Book excerpt: This book helps school counselors and other school personnel navigate the complexities of the most common critical cases that are urgent and difficult in schools in the 21st century. Counselor educators who use this text will help trainees learn to take a methodical approach to critical cases and to be prepared for the difficult situations they will encounter including cases involving violence, cases of an existential nature, cases involving inappropriate adult behavior, and cases impacting the school community. After a description of the case, the reader is provided with the theories, standards, and experiences that are relevant to the case to formulate a response that is based on foundational principles of the school counseling profession. Contributing counselors from around the country explain what they do when critical cases present themselves, and this text provides their tools, wisdom, and professional judgments and offers training that embraces the reality of the school counselor profession to all counselors, educators, and trainees.