If you’re a recent graduate who is looking for your first school counseling job or if you’re an experienced counselor who is looking for a new job and you need to brush up on your interview skills, this episode is for you! 

Today I am joined by guest, Lauren Tingle. Together, we go over some of the common questions you may encounter in an interview for a school counseling position and discuss how we would answer them.

These questions come directly from the ASCA website. There are so many questions on the website, and we only had time to cover a few, so I encourage you to go check them out for yourself and find a friend to practice with! Not only does Lauren bring her perspective as an experienced high school counselor, but she has also sat on the other side of the table asking these questions to interviewees, so her insight is priceless! 

Lauren is a former high school counselor turned content creator and curriculum writer. She is the high school counseling hype girl behind Counselor Clique helping other high school counselors energize and breathe life into their programs through creative and engaging counseling resources. She’s also the host of the podcast High School Counseling Conversations where she brings value and fun into high school counseling!

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/mock-interview-questions

Resources Mentioned:

• Join my FREE bootcamp for new school counselors
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Listen to  Episode 9, Small Groups at the HS Level and Tik Tok with Lauren 
  
• Find all the sample questions on the ASCA website
• Tune into episode 85, What I Learned Interviewing as a School Counselor
• Get the 3-Day Video Challenge for High School Counseling Interviews

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
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• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
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• Youtube

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

Are you looking for a school counseling job? Whether you’re getting ready to graduate and trying to land your very first school counseling position or you’re a seasoned counselor who is looking for a new position, interviewing can be stressful. This episode comes straight out of my Stress Free School Counseling Bootcamp program. It’s totally FREE to join! If you’re an intern, just graduated, or recently hired, this bootcamp is for you! You’ll get the tools, inspiration, and support you need to transform your counseling program and hit the ground running from day one.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing 5 steps that will have you feeling totally prepared to rock the interview process. I was super disappointed when I didn’t land the job of my dreams my first year out of grad school, but I didn’t let that disappointment stop me from gaining invaluable experience and preparing myself to land my dream job the next year. I want you to learn from my mistakes and experiences so you can have a stress-free and enjoyable interview process and land the job you want!

I decided to do this episode after a listener reached out to me and told me she and other students from her cohort were stressing out about upcoming interviews. I love to hear from my listeners, so please reach out to me on Instagram and let me know if there’s a topic you’d like me to cover. 

Show Notes: https://brightfutures-counseling.com/podcast-episodes/interviewing-as-school-counselor

Resources Mentioned:

• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Search for jobs on Edjoin.org
• Find jobs on Indeed.com
• Read the article from ASCA: Coping with Student Anxiety

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Submit your school counseling story!
• Episode 80, Anxiety Counseling Crash Course
• Episode 81, Anxiety Strategies for Class Counseling Lessons
• Episode 82, Anxiety Strategies for Group Counseling Lessons
• Episode 83, Anxiety Strategies for Individual Counseling
• Visit Wild Ideas Worth Living with Shelby Stanger
• Get the Countdown to Spring Break School Counseling Activity Pack
• Get the Positive Affirmations Easter and Springtime Self-Esteem Activity
• Read the article from ASCA: Coping with Student Anxiety

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Submit your school counseling story!
• Episode 80, Anxiety Counseling Crash Course
• Episode 81, Anxiety Strategies for Class Counseling Lessons
• Episode 82, Anxiety Strategies for Group Counseling Lessons
• Journal and grounding exercises found in my Individual Counseling Curriculum
• Read the article from ASCA: Coping with Student Anxiety

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Submit your school counseling story!
• Episode 80, Anxiety Counseling Crash Course
• Episode 81, Anxiety Strategies for Class Counseling Lessons
• Grab my Worry and Anxiety Boom Cards
• Pinterest Circles of Control visuals
  
• Stress Management Counseling Group Stress Busters Stress Management Group

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Submit your school counseling story!
• Episode 80, Anxiety Counseling Crash Course
• Grab my Worry and Anxiety Boom Cards
• Episode 76, What Do I Do During Individual Counseling Sessions?
• Episode 78, How to Build Genuinte Rapport in Individual Sessions (beyond Jenga!)
• Episode 79, 3 Must-Have Data Tools for Individual Counseling

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Reserve your seat for my FREE live training: How to Use Individual Counseling Curriculum to Engage Students and Effectively Track Data
• Submit your Counselor Stories  with this Google Form
• Check out the Medline Plus definition of anxiety
• Read what Mayo Clinic says about Anxiety Disorders

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Grab my new Individual Counseling Super Bundle.
• Episode 76, What Do I Do During Individual Counseling Sessions

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Join Stress Free School Counseling today!
• Grab my new Individual Counseling Super Bundle.

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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

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

Resources Mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
  

• ASCA National School Counseling Week Photo Challenge and Activities

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

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