Presenting a Pattern for Specifying Psychological Characteristics in Choosing of School Counselors: A Qualitative Study

School counselors are responsible for addressing the academic, personal/social, and career development needs of students through the design, implementation, evaluation, and enhancement of a comprehensive school counseling program, which results in the improvement and promotion of student success (2). Based on this, the role of school counselors in the development of students is not hidden from any expert and everyone agrees on the irreplaceable effect of school counselors. In order for such counselors to be at the disposal of the country's educational system, the process of recruiting, training and employing school counselors should be systematic and based on specific goals and recognizing the characteristics of an efficient school counselor. Some studies show that there is a significant relationship between the psychological health of counselors and their professional efficiency (6-8). Identifying and introducing psychological characteristics in the selection of school counselors in different societies, apart from the commonalities it has, also has distinct aspects, and it is impossible to define and specify a series of general and absolute characteristics for the selection of school counselors in all societies in the same way. On the other hand, today we are witnessing that various people are employed in the school counseling profession without paying attention to their competence and competence or making a serious effort to improve their efficiency and capability. For this reason, by identifying and introducing psychological characteristics in the selection of school counselors and using such findings to revise the recruitment, training and employment of school counselors, it may be possible to provide conditions that improve the efficiency of school counselors and make fundamental changes in the provision of high-quality counseling services. Let's see the school in providing counseling services in schools. Therefore, the current research seeks to answer the question, what are the psychological characteristics of school counselors?

The present study was conducted qualitatively using thematic analysis method. The statistical population of the research included all professors and experts in the field of school counseling in the country in 1401, from which 11 experts and professors of school counseling were selected by snowball sampling. In this way, the first specialist and counseling professor who was interviewed was asked to introduce another specialist and counseling professor whom they know and who they think can help the researcher. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data, and the data were collected until theoretical saturation was reached, and after the implementation of the text of the interviews, they were analyzed. Due to the distance dimension and the restrictions caused by the Corona epidemic, the interviews were conducted in person and in virtual space. The criteria for entering the research included having several publications and researches in the field of school counseling, a field of study related to the school counseling profession (counseling, psychology and educational sciences) and willingness to participate in research. In order to check the content validity of the interview tool, first the initial version of the interview was sent to the supervisors and advisors, then the necessary and suggested amendments were applied and finally approved. To calculate the reliability, the reproducibility index was applied according to the method of Huberman and et al. (1994), which are: 1) reliability, 2) transferability, 3) verifiability and 4) reliability (12).

The number of participants in the present study was 18, of which %36.40 were women and %60.60 were men. The last degree of all the participants was a Ph.D., among whom one was a professor, 5 were associate professors, and 5 were assistant professors. The average age of the participants was 45 years. The findings of the current research can be expressed in four categories; The first category of cognitive characteristics includes having the power of analysis, creativity and innovation, intellectual maturity, mental health, benefiting from high intelligence and high self-efficacy. In explaining this finding, it can be said that schools today need creative and innovative counselors, counselors who make thought and wisdom the ruler of their actions and thoughts, and encourage students to use reason and wisdom to solve their problems and problems. The second category of emotional characteristics includes emotional maturity, communication skills, and professional commitment and attachment. The meaning of emotional characteristics is the set of interests and tendencies of the school counselor towards issues and topics related to school counseling. Emotional maturity as a psychological characteristic indicates intrapsychic and interpersonal characteristics. Emotional characteristics in the intrapsychic dimension refer to the ability to balance thoughts and emotions, while emotional characteristics in the interpersonal dimension are the ability to experience intimacy without jeopardizing the client's sense of independence. The third category of personality characteristics includes regularity, tolerance, courage and dignity. Personality can be defined as certain patterns of thinking, emotion and behavior that define a person's personal style in interaction with his social and material environment. The personality characteristics of a consultant are so important that people who do not have such characteristics, even with sufficient education and experience, should not be allowed to do professional work. It seems that personality traits cannot be achieved through education and training, and if the applicants for the counseling profession do not have these characteristics at the beginning of specialized training, they will not be able to be useful and effective counselors for clients, even if the training program is at a high level; Because training only strengthens the personality traits of people who are ready and interested in the job. And the fourth category of ethical characteristics including scientific, moral and occupational competence. In effective communication with their clients, counselors mainly deal with their beliefs, values and ideals and sometimes their secrets. Most of the time, the clients try to honestly and sincerely tell all the secrets of their lives in the counseling session with the trust they have towards the commitment and expertise of the counselor and hoping to receive effective help from him. It is obvious that all professional honor, human authenticity, moral strictness and professional commitment of consultants depends on their performance towards the clients and compliance with honesty, friendship, self-restraint and confidentiality, and in a word, legal obligations and professional ethics.

In general, it can be concluded that in order to improve the competencies of school counselors, it is important to pay attention to the role of psychological factors in the selection of school counselors, which has a positive effect on the efficiency of counseling services in schools.