School Counseling
Hello! I'm Rachel Karnitz. As the K-12 School Counselor at Red Rock Central, I'm responsible for a lot of different things, but my most important role is to help students succeed - academically, socially, and emotionally.
I have the unique job of working with all students in grades K-12, and I love seeing students grow from year to year. The best part of my job is that I get to do a wide variety of things each day. On a typical day, I might be playing a game with an elementary student, showing a new student their locker, helping a senior with their college applications, or talking with a parent. Each moment is important in its own way.
I graduated from the University of MN, Morris with a degree in Psychology and Human Services. After that, I studied an additional 2 years to earn a Master's degree in School Counseling from Minnesota State University, Mankato. I have now been a School Counselor since 2003, and I have worked at Red Rock Central since 2013.
When I'm not at school, I love spending time with my dogs, reading, crafting, and working on home improvement projects.
Classroom Lessons
I visit the K-6 classrooms each month to teach a lesson and visit with the students. The topics vary, but all lessons are geared to the student's developmental level and designed around school-counseling related topics. These visits give me the opportunity to get to know the students, and allows the students to get to know me. When students know me, and are familiar with what I do, they are more likely to seek me out when they need help with a situation in the future.
Individual Counseling
Much of my interaction with students is done on an individual basis. This might be everything from checking in on a child that is crying in the classroom, talking with a child multiple times to resolve a problem, or meeting with a student on a weekly basis to help with a long-term concern.
School counselors work with students in short-term situations, and are not long-term therapists. Many times I am working in partnership with a therapist that the child is seeing outside of school. However, most of my time is spent handling common, everyday concerns - friendship issue, behavior in the classroom, family changes, and self-esteem issues.
Parents can ask me to visit with their child, teachers might ask me to visit with their student, but many times, the students themselves are the ones asking to meet with me.
Small Group Counseling
Group counseling is used when 3-8 students in the same grade ranges are working on the same set of skills. Many times group counseling is used to help develop friendship or social skills. The students can learn from me, but can also learn by observing and interacting with other students. In this case, I try to make sure the group dynamics will benefit the students, and not detract from what we are trying to learn. Small groups meet weekly, and have a specific focus. The group activities include games, crafts, stories, videos, role playing, and practicing our new skills.