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In “Cruzando Fronteras” Eagle Pass High School (EPHS) immigrant or migrant students (grades 9th – 12th) will get together to talk about the difficulties of transitioning to a different high school, town, state, or country.

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The Mindset standards the participants of this group will master are the following:

M 1. Belief in development of whole self, including a healthy balance of mental, social/emotional and physical well-being
M 2. Sense of acceptance, respect, support and inclusion for self and others in the school environment
M 3. Positive attitude toward work and learning
M 4. Self-confidence in ability to succeed

The Behavior standards the participants of this group will master are the following:

Learning Strategies:
B-LS 4. Self-motivation and self-direction for learning
B-LS 7. Long- and short-term academic, career and social/emotional goals

Self-Management Skills
B-SMS 1. Responsibility for self and actions
B-SMS 6. Ability to identify and overcome barriers
B-SMS 7. Effective coping skills
B-SMS 10. Ability to manage transitions and adapt to change

Social Skills
B-SS 1. Effective oral and written communication skills and listening skills
B-SS 2. Positive, respectful and supportive relationships with students who are similar to and different from them
B-SS 3. Positive relationships with adults to support success
B-SS 8. Advocacy skills for self and others and ability to assert self, when necessary
B-SS 9. Social maturity and behaviors appropriate to the situation and environment
B-SS 10. Cultural awareness, sensitivity and responsiveness

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The group would be advertised in different ways. An announcement would be sent through the intercom, flyers will be posted in every wing of the school, and counselors and teachers will be able to recommend students for the counseling group

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Students interested in joining the group will be screened for migrant or immigrant status. Each student will be screened individually by being asked questions about their relocation or relocations between schools, states, or countries. Willingness of the participants will be assessed based on interactions and answers to questions asked during the individual pre-screening process.

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After the four to six participants for the group have been selected, the participants will be given a parental consent form to be signed by their parents. The purpose of the consent form is to receive authorization from the parents that their child can receive counseling service via small group counseling sessions by the school counselor. Parents will then be given a letter detailing the purpose of the sessions, session dates, and times .

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To help establish the rules, the form titled, "Participant Guidelines/ Ground Rules for Our Group", will be used to help the participants understand what each rule is and what it means. By understanding what the rules means and how important they are, students will follow the rules more.  Rules determined by the group leader or counselor help achieve the goals and objectives of the lesson. Rules that the participants can create together are those that are about participation, taking turns to speak, stepping out of the session (restroom break), and consequences for when a rule is broken.

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Stage 1: During stage one of the small group counseling sessions, students will be introduced to each other and learn that they are not the only ones experiencing the same difficulties and emotions from their situation. Students will share with each other how they feel and relate at a personal level which will help to establish trust amongst the group. Group expectations and rules will be established during the meeting and the importance of confidentiality will be discussed as a group to make sure students keep the confidentiality of each other.

Stage 2: After stage one, stage two will allow the relationships among the participants to grow as they begin to know each other more. Participants will begin to engage in activities where they express their emotions and talk about the stressors of being migrants or immigrant students. They will then learn how to cope and overcome the stressors they experience by learning coping skills. Through observations, the counselor will track the progress of each student as the sessions continue.

Stage 3: For the closing session, the students will learn about the importance of having a support system to help overcome the stress and challenges of being a migrant or immigrant student.  Students will also share how they feel about the group counseling sessions and the impact it has had on their lives. Students will then complete a short survey measuring their anxiety levels after having experienced small-group counseling.

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The leadership style that would be used for this small group counsel would be participative leadership style. Students would be able to direct the conversation and flow of the session but the group facilitator would have the final decision about what to do next during the session. This would work best because there could be certain subjects about being a migrant or immigrant that a student may want to talk about that other students would also want to talk about but aren't comfortable speaking up.

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There would be many Yalom therapeutic factors that could observed throughout the sessions. The first therapeutic factor that would be observed is universality, which refers to the feeling of being able to relate to others and realize one is not only in their problems (Yalom, 1995). This would happen during the first few sessions in which participants realize they can relate to one another. From this would stem other factors such as altruism, in which participants rise to help others and feel useful as well as direct advice where participants will advise each other on how to handle the stressors they are experiencing.

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A few legal obligations required by the Texas Education Code is that the school counselor shall have a guidance curriculum set in place to help a student fulfill their academic potential as well as provide responsive services to students whenever their personal problems or situations put their educational, social, and career development at risk (2 TEC § 33.005). Other legal obligations that must be fulfilled by the small group counseling session as required by the Texas Administrative Code is that appropriate techniques and theories need to be used to respond to students' needs during the sessions (19 Tex. Admin. Code §239.15). This ensures that school counselors utilize techniques and theories that are effective for students during counseling sessions and within the scope of practice of the school counselor.

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Ethical obligations are necessary to make sure that school counselors provide the most ethical behavior when providing services to students regardless of their differences (ASCA, 2022). The American School Counselor Association provides ethical guidelines or standards for school counselors to follow to provide the best counseling services possible. One ethical obligation that must be followed during the small group counseling sessions relates to A.7 Group Work standard of the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors guidelines (2022). It states that school counselors must provide small group counseling based on individual student needs regardless of their differences in culture. Cruzando Fronteras completes this standard by opening the small group session to all participants who are migrants or immigrants at the school.

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ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. (2022). American School Counselor Association.
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/About-School-Counseling/Ethical-Responsibilities/ASCA-Ethical-Standards-for-School-Counselors-(1)

Service Programs and Extracurricular Activities, 2 Tex. Edu. Code § 33.005

19 Tex. Admin. Code §239.15

Yalom ID. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed.). New York: Basic Books.