School counsellors’ wellbeing in the Global South: the importance of professional roles

Little is known about the wellbeing of school counsellors in the Global South. To address this gap, we conducted (1) a quantitative study examining the relationship between counsellors’ roles and their wellbeing and (2) a qualitative study investigating counsellors’ perceptions of how their roles influence their wellbeing. There was a significant correlation between participants’ non counselling roles and their wellbeing. The counsellors saw themselves as having a stronger professional identity and greater work satisfaction when they had influence, leadership roles, and were engaged in advocacy. Professional identity and job satisfaction were diminished by taking on roles that were incongruent with their counselling role. The study has implications for counsellors’ wellbeing and the development of school counselling.