School Counseling Simplified Podcast

Don't get me wrong…playing games like Jenga can be a fun and effective way to build relationships with students. To make the greatest impact in the lives of our students, we've got to build rapport with them. While playing games is great, it can be easy to get stuck when it comes to finding new ways to relate to our counseling students and get to know them on a deeper level, especially since we on...

Let's celebrate! It's National School Counseling Week! You are doing meaningful work, and you deserve to be recognized and celebrated. If you're feeling awkward about bringing attention to yourself or you're just not sure what to do to celebrate, I've got some fun ideas for you in this episode. Instead of thinking of this week as a way to promote yourself, look at it as a way to bring awareness to...

Do you ever feel like you're just winging it during individual counseling sessions? When I first got started in individual counseling, I felt overwhelmed and unsure of what I was supposed to be doing during sessions with my students.  I felt comfortable and confident during group sessions, but when it came to one-on-one sessions with students, I always felt like I was doing it wrong. I wanted to b...

You guys want more data, and I am here for it! I thought I had talked about data enough, but after doing a poll to find out what your New Year's goals are as school counselors, there were a few people who wanted to work with data more effectively and keep more data. You may be reluctant to start data tracking because you don't really know where to start. Maybe you're tracking data already but you...

This month I'm focusing on sourcing topics based on the feedback you gave me on your goals for the year. I had one of you say that their goal was to run at least five counseling groups this spring semester. This is a wonderful goal and totally doable.  So, I want to share a few organizational strategies when it comes to small groups. Specifically, tips that will make your counseling life just a li...

I recently put a poll out to find out what your counselor goals, or resolutions, are for 2022. I used your answers to plan for my podcast episodes for the month of January. One of the topics that came up a lot was creating an efficient schedule. We all know the feeling of creating a schedule and then experiencing all kinds of interruptions that completely throw us off track.  So, this week I am go...

Happy 2022, school counselors! I hope you had a restful holiday break and are ready for what the next 12 months have in store for you! Do you enjoy this time of year, or not so much? I know people have mixed feelings about what comes with a new year, such as setting resolutions. Personally, I love setting goals and planning for what's to come. Overall, I have wild optimism at the beginning of a ne...

What comes to mind when you hear "self-care"? We all know self-care is important, but what about self-care at work? There are actually ways to practice self-care at work that can make your life a little easier and relieve stress…and they have nothing to do with bubble baths and essential oils. In this episode, I'm sharing unexpected self-care tips for the new year, specifically for school counselo...

Tracking and collecting data throughout the school year is a must. In this episode, I'm sharing how you can conduct a mid-year data checkup so you can continually make changes to your program to better serve your counseling students. Sending a needs assessment to students, parents, and teachers is a great way to see how things are going with your program. It's the perfect time to make changes in y...

What are some of your favorite memories from elementary school? It's important for kids to have positive experiences around school and for our counseling students to have positive counseling experiences. Holiday parties are a great way to add some fun to counseling and build relationships with your counseling students. In this episode, we're keeping it light hearted as I give you ideas to plan a C...

Happy December! The countdown to winter break is on. I absolutely love this time of year. Everything is so fun and festive, especially at the elementary level. I'm always trying to think of ways that I can put a seasonal twist on counseling activities to keep your students (and you) engaged. At the same time, I always had the problem of "frequent flyers" popping up. You know the ones. The kids who...

The first episode back after Thanksgiving break is the final episode of the Team Player Series, focused on students. I have spoken about how to collaborate with other stakeholders in the last few episodes and couldn't possibly leave out the kids we work with day in and day out. The ideas I share are action items that can be done from the first session you have! It goes without saying that it is so...

All month I've been talking about how you can collaborate with your stakeholders, and this episode is dedicated to principals. Your administration can really dictate how your program runs, so this is a very important topic! Some principals can micromanage while others don't want to be involved at all, hopefully your principal is somewhere in the middle. These strategies can allow you to be in cont...

For this week's Team Player Series episode, I will share how to get parents on board. I'm sure each and every one of you listening right now has experienced backlash from a parent at some point in your career. If you're like me, you probably realized if you had communicated more in the first place some of those situations never would have occurred.  Basically what I'm saying is to communicate, com...

As we approach the holiday season I hope you take time to rest and reflect on how you feel about the first few months of school. I know some of you have probably felt really alone and isolated in your school building full of teachers. It's just as bad, if not worse, if you have been getting push back from your class lessons or recommendations. Believe me, I've been there. That's why I decided to c...

To wrap up one of my favorite months, I decided to do a seasonal episode in the spirit of Halloween! I'll be sharing some fun activities you can do with those Halloween buckets you've probably gotten on Amazon or in the Dollar Store. I love providing you with low-cost and simple ideas and these are no different. If you've been a listener for a while, you know that I try to create simple activities...

Have you ever taught a great lesson only to have your student forget everything the next time they walk through your door? Teaching students truly takes a village, so it only makes sense we take advantage of our resources. I'm talking about peers, teachers, custodians, and more! Think about it. When you explicitly teach a topic and then another staff member refers to it in the hallway, on the play...

Did you know that October is Bullying Prevention Month? It's truly one of my favorite topics to discuss with my students. It is so important to work on those preventative measures and teach our students skills at a young age. The earlier you teach them about bullying, the more control you'll have as they get older. There are so many different ways to teach your students to be kind and aware of wha...

Can you believe it's already October?! What's more exciting is that we are celebrating ONE YEAR of this podcast, School Counseling Simplified! I wanted to do something special to celebrate this milestone, so this episode will be a bit different than the others. I've created a mash-up of the top 5 most popular episodes from the show! Be sure to stay tuned in until the very end for a special announc...

Today is extra exciting because we have a veteran counselor on the show, Terry Foytek. Terry has been a school counselor for 25 years and is a student in my online course, Stress Free School Counseling. This goes to show that Stress Free School Counseling is not just for new counselors or for counselors with 3-5 years of experience. It's for any school counselor because we are all constantly learn...

If you have been considering joining my Stress Free School Counseling course, then this episode is for you. I don't have guest episodes often, but I had to introduce you to one of my Stress Free School Counseling alumni, Kaylena. I hope any questions you have are answered after listening to her real-life testimonial! Like many of you, this is Kaylena's first year as a school counselor. She has exp...

Do you constantly feel like you are putting out fires rather than preventing them? Or maybe you take work home regularly to catch up because of all the distractions throughout the day. In this episode I will give you a solution to these never-ending problems. It all starts with scheduling, and I don't mean when you see specific students. I want you to think about how you are organizing your time t...

There are two things I suggest you focus on first and foremost as the school year begins. The first one is data collection, which I talked about during my last episode. The second is organization, which may not come so easy to school counselors. I feel like teachers tend to have this under control with their flair pens and post-its, but after this episode they'll be asking you for tips! As counsel...

By now, you may know how much I LOVE data collection, and there's a good reason for it! Collecting and sharing data is the best way to measure growth and advocate for your role as a school counselor. I know what you may be thinking right now - It's only September. Why are we already talking about data? Here's the thing, even if you've only just started the school year, it's not too early to begin...

With a new year upon us, there are always changes that are made in the public schools. This can be new students, new staff or administration, a new school placement or even a new district. Not to mention new protocols or procedures that may impact the program that you intended on using. These inevitable changes are one of the many reasons that school counselors have to be flexible. They're also a...