Irish school guidance counsellors (GCs) are at the forefront of student pastoral care during critical incidents in schools and are highly likely to encounter the loss of a student to suicide and deal with the aftermath. There is an abundance of qualitative research exploring the impact of suicide on mental health professionals, however there is a paucity of qualitative research exploring this in relation to second-level school guidance counsellors in Ireland. This qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study aimed to explore and give voice to this group of frontline professionals. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather in-depth descriptions of this phenomenon, and data were analysed using the stages and process of the IPA analytic method. Data analysis identified three significant Group Experiential themes (GETs): (1) Managing Emotions “You have to keep it together”. (2) Feeling Disempowered - Organisational Context “A Tsunami of Students”, and (3) Relying on Personal Resources “Scars are on My Back”. The first GET reflects the significant emotional impact and felt responsibility on participants as frontline carers to respond to high numbers of traumatised bereaved students, frequently exacerbated by a dissonance with the current suicide postvention protocols, which left them feeling disempowered in their role. GET 2 highlights how participants were further burdened by unhelpful organisational responses such as systemic disconnect, ambiguity and organisational double-bind. GET 3 identifies the experience of relying on personal resources following the formal postvention response to ensure student care and attend to professional self-care. The implications for GCs are far-reaching and involve attention to on-going professional training support, supervision and self-care in a demanding and often under-resourced role. Implications at an organisational level include acknowledgement of the suicide trauma on the whole school system. The study indicates that enhanced trauma training for school managers would bring attention to the school system's needs. Also suggested is research to explore systemic disconnect reported in the findings and examine suicide postvention frameworks to inform future practice and policy