School Counseling Simplified Podcast

Cue the confetti because I have such an exciting announcement to share with you! Impact 2.0 is here! This episode is a replay of the live launch party I held to unveil all the new features of Impact.       I know what it's like to have the heart and desire to want to help as many kiddos as possible as a school counselor. But here's the problem. You end up overwhelmed and winging it more than you'd...

Join me LIVE TONIGHT, January 10, 2023 at 6:00pm EST for a huge announcement! I cannot wait to share this with you! We are launching something BIG and I am so excited to finally give you the details. We will be giving away gift cards, door prizes, and 3 people who are there live will receive unlimited access to all of my counseling resources for 1 month!         Sign up at stressfreeschoolcounseli...

Happy New Year! I hope that 2023 is off to a great start for you! I am feeling super optimistic for this year and want to help you have the best start to 2023 when you return to school. I am sharing three goals for school counselors for the new year. We all want to make our school counseling programs the best that they can be. We want to make an impact on our students and I have some ideas for sim...

Do you set goals for yourself and your program at the start of every year or have New Year's goals not really been your thing in the past? I know doing "New Year, New Goals" is a bit overdone but I feel like it's a good chance to encourage ourselves to improve personally and professionally. If you aren't sure where to start with your goals, I have five goals you can set to help improve your counse...

Whether you're resting and relaxing or getting in as many social gatherings as possible, I hope you are having an AMAZING, well-deserved break! At this point in the school year, self-care is especially important. So today, I am sharing four self-care tips to help you get the most out of your holiday break!          We often get so busy with our to-do list, obligations, and feeling like we need to...

Holiday break will be here before you know it! As stressful as it is before break, I think it is so important and helpful to wrap things up for our students and for ourselves before we leave for break. Your future self will thank you in January when you come back and things aren't a total mess! Today, I am sharing four ways to create closure before the holiday break.         We're all ready to run...

As we get closer to winter break, we know our schedules are going to get crazy with all the assemblies, concerts, and special events. As fun as this is for our students, it can make our typical schedule feel a bit more stressful and keeping students engaged can be a challenge. So today, I am sharing eight seasonal activities you can do with your students that will keep them engaged and give you a...

What do you do when you receive push back from unsupportive stakeholders? Unfortunately, this may happen even when we are careful to be respectful, not step on others' toes, and maintain relationships with teachers and parents. You don't need to feel unprepared when dealing with push back because today, I am sharing four tips for handling push back.       We want teachers, admin, and parents to se...

You know I am all about advocating for your role as a school counselor and I love giving you tips and advice on how to do so. We all know that a huge part of advocating for our program is showcasing how many students we are working with and how we are using our time to help these students. So today, I am talking about two things you can do that will help you advocate for your position and program....

One of the most effective ways for you to advocate for your role as a school counselor is to use data to showcase your impact. Many counselors get overwhelmed or nervous about data collection. I am here to tell you that it doesn't need to be overwhelming! It is so powerful to have data to show your parents, teachers, and admin, and today,  I am sharing my favorite end of the year data report to he...

Are you using paper organizers to keep track of your caseload? Or maybe you just don't have an effective system for keeping track of all your tier II and tier III students? We're continuing our series about areas to focus on to make a big impact in your counseling program. Today, we are covering organization and looking at one of my favorite organizational tools for keeping track of all the studen...

Are you looking for tips on what to focus on in order to see big results in your counseling program? That's what we are focussing on all month long! We are taking the next five weeks to look at key areas to focus on for a big impact in your program. Today, we are taking a look at how scheduling can help you get better results in your counseling program.       You may hear scheduling and think I'm...

We are wrapping up our series on pre-bullying prevention ideas with a topic that is a little closer to traditional bullying prevention topics. This episode is all about self-advocacy and the importance of students knowing how to stand up for themselves in school and beyond.      Self-advocacy is an important skill that often isn't taught as much as it should be. These skills are used in every stag...

Looking for a simple way to help prevent bullying in your school? Focus on friendship building! We are continuing to talk about bullying prevention by diving into how to promote friendship at your school. Knowing how to include others and build and maintain friendships is key to preventing bullying. Today, I am sharing easy to implement strategies you can use to promote friendship. I am sharing th...

We know how important it is to prevent bullying in our schools and we are continuing our focus on proactive bullying prevention topics. Last week we chatted about creating a culture of kindness and using resolution circles as bullying prevention. Today, we are talking about conflict resolution beyond resolution circles. Being able to resolve conflicts in a respectful way is an important skill for...

October is Bullying Prevention month which has been my thing since my first year as a counselor. This month, we are covering bullying prevention adjacent topics. So what does that mean? It means I'm going to be sharing topics for you to cover with students and by covering these topics, you'll be promoting bullying prevention. In today's episode, we are looking at how to create a culture of kindnes...

How can I teach social skills in an individual lesson? Don't I need their peers for them to interact with? If you've found yourself wondering how to engage a student in individual lessons for social skills, this episode is for you! We are wrapping up our September social skills focus with actionable ideas for teaching social skills at an individual level. We're looking at ideas to teach engaging f...

Are you looking for strategies for teaching social skills to Tier II students that you can use right away? This week, we are continuing to focus on social skills by looking at strategies that you can easily implement with your small groups! In this episode, I am sharing some tips on how to engage your Tier II students in social skills lessons. We are covering four strategies to use when teaching s...

Class lessons can be tricky for school counselors especially when it comes to a topic, like social skills, that's  easier to teach in a smaller setting. If you're unsure where to even begin when planning your tier one social skills lessons, don't stress! I'm sharing 3 great activities you can easily implement to teach your whole class social skills lessons! In this episode, we are taking a look at...

We all know how important social skills are and it is very likely that you will get a lot of referrals for social skills. That is why we are doing a mini series all about social skills this month. We are going to do a deep dive on how you can support your students with their social skills through all three tiers! We are kicking off this mini series with an introduction to social skills. We are tal...

It is so common for school counselors to work with students who struggle with anger and wouldn't it be amazing if you felt confident and prepared to successfully work with these students? Jessica Sinarski, LPCMH, is joining us today as our "resident anger expert" and is giving us so much useful information on how to best work with students who struggle with anger. In this episode, we are chatting...

There is an increase in newcomers and ELL students all over the country. As school counselors, we of course want to serve and help them as best as we can! Today, I am joined by Beth Vaucher who has some wonderful insight into how school counselors can help new ELL students. School counselors can play a very important role in helping newcomers adjust to a school in a new country. In this episode, B...

It's officially back to school season! That means it's time to start planning your Meet the Counselor class lessons. Are you unsure where to start or are you looking for fresh ideas for Meet the Counselor lessons? This episode is packed full of great ideas and tips to make your first classroom lesson of the year amazing! Your first classroom counseling lesson of the year is so important to build r...

Are you looking for a way to break down all that needs to be done in the first few months of the school year so you feel less overwhelmed? The 30, 60, 90 day plan may be just what you are looking for! Today, I am sharing a training I did for the IMPACT members on how to utilize a 30, 60, 90 day plan to map out what you need to accomplish in the first 3 months of the school year. In this episode, w...

Are you feeling stressed with planning class lessons and want to feel competent and prepared? I am sharing how I went from being overwhelmed with planning lessons to feeling confident in my lessons and how you can get there too! Today, I am diving into a few things that always come up when I talk to other counselors about planning class lessons. We are looking at two ways you can feel more compete...