News that talks are underway to create a new Department of Education office of guidance counselors brought a roar of cheers from the more than 200 counselors attending a daylong conference at union headquarters on March 15.

In welcoming remarks opening the 10th anniversary conference, Deputy Chancellor Dorita Gibson announced that such plans were in the “thinking” stage as she thanked counselors for “all you do to enhance the work of schools. Everyone — students and adults — gravitate to you.”

The mood among members attending the interactive workshops and flocking to the exhibit hall was more upbeat than it has been at such gatherings over the last few years.

Noting that change, UFT President Michael Mulgrew asked, “Who would have thought two years ago of the possibility of a guidance counselor department at the DOE?” He called for bringing back the joy and celebrating the good work that counselors do so “that passion can bloom again.”

He also wryly noted that the DOE still has far too many lawyers. He quipped that “five counselors would do more good for children than 400 lawyers.”

Chapter Leader Rosemarie Thompson opened the conference on a positive note. “When guidance counselors are in schools, our teachers are able to teach, the culture and climate of the school is calmer, and the students and school staff know who to turn to for support and guidance,” she said.

Seventeen-year veteran Shamwatte Ramcharan of PS 73 in the Bronx said she had never attended a workshop like the one designed to help counselors minimize burnout, compassion fatigue and stress. “I was glad to find I’m not alone when I feel overwhelmed sometimes,” she said.

Margaret Diaz, who has moved with a class from 9th grade all the way to senior year at University Prep in the Bronx, agreed that the counselor’s job can be emotionally draining. “I invested 150 percent of myself for those four years,” she pointed out. “That’s an overwhelming amount of emotion.”

Norma Gordon, a counselor at Hillcrest HS in Queens, said the workshop on developing the social-emotional literacy skills of boys was right on target. With a background in juvenile detention issues and college counseling, Gordon, who is herself pregnant with a boy, agreed that “not enough attention is given to nurturing boys’ needs.”

Jasmine Juseno of William Cullen Bryant HS in Queens was eager to bring back to her school some of the strategies she picked up in the life-space crisis intervention workshop on working with students with chronic discipline problems.

“It’s insanity when we keep doing the same thing over and over with our interventions,” Juseno said. She said she plans to attend a 30-hour crisis intervention course she found out about at the workshop.

At a table of interns from Brooklyn College, all well into their 600 required hours, one spoke for all when she declared, “It’s a lot of work, but everybody’s happy and hopeful.”

In accepting an award for his years of service to the guidance counselor’s chapter, UFT Assistant to the President Bob Astrowsky, a former guidance counselor, applauded the conference participants for “the profound difference you make in the lives of children.”