School for School Counselors Podcast

Let's start planning for Random Acts of Kindness Week! This year, RAK Week falls February 14th through the 20th, which is right on the heels of National School Counseling Week. I personally love both of those weeks: the combo is a great opportunity to show the power (or potential) of a comprehensive school counseling program in conjunction with a visible demonstration of how the concepts scho...

*BONUS- Listen to the end for an exclusive sneak peek of an awesome upcoming addition to the School for School Counselors world!* So many school counselors love the start of the spring semester! It feels like a chance for growth, some fresh perspective, and it  gives a feeling of potential coming up: that's super exciting! The start of a new semester also prompts us to take a moment to reeval...

Feeling completely exhausted as the semester comes to an end? We often want to attribute our feelings of exhaustion or overwhelm to things such as, "It's been a long semester," or, "December is always tough- this is no exception," or, "I'm serving an insane caseload... of course I'm tired!" But really, the roots of your exhaustion run much deeper. This...

Ever run across parents that you just cannot seem to figure out? Parents who are quick to blame, won't return calls, or show no follow-up at home? Parents who rarely make an appearance at school? Or how about the "helicopter" and  "lawnmower parents" that just absolutely insist on paving the easy route for their students, no matter what? These kinds of parent situations ca...

It sometimes takes one or two different ways of approaching a difficult administrator to provide a change in perspective and develop a good working relationship with that person. Or many of you may just need to figure out how to just get along with a difficult boss until you can find another campus to move to or different district to work in. You may not have the luxury of moving on if the school...

We spend more than half our waking lives at work. When you have to spend that time working with a difficult personality, it can make the days go by so slowly! In this episode, I outline three difficult principal personality types and how school counselors can approach each in a way that is mutually beneficial. Mentioned in this episode: Better Than Black Friday Event "Get the Job!" Inter...

The longer you work in school counseling, the more you'll meet. Disgruntled parents that CANNOT be pleased or have completely unrealistic expectations about your job scope and time.  It's frustrating when you're giving your all to serve your students but get told you're not doing enough, or you're not doing the right things. Or worse yet, they don't tell you. They go...

School counselors, let's talk about how to plan ahead proactively for the holiday season. So if you've been in school counseling for any amount of time, you know that this time of year is when things really start to get interesting. Students may start experiencing more stressors than normal.  Family relationships, financial stress, differences in routine, structure, and schedules: there...

What's your counselor-to-student ratio? If you're like the majority of school counselors, it is nowhere near the recommended 1:250. Take a listen to this episode for a few shifts that will help you find peace with a large caseload while ensuring that you're taking care of yourself. Our goal at School for School Counselors is to help school counselors stay on fire, make huge impacts...

From the moment that you begin studying school counseling, you're told about "comprehensive school counseling" programs. They're touted as the holy grail for school counselors: the ultimate achievement. The problem is, there are many of you that are feeling defeated as you strive to meet all the qualifications of a truly comprehensive program, even though the statistics show it...

In this episode, I focus on the types of burnout school counselors typically experience, how to recognize them, and what to do about them even if you feel there's nothing you can do. It's so important for school counselors to be thinking about this even if you aren't feeling burnt out because remaining vigilant and proactive can help insulate us from the effects of vicarious trauma,...

It seems everywhere we turn, school counselors are being reminded to engage in "self-care." But if you're anything like most school counselors, typical self-care suggestions may leave you angry and irritated because they're so out of touch. In this episode, we'll look at different burnout personalities to give us a bit better idea of how to hold  burnout at bay with meanin...

So many conversations in the school counselor world these days are about burnout, and this talk seems to really be hitting earlier in the school year than usual. In this episode, we're going to take a walk through the idea of burnout and uncover the reasons why you might be feeling that way- plus, we'll give you an action plan to help cope when things feel difficult- or to work to keep b...

Do you have students on your campus currently that are having difficulty "remembering" to go to school? We've seen so many students struggling with attendance since the covid shutdowns- even students that we previously were not worried about! In this episode, I'll bringing the four primary reasons students refuse to attend school, as well as what the research says are best prac...

This week's podcast episode is for any school counselor that's been at their wit's end with a  crying, screaming, perhaps running, student at the start of almost EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It's for school counselors who've tried all the advice they've seen elsewhere but are still shaking their head, wondering why they can't get a certain student to class without a fight...

So much noise! So many people battling to be seen as the "expert." Our school counseling world is drowning in noise and people who are desperate to be heard on social media. It's creating a very dangerous environment for school counselors. In this episode of the School for School Counselors Podcast, I'm going to give examples of some dangerous and misleading information that I...

School counselors are constantly being instructed to advocate for our school counseling programs, but there's one big elephant in the room that no one's talking about. No one is telling you HOW to advocate. You hear lots of little one-off one liners about how to advocate for your program, but this info don't even begin to scratch the surface of what successful advocacy actually look...

In this episode of the School for School Counselors Podcast, we take an unusual perspective on school counseling program data: how it's collected, what we do with it once we have it, and why it's important in the first place. Folks with a little more life experience will giggle as we walk down memory lane a bit and pull back the curtain for our more youthful school counselors to give a g...

So much of the feedback we hear from school counselors centers around feeling overwhelmed, particularly when we feel like's there's too much to do and no way to get it all taken care of. In this episode, we'll look into: - the common phenomenon of overscheduling - how too much planning can actually lead to overwhelm and burnout - a simple strategy for addressing overwhelm - resource...

If you've been a school counselor for a hot second, you know that the chatter at the beginning of the school year in August and September almost always centers around these two things: needs assessments and minute meetings. How do I administer a needs assessment? What questions do I ask? What do I do with the information once I have it? What's a minute meeting? We've got you! In thi...

When school counselors are encouraged to personally advocate for their programs, there is a lot of well-intentioned (yet terrible) advice tossed around! There is an art to successful advocacy and negotiation. In this episode, we'll dive into the basics of quality school counselor advocacy that can develop the potential for HUGE changes on campus. If you work in a school where you are tasked w...

Welcome back to the School for School Counselors Podcast! In this  episode, we'll talk about a lot of the things that your grad program didn't tell you and how you can feel prepared despite the surprises. This is a great episode for new  and veteran school counselors alike, with lots to listen to and think about you as you prepare for the start of the new school year. We'll talk abo...

I just returned from the American School Counselor Association national conference in Austin, TX, and I have some hidden gems of awesome information to share with you! If you are a school counselor who: sometimes feels like you don't know what to do when working with students (don't we all??!!?) runs small groups for students, or purchases resources from sites like TPT- you're espec...

How are your classroom management skills- on point? It's no secret that any school counselor that works in classrooms would like to make sure their management skills are on point! In this episode, we'll reveal my four best tips for effective classroom management, how to effectively run a classroom without being a disciplinarian, and some extra tricks to help along the way. This episode i...

If you have big dreams and goals for your school counseling program but just aren't getting there as quickly as you'd like, this episode is for you. We'll break down the factors causing you to feel stalled out or like you're not doing what "everyone else" is doing, why what you see online isn't always what you think, and how you can reset your perspective for ful...