I’ve always loved group counseling – you get a big bang for your metaphorical buck! And then one year, for the first time, I had kindergarten classes on my caseload. As you all know, group counseling with kindergarteners is a totally different ball game! I’ve learned a lot over the years and now I’m sharing […]
De-Catastrophizing: Anxiety Intervention for Kids
Alright, y’all, this is going to be a super short blog post – but also, I think, a super helpful one. It’s a quick intervention idea to use with students struggling with a specific anxiety. We’ve all seen a student anxious about something where their worry is the end of the world. It’s a catastrophe. […]
Perspective Taking Lesson in 4th Grade
Last year, for the first time in my career, I needed to do a perspective-taking lesson with one of my “big kid” grades (4th). I had done one in 2nd grade before, and I’ve done many empathy lessons, but this was the first time my big kids really needed help seeing other points of view. […]
Communicating with Families About School Counseling
School counseling can be a little bit misunderstood, right? People think we’re therapists, people think we’re brainwashers, people think we read newspapers and drink coffee all day. It’s frustrating! And when we’re already ridiculously busy, it can be hard to allot extra time to advocacy activities. Good news: there are some quick and simple ways […]
Your positive behavior reinforcement intervention will probably fail if…
Whether you’re trained in behavior intervention or not, if you work with children, there’s a 99.9% chance you’ll be involved in helping some children become more successful through improved behavior. And for some of those students, that will mean a positive reinforcement system as part of their behavior plan. Sometimes students just need a chance […]
4 CBT Activities to Use With Kids: Cognitive Counseling
Anyone in the counseling world knows that I love CBT. I connect with it both personally and professionally and am very grateful to have been able to take a class all on CBT in grad school. My zealousness is for good reason – cognitive behavioral interventions with children are evidence-based for depressive symptoms, anxiety, and […]
Group Counseling Reinforcement Strategies: Making The Skills Stick
Have you ever done a small group and things were going really well and then when the group is over (or while the group is still going on, but in the cafeteria, at recess, etc.), it’s as if your students never spent time in your office? Yeah, me too. Especially before I started trying to […]
School Counselors and MTSS
Whether your district calls it PBIS, RTI-B, or MTSS-B, chances are, you are providing your students with levels of support. This is a good thing! That said, it’s also another set of things to learn and implement. Especially because it’s often on top of academic MTSS/RTI, and this wasn’t always covered in grad school. The […]
Hands-On Group Counseling Activities
I love task cards. You know, those cards that have discussion questions, or role plays, or what would you do situations, and skills to practice. They can be created and used for tons of topics, with most grade levels, and in all tiers of counseling (I have a post here about ways to use them […]
