Employing ‘identity’ as an analytical lens, this study examined a group of novice school counselling teachers’ (SCTs) professional identities in the Chinese context. Informed by a multiple, integrated theoretical perspective focusing on the cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of teacher identities, the findings reveal five types of metaphors (i.e. cognitive, social, cognitive-emotional, social-emotional and cognitive-social-emotional) that reflect the novice SCTs’ most prominent identities in their embedded institutional and social contexts. The study contributes to our understanding of SCTs’ professional experiences and identity construction mediated by a range of personal (e.g. limited professional competence) and contextual factors (e.g. a lack of school support and social bias against psychological counselling). It also provides useful implications on how to promote and sustain new teachers’ continuing identity development in complex school settings.