School Counseling Simplified Podcast

In today's episode I am chatting with Executive Function and ADHD coach Sarah Lovell about practical strategies school counselors can use to improve their own executive functioning skills and help students.  Sarah Lovell (she/her) is an executive function & ADHD coach for ambitious professionals, college students, creatives, and perfectionists. With a background as a Master's level social worker,...

In Today's episode I am welcoming back Joyce Harduvel, (who will also be at this year's IMPACT Summer Summit), to give her insight on supporting students in Crisis. Joyce is a licensed clinical social worker and a certified school social work specialist. After seven years in the field of school social work working with students from preschool to high school, she is pivoting to provide school-based...

In this episode, I'm covering all things counselor interviews. Remember when you were interviewing for counseling positions or maybe you're interviewing right now?  I know that it was an emotional roller coaster preparing, interviewing and dealing with rejection. It took me quite a few interviews before landing my dream job. That's why I love to talk about this! AND I decided to tag in some help!...

In today's episode, I am sharing all my strategies to help school counselors to tie up loose ends at the end of the school year and support students' mental health over the summer months.  Some Highlights:  Implementing Termination strategies for school counseling groups Creating an End-of-year report and data wall for advocating counselor role Getting summer support plans in place with community...

  In Today's episode I chat with Lauren Tingle. We are diving into all things school counselor interviews. The do's don'ts, interview preparation and our experiences, we will be sharing advice and tips for common scenarios we have seen! Lauren is a former high school counselor turned content creator and curriculum writer. She is the high school counseling hype girl behind Counselor Clique helping...

In today's episode I chat with Malisa Hepner, an elementary school counselor and published children's book author. She discusses her background and strategies for building relationships with students and staff. She also shares tips for wrapping up the school year. Here are some things we covered:  How Malisa supports students and staff through intentional relationship-building and acts of kindness...

In today's episode we discuss anxiety strategies for school counselors with expert Courtney Bennett. Courtney is a passionate school counselor and mom of three. She loves to learn, so you will most often find her with a book in hand. She has spent the last several years studying about anxiety, trauma, and executive functioning and enjoys the challenge of putting this expertise to the test with rea...

On today's episode, we explored a variety of strategies for managing student anxiety with special guest Casey O'Brien Martin. Casey shared her wealth of experience working as both an art therapist and school counselor. Casey O'Brien Martin is a Mom of two boys and a mini schnuazer named Hurley. She is the author of the book Skills for Big Feelings: A Guide for Teaching Kids Relaxation, Regulation,...

In this episode of School Counseling Simplified, your host, Rachel, shares powerful mindfulness strategies for managing student anxiety and executive functioning.  Here are some highlights:  Mindfulness activates the prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex, areas of the brain linked to attention, executive functions, and learning. A study found students who practiced mindfulness improved their exec...

In today's episode, I chat with Laura Filtness about anxiety strategies. Laura talks through the importance of setting professional boundaries and using therapy dogs in counseling programs. We discuss practical applications for managing anxiety in students and school counselors, including mindful moments, expanding the window of tolerance, and using cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques. L...

Anxiety remains our focus this week as we have gotten such an overwhleming response and need to continue to cover this topic. Today, Jessica, from Counseling Adventures, joins the conversation to share valuable insights and practical strategies for addressing anxiety among students. Drawing from her 10 years of experience, Jessica offers tips for parents, teachers, and fellow counselors, emphasizi...

Separation anxiety has always impacted kids but it seems to be much more prevalent in the past few years since the pandemic. We see it in students crying as they are exiting their cars in the morning, refusing to come to school, and feeling sick in the nurse's office. We all want to help these students cope with this anxiety as best as possible so Ashley Bartley is joining us to share practical ti...

Anxiety does not just impact older students and adults. There are many elementary students who struggle with anxiety as well! As a school counselor, it can be challenging to determine the root of that anxiety and figure out what strategies may be beneficial for your student. I know we all want to support our students as best as possible so I am so excited to have Sophia from School Psych Finds on...

I think all of us can agree that kids are more anxious now than ever. And as school counselors, trying to find effective tools and strategies to figure out why our students are so anxious and help our students calm down can be challenging. So how can we help these students?         I completely understand how difficult it can be to come up with strategies when you have a student in your office who...

Students of all ages can suffer from anxiety or feel anxious about certain situations. Teaching them effective coping strategies for managing their anxiety is so empowering for them and can help them feel more calm in stressful situations. I always love to hear tips and strategies from other school counselors and I am so excited to have Mallory Zolinas join me to share some coping strategies for a...

We are wrapping up our series on school counselor competencies with my favorite topics: assessing and data! Showcasing assessments and data is such an incredible way to advocate for your role and show your program's progress to stakeholders. In addition to it being an amazing way to advocate for your role, assessing and reporting program results is an ASCA school counselor competency!            S...

Have you looked at the ASCA school counselor competencies and been totally overwhelmed? This whole month, I am focusing on simplifying these standards and making them easy to understand and easy to implement. We've previously covered direct and indirect student services and now it's time for one of my absolute favorite topics, planning. If you're a planner like me, you are going to love this, too!...

Direct student services may not sound super interesting but this is the good stuff! It's the things we all enjoy doing and the reasons we became school counselors. Direct student services are when we are working with students in one on one settings, small groups, and class lessons. We all know that providing these services are the key parts of our role but how can we be sure we are delivering the...

What are indirect student services? We all know there is so much that goes into school counseling besides just the class lessons, small groups, and individual sessions. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes. These indirect student services are so important to making the biggest impact possible on all of our students.           If you're looking through the ASCA website, it may seem wordy...

If you're like me, you're always looking for new ways to increase your productivity. As busy school counselors, we need to save every minute we can by finding more efficient ways to do things that work for our personalities and busy schedules. As we wrap up our productivity series, I want to share some of my favorite ways to more efficiently document services provided and ideas for how to make you...

We are all about productivity this month because I love helping school counselors make the most of their time to make the biggest impact they can! We talked last week about using a time audit to figure out where you are spending your time and how to cut out things that you don't need to be doing, but how else can you make the most of your time? Batching!           We have so many things to accompl...

It's January, the start of a new year and what better way to kick off your year than with a time audit! You know I love time audits because they are so incredibly helpful for making the most of your time and helping you make the biggest impact you can. I know, you might be thinking that adding another thing to your to-do list just isn't possible. But believe me, you can regain so much time just by...

I absolutely love hearing from other school counselors and getting an inside look at what their role looks like. Every counselor's position is unique based on so many different factors - their background, their caseload size, if there are other counselors on their team, etc. That's why I am so excited to chat with our guest today! Sheyenne Hernandez has a social work background, has a caseload of...

Happy New Year! We made it to 2024 and I am so excited to kick off a new year with you and see what 2024 holds for us! I always love to kick off the year with some new goals, selecting a word of the year, and a fresh start and I thought it would be perfect to share that with you!           I think we all like to go into a new year with a fresh perspective and ideas of things we'd like to accomplis...

I hope you are enjoying your much needed and well deserved break! We are wrapping up 2023 with a look back at some of the best episodes from School Counseling Simplified this year to help you easily find what you may want to go back and listen to. This year has been so fun and I am so grateful for each and every one of you for tuning in and sharing the podcast!           As I looked back on what w...