No matter your counseling theory of choice, reality is that you need “stuff” to counsel elementary students. Most of our sessions aren’t just sitting and talking. We need tools and props and resources and toys and games. These serve to engage our students and also to meaty concepts more concrete for their developing minds. Sometimes we have the benefit of…
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Last month, I wrote about group counseling planning AKA you have to have a plan, you can’t wing it. And then a bit after that, I wrote about measuring your group’s success through data. In addition to planning out your sessions and your data collection, it’s also key to intentionally plan out ways to build relationships in the group. Relationships…
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Do you have a school counselor in your life that you love and want to get an awesome gift for? Hoping to knock their socks off with something? Wondering what to buy a school counselor? Or maybe you are a school counselor and you think your family may want to gift you things for your counseling program. Or you’re creating a…
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This post is the second in a series about intentional group counseling in schools. Last time, I wrote about intentionality in developing the objectives and content of the group. Today’s post focuses on measuring the success in our groups. If we’re going to devote a lot of time to servicing students in small groups, we should make sure they are…
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One of my biggest strengths (and weaknesses) is that I’m outspoken. There’s not much in the realm of school counseling that I don’t have a strong opinion about. That means there’s some things that are commonplace among other counselors that I don’t do – because they just aren’t in the best interest of my students. It can be very easy…
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Small groups are an incredible opportunity for school counselors. They allow us to provide personalized intervention to multiple students at once. So why don’t we do them more? Or prioritize them more? Well, group counseling in schools can be a real challenge. Groups with kids can be a lot of work to plan – because you have to have a…
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