Supports

What a School Counselor Does

As a school counselor I help provide additional support to students' social-emotional learning (SEL). Below are a few of the common services I provide with brief explanations of them but if you have any questions on them, please feel free to reach out. All supports are intended to be short-term in nature and should be used to support a student's educational growth. 

Areas of Supports

Emotional Learning: This is the biggest area I tend to support and also the one I am the most passionate about. I like to break down Emotional Learning into two broad categories of Emotional Knowledge and Emotional Regulation Skills. 

• Emotional Knowledge: This area is focused on just understanding what emotions and feelings are. The focus here is understanding how to identify the clues in your body or on someone else to help you figure out a feeling. Learning to differeniate between feeling sad, mad, happy, calm, etc. We also learn about the mind body connection and how emotions can impact how we physically feel. The knowledge piece is the foundation for all other Emotional Learning because in order to move on to being able to regulate or even understand underlying causes of emotions, students have to know what emotions are and when they are experiencing them.

• Emotional Regulation Skills: Once a student is able to properly recognize and label an emotion, then we look to regulate it if needed. I teach that all emotions are okay to have and are a part of the human experience, so there is no bad emotion, including sadness and anger. Students are allowed and encouraged to feel all of their emotions and express them in a safe manner. However, I also teach students that experiencing strong emotions is not a justified reason for unsafe behaviors or poor choices. So while there are not bad or good emotions, there are bad or good choices and behaviors which students, and all people, are always responsible for. When they struggle to express them safely or the emotions become too overwhelming to handle in the moment, that is where regulation skills become necessary. Regulation skills can vary from student to student and even situation to situation but basic ones are things like learning to control their breathing, using positive self-talk, taking a walk/break, stretching, drawing or journaling, grounding excerises, etc. The goal, for me, is to teach students skills that helps them to maintain control of their body and choices when experience emotions, not to suppress the emotion (s). 

Types of Supports

Individual Support: Typically involves weekly one-on-one meetings between the school counselor and student. Usually last for 15-30 minutes (depending on student needs and/or age). Topics covered can range on a variety of areas but usually have a focused area of growth to work on.

Small Group: Weekly lessons with 3-5 students that focus on either teaching or practicing particular SEL skills. Usually last for 20-40 minutes (again depending on student needs and ages). Usually put together with input from classroom teachers to make sure students selected are a good fit for group setting. Topics vary from group to group but some typical ones are emotional regulation skills- how to identify emotions and feelings and/or how to use different strategies to manage them; social skills- how to make friends, how to ask for help, how to cooperate with others; and academic skills- how to be an active listener, how to ask questions in class, how to organize materials. 

Classroom Lessons: These are based on the needs of the class and with the collaboration of the classroom teacher but are full class lessons, either one time or several lessons over multiple days, that give students opportunities to learn about a particular SEL topic with their entire class and practice together.

Collaborative Support with Outside Providers: I am happy to collaborate with outside therapist and mental health providers to coordinate and reinforce the strategies your student is learning in their counseling sessions. This partnership helps create a consistent and supportive environment both at school and at home. *This support is dependent on your student's provider's willingness to collaborate and requires permission both on the school's side and often on the provider's side to cover FERPA and HIPAA privacy laws.

Resources: There are a lot of needs that as a school counselor I am either not qualified or have the capacity to support directly but I am also happy and willing to support students and their families in finding outside resources that are more able to support those needs. This support can look like providing referrals for outside therapy and/or social work needs, connecting with community resources or discussing ways to better support your student at home.