Anxiety is a huge issue with youth right now in America. So much so, that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force is officially recommending all kids eight to eighteen be screened for anxiety at their pediatricians’ office! While it’s bad news that anxiety is so prevalent in our kids, the good news is that there […]
Individual Counseling
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 […]
Teaching Kids About “Flipping Their Lids”
Many people who work with children are noticing a pattern of increased emotional dysregulation in children. I certainly did! The number of students that needed help with regulation when I started at a school counselor in 2012 has increased exponentially – it is now a huge focus for myself and other school counselors each year. […]
6 Things to Teach Kids About Anxiety
As Dr. Dan Siegel says, we have to “Name It to Tame It”. One of our jobs as counselors is to help our students with their emotional vocabulary so they can “name it” and understand their own emotions as well! In this 20-21 school year, there are many concerns about our students being anxious. Let’s […]
5 Steps to Teach Emotional Self-Regulation
Helping students become better at regulating their own emotions is becoming more and more of a priority for school counselors. But how do you teach emotional regulation? What does that look like? It’s a pretty meaty topic! Let me break it down for you. Lots of times, kids learn how to regulate their emotions through […]
Individual Counseling: Tools and Resources
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 individual counseling tools and props and resources and toys and games. These serve to engage our students and also to make meaty concepts more concrete for their […]
School Counseling Self-Referral System
One of the questions I see pop up pretty regularly on IG and FB is “How do I set up a school counseling self-referral system?” While having students use google forms on computers in their class is an awesome idea, it’s not a great fit for schools with limited technology or with students who don’t […]
First Session of Individual Counseling With Kids
Even the best counselor prep programs don’t always include training for how to actually counsel children – it’s often times something that we figure out once we’re already working. Talking to mentor counselors, reading books, googling…and just plain old trial and error. I was lucky that my first position was actually as a school-based therapist […]
CBT Baseball: A Cognitive Behavioral Game for Kids
Right after I graduated from grad school, I went back to take a CBT class. Besides being a phenomenal course (with a stellar instructor), the textbook I got for it was actually worthwhile. Cognitive Therapy Techniques for Children and Adolescents: Tools for Enhancing Practice (affiliate link) had some actually tangible strategies for doing this kind […]
