing individual therapy, and conducting risk assessment/safety planning. Her clinical work spans hospital, community, and private practice, delivering assessment, formulation, diagnosis, and therapy across the lifespan. Her primary treatment modality is CBT with the integration of narrative and expressive approaches. In international and Australian schools, Terese provides psycho-educational assessments, risk assessments, crisis response/safeguarding, and consults with teachers and families on student learning, behaviour, and wellbeing. She has worked in International Schools in Qatar and Thailand, and presented in Greece and the Philippines on talking about psychotropic medication.

ISCA Member Price: $395

Non-Member Price: $475

Dates and times of offerings:

February 10, 17 & 24, 2026 - 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM/Tuesday

Contact Hours: 9 hours

Time commitment between sessions: N/A

Required Resource(s): N/A