School Counseling Simplified Podcast

Latest Episodes:

84: Spring Resource Roundup Mar 29, 2022

Show notes

Spring is finally here, and we can get outside and enjoy the sunshine! I love springtime because it's like a fresh rebirth. Spring is one of those times of the year when we emerge from our black holes and get rejuvenated and refreshed.

In today's episode, I'm sharing my favorite spring resources and some fun and unique ideas that you can implement this month in your school counseling program. I hope you'll find these really helpful and that you'll feel inspired to try something today with your students.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/spring-resource

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83: Anxiety Strategies for Individual Counseling Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

Providing counseling in a one-on-one setting is so powerful for our students who are experiencing extreme anxiety. Today, we are wrapping up our anxiety series with 4 effective strategies you can use to help your students cope with anxiety. If you missed the last three episodes, go back and check them out. In episode 80, you'll hear me talk about what anxiety is and how we might see it show up in students. Episode 81 is all about strategies you can use to address anxiety during class counseling lessons, and in episode 82 I share strategies you can use to address anxiety during group counseling lessons.

This series has been designed to give you quick, actionable takeaways that you can implement in your own counseling program right away to support your students who are experiencing anxiety. You can find some of my favorite strategies in my Anxiety and Worry Individual Counseling Curriculum, including student journal activities and grounding activities. This curriculum is really helpful for simplifying your counseling life and includes everything you need, even the data tools!

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/strategies-for-individual-counseling

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

82: Anxiety Strategies for Small Group Counseling Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

All month we've been talking about anxiety, and today I'm going to talk specifically about how you can help students with anxiety through an anxiety small group. If you missed the last 2 episodes, be sure to check out episode 80 where I did crash course on anxiety, and episode 81 where I shared strategies for class counseling for anxiety.

Small group counseling is a great place for students to practice using the strategies they're learning and identify situations when they may need to tap into those strategies. In this episode, I'll give you 4 ideas you can use with an anxiety group. Let me know if you try out some of the strategies I've shared. Share a picture and tag me on Instagram @brightfuturescounseling. I'd love to see them in action!

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/small-group-counseling

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

81: Anxiety Strategies for Class Counseling Lessons Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

I'm a big fan of doing class lessons. It's a great way to plant seeds with students and teach them strategies they can use going forward that can empower them to be proactive instead of being reactive. In last week's episode, we had a crash course on anxiety counseling. Today I want to give you three ideas of things that you can do in a class lesson to help teach students about anxiety and how they can manage their anxiety.

I hope you'll find these strategies to be helpful to you in your school counseling program. I'd love to hear from you! If you try out any of the strategies I've shared, take some pics, tag me on Instagram, or just share with me how you're using these strategies to teach your students about anxiety.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/anxiety-strategies

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

80: Anxiety Counseling Crash Course Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Most students experience anxiety at some point in their lives. As school counselors, it's important that we understand the different ways anxiety can show up in students and how to best support them. Typically, I give you counseling strategies and tools that you can use generally across topics, but I thought it would be helpful to go deeper on a specific topic and give you some quick takeaways that you can easily implement in your counseling program. So all month, I'll be talking to you about anxiety and how we can help support students who are struggling in this area.

Today's episode is an overview of what anxiety is and how to determine which students really need support with anxiety. Sometimes students are unaware that what they're experiencing is anxiety or they just don't have the ability to label it. So it's really important that we provide screenings that help us identify who those students are. Of course, it's not our job to diagnose, but it is important for us to be aware of the signs of anxiety so we can get them the support they need.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/anxiety-crash-course

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

79: 3 Must-Have Data Tools for Individual Counseling Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

Collecting data is so important for our students and our counseling programs. It helps us answer questions like:

How can we teach this material to help the students better understand?
How can we present this in a different way to help the student grow and to learn these coping strategies?
How can we provide outside support or other resources to really ensure that the student is getting the support they need?

We can do all of that by looking at the data. When we have solid data, we're not just guessing or shooting in the dark. Instead, we have concrete evidence-based proof that we can use when we're trying to figure out how to best help students.

In this episode, I'm wrapping up our individual counseling series by sharing 3 data collection tools you can start using today. If you missed Episode 76, be sure to go back and listen because I talk about how to plan your individual counseling sessions.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/3-must-have-data-tools

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

78. How to Build Genuine Rapport in Individual Sessions (beyond Jenga!) Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

Don't get me wrong…playing games like Jenga can be a fun and effective way to build relationships with students. To make the greatest impact in the lives of our students, we've got to build rapport with them. While playing games is great, it can be easy to get stuck when it comes to finding new ways to relate to our counseling students and get to know them on a deeper level, especially since we only see them for short amounts of time.

In today's episode, I'm sharing 4 things you may not be doing that will help you build rapport in your individual counseling sessions. These tips I'm sharing today are simple and most require very little prep work.

My hope is that these strategies will be useful to you as you develop deeper relationships in your individual counseling and that you'll see how simple it can be to incorporate these into your daily routine. Don't stop playing Jenga! Just add these into what you're already doing.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/rapport-in-individual-sessions

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

77: How to Celebrate National School Counseling Week (even if you're a solo counselor!) Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

Let's celebrate! It's National School Counseling Week! You are doing meaningful work, and you deserve to be recognized and celebrated. If you're feeling awkward about bringing attention to yourself or you're just not sure what to do to celebrate, I've got some fun ideas for you in this episode.

Instead of thinking of this week as a way to promote yourself, look at it as a way to bring awareness to the profession and to your counseling program as a whole.

This is the perfect time to spread awareness to teachers and parents about what services you offer and how those services are impacting students. Today, I'm sharing how you can spread awareness with fact sheets, shoutouts, data walls, parent letters, and even teacher training.

I would love to see how you're celebrating National School Counseling Week. Take a picture of your cupcakes, your data walls, or whatever you decide to do, and tag me on Instagram @brightfuturescounseling.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/national-school-counseling-week

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Connect with Rachel on social media:

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

76: What do I do During Individual Counseling Sessions? Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Do you ever feel like you're just winging it during individual counseling sessions? When I first got started in individual counseling, I felt overwhelmed and unsure of what I was supposed to be doing during sessions with my students.

I felt comfortable and confident during group sessions, but when it came to one-on-one sessions with students, I always felt like I was doing it wrong. I wanted to be confident that I was meeting the needs of my students during individual sessions, but I just felt a little lost.

Fortunately over the years, through lots of trial and error, I've developed some systems and planning strategies that really work when it comes to individual counseling.

In this episode, I share step-by-step how you can plan out your individual counseling sessions so you can feel confident and prepared that you're making an impact and a difference as a counselor. We'll discuss how to create simple, yet effective, strategic plans that align with the ASCA standards.

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/individual-counseling-sessions

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If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

75: Data Collection Without Tears Jan 25, 2022

Show notes

You guys want more data, and I am here for it! I thought I had talked about data enough, but after doing a poll to find out what your New Year's goals are as school counselors, there were a few people who wanted to work with data more effectively and keep more data. You may be reluctant to start data tracking because you don't really know where to start. Maybe you're tracking data already but you could be a little better at it, or maybe you just need confirmation that you're doing it correctly.

In today's episode, I'll be talking to you about how to get started with data in a way that will not make you feel overwhelmed. This is a great entry-level data teaching for you focusing mainly on two data tools that can help you easily track student progress. I'll also be sharing some amazing tools you can use in your school counseling program

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/data-collection-without-tears

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Rachel on social media:

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

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