Amidst growing concerns about the challenges young people face, guidance counselling has gained increasing recognition as a valuable solution for addressing child and adolescent mental health issues. Consequently, various strategies have been proposed to strengthen counselling services in schools (The Whitehouse, 2022; also see New Zealand Government, 2021). While this approach appears positive and common-sense, the uncritical welcoming of counsellors in schools highlights a need to examine the role and impact of guidance counselling on young people. This chapter explores key social and political movements that have shaped the role of guidance counsellors as mental health experts. By drawing on critical scholarship—particularly Michel Foucault’s (1980) concepts of discipline, power/knowledge and discourse—this chapter offers a critical analysis of how foundational theories, such as the therapeutic relationship, and practices of school counsellors serves power and psy-knowledge which governs young people (as well as others within the school community) to adhere to problematic discourse and the authority of psychiatry across societies. The chapter concludes by calling for further critical interdisciplinary research collaborations between sociology, psychology, education and counselling to carefully examine the approaches, concepts, practices and interventions used to address young people mental health and wellbeing issues in schools. In doing so, young people may receive more socially just, relevant, and supportive services in schools.