School for School Counselors Podcast

You know what a comprehensive school counseling program is supposed to look like.  You've studied the model, you've advocated for your role, and you've done everything you know to do to move your program forward. So why won't your school let you do it? An administrator that doesn't listen, a schedule exploding with responsibilities... And every time you think you're f...

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

How in the world can a student demonstrate every executive functioning skill you practice in a counseling group perfectly... and still fail their classes because they don’t turn anything in? Happens all the time. Because knowing how to do something is not the same as actually being able to do it when it counts. In this episode, we’re looking at why planners, checklists, and executive functioning s...

“Executive function” has become one of those phrases we use ALL THE TIME in schools. Kid’s disorganized = Executive function. Missing assignments = Executive function. Can’t get started = Executive function. Impulsive = Executive function. ADHD... Well, obviously, executive function... right? Maybe. But what the heck are we actually SAYING when we say a kid “struggles with executive functioning?”...

Whodunit? It's time to open the case file, y'all. We’ve got a student who keeps leaving class, a behavior plan that is NOT working, and a school counselor whose fingerprints are all over it. So... who’s actually responsible for the mayhem? Because when campuses start talking about behavior plans, the details get complicated fast: Should the school counselor be involved? Are you actually...

When a student is struggling, school counselors often hear, “Can you talk to them?” But in determining if a student needs counseling, we tend to skip some very  important steps. In this episode, I'm talking about a common jump everyone on campus tends to make (and nobody ever questions)- and why it's such a big deal. You’ll hear why context matters more than the referral itself, how easi...

It doesn’t work. And if you’ve tried it, you know it's true. The school counseling advocacy model most of us were taught was supposed to be simple: explain your role, show your data, cite the standards, make the case. THEN we were supposed to be able to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. The problem is- information isn’t influence. So in this episode, we’ll talk about how school counselors can become influe...

School counselor advocacy is supposed to create change. But what if some of what we’ve been taught to call advocacy is actually doing something else? You can explain your role, bring the data, cite the standards, and make a compelling case... And still walk out with the same testing assignment, MTSS responsibility, impossible caseload, or non-counseling duties you walked in with. This episode take...

You’ve explained your role.  You’ve shown the data.  You’ve pulled out the appropriate and inappropriate duties list.  You’ve advocated .  But... nothing changes. So- what are you supposed to do now? Just advocate harder?  ( Spoiler: Nope. )  In this episode, I’m questioning one of the biggest assumptions driving school counselor advocacy. Because there’s a big difference between someone not under...

Everything difficult or weird on a school campus somehow gets shuffled to the school counselor. And nobody is likely to stop you from taking it all on. In fact, sometimes the whole campus seems perfectly happy to let you do ALL the things. So before the school year really gets rolling, there are four decisions worth making. These aren’t decisions you can make with a list of “appropriate” and “inap...

School counseling on paper and school counseling in real life are not the same job. You were trained to support students, build relationships, and run a comprehensive program. Then you walked onto a campus with an impossible caseload, unclear expectations, constant interruptions, and demands coming from every direction. So you did what good school counselors do: you worked harder. But what if effo...

The educational system doesn't need to plot to keep you quiet. It just needs to keep you tired. And after that, the silence takes care of itself. A few nights ago, I watched over a hundred school counselors simultaneously go quiet. It was weird. They'd been engaged in my presentation. They were animated and alive. The conversation was popping.  But then... I changed the subject from talk...

Most school counselors plan their programs in the same order they were taught: start with the data, identify the need, choose the intervention, and try to make the model fit. But that's exactly why so many carefully built plans fall apart by October. In this episode, Steph explains why school counselors may be planning their programs backwards — and the two questions that should come before g...

Most school counselors can describe what they do all day. Crisis response. Small groups. Student check-ins. Parent calls. Schedule changes. Behavior support. Data meetings. The fifty small things that happen before 9:00 a.m. But ask a school counselor what makes them remarkable, and things can get quiet fast. In this episode, Steph talks about why it can be so hard to name the specific instincts,...

Last week, we looked at what happens when schools finally put a price tag on the mental health fallout of social media. This week, we're looking at the strange second half of that story. If technology is part of the problem... why are some schools turning to even more technology as the solution? Across the country, districts are adopting AI-powered mental health tools that monitor students, f...

Social media drama has a price tag now. A Kentucky school district recently settled a lawsuit against social media companies for approximately $27 million, arguing that the platforms helped create a student mental health burden schools have been forced to absorb. But school counselors didn’t need a lawsuit to know this was costing something. The screenshots. The group chats. The parent emails. The...

I don’t buy printable counseling resources anymore. Haven’t for years. But to test a theory on the air, I broke that rule. I bought a popular, well-reviewed anxiety resource from one of the big teacher marketplaces and ran my paper test on it live. I expected to find junk. I didn’t. It was polished. Thoughtful. Well-organized. It even cited real research. And that’s what made the problem harder to...

If somebody else could do exactly what you're doing after reading the same slide deck- Why did you go to grad school?  That's the question that hit me after I reviewed a state-sponsored training that handed school counselors a watered-down counseling model and called it evidence-based.  And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.  But this episode isn't really about one training. ...

On the last day of school, the district sent an email about spreadsheets. But not one person asked what you needed to do your job better next year. Not what you were seeing. Not what students needed. Not what kept support from reaching kids faster. Just the spreadsheet. There’s a name for that kind of silence. This episode is about why nobody asks school counselors what they’re observing… and what...

A school administrator once told me the reason I couldn't finish a single classroom lesson was because the kids just liked me too much. She meant it as a compliment.  It took me years to understand what it actually revealed. This episode is about the gap between the job we were trained to do and the job we're actually allowed to do. How that gap gets handed to counselors as personal fail...

Most school counselors think the new school year starts in August. I don’t think it does. I think a huge part of your August gets decided right now… in May… while you’re mentally saturated, emotionally exhausted, and trying to crawl to the finish line. Because the things you leave unresolved this time of year have a way of following you right back into the building. The role conversation you keep...

You’re about to get a referral that says: “It’s been happening all year.” And somehow… now it’s urgent. This episode is about why that happens, and why treating May referrals like October problems will burn you out fast . Because most of what’s hitting your desk right now isn’t new. It’s late. We’re talking about:  The predictable end-of-year referral surge (and what’s actually driving it)   How a...

You’re doing meaningful work. You’re supporting students. You’re handling things no one else on campus is equipped to handle. But somehow, when big decisions get made, it’s like none of that exists. This episode looks at why that happens... and why it keeps happening. The school counseling profession has made its impact almost impossible to see. So in this episode, we’re talking about the visibili...

You know the feeling. The one that says: If you were better at this, it wouldn't be this hard.  If you had advocated more effectively, the caseload would be manageable.  If you were really cut out for this work, you wouldn't be sitting in your car wondering if you can walk through the doors. That feeling has a name. And it isn't burnout. In this episode, Steph Johnson makes the case...

You’re not overwhelmed because there’s too much work; You’re overwhelmed because too much of it is not your job . You're not saying yes because you "lack boundaries". You're saying yes because, in that moment, saying yes made sense. And that’s the problem. ******** Join our new Skool for School Counselors community   ******** Want support with real-world strategies that actuall...