The master's thesis deals with the practice of school counselors in the Podravje region
regarding the treatment of students with adverse childhood experiences and the study of how
counselors practices proceed from a trauma-informed approach. The theoretical foundations
initially define the construct of trauma and the concept of adverse childhood experiences as
potentially traumatic experiences that carry multiple negative far-reaching consequences for
an individual's health and well-being. In this framework, a trauma-informed approach is
presented as a way of institutional operating that does not (re)traumatise and is directly
transferable to the context od schools, which is simultaneously one of the fundemental
protective factors of children with potentially traumatic experiences, and within this, the
school counseling service is considered the central provider of aid. Schools, and within them
school couselors, have an indinspensable importance in the lives of children with potentially
traumatic experiences, but when it comes to their concrete work practices, there is a lack of
peer-reviewed, scientific literature in Slovenia.
The empirical portion sheds more light on the practices of providing help and support to
students with potentially traumatic experiences, while also exploring how these coincide with
a trauma-informed approach. The reasearch is based on a qualitative reasearch approach,
within which focus group interviews were initially conducted with four couseling services,
which were then deepened by conducting four individual interviews, and the obtained
transcripts were subsequently subjected to qualitative content analysis. The results of the
study show that the practices of school counselors, when it comes to dealing with students
with adverse childhood experiences, are numerous and diverse and conditioned
simultaneously by the subjective understanding of adverse experiences, understanding of the
professional role, systemic and organizational factors, and other dimensions of professional
work. Based on the reaserch conducted, it can be confirmed that school counselors already
include elements of a trauma-informed approach in their work practices, mostly at an implicit
level, which has proven to be an important predictor of attitudes, or willingness or reluctance,
to the implementation of the approach in the school context. The reasearch findings can thus
serve as a starting point for the implementation of a trauma-informed approach in the
Slovenian primary school environment, starting with the school couseling service.
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