Social media drama has a price tag now.

A Kentucky school district recently settled a lawsuit against social media companies for approximately $27 million, arguing that the platforms helped create a student mental health burden schools have been forced to absorb.

But school counselors didn’t need a lawsuit to know this was costing something.

The screenshots.
The group chats.
The parent emails.
The cyberbullying investigations.
The friendship blowups that started online and landed in your office before first period.

In this episode, we’re looking at what these lawsuits are actually arguing, why the research on social media and student mental health is more complicated than the headlines suggest, and what happens when someone finally starts counting the work school counselors have been absorbing for years.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

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Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

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All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

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Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

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This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

I don’t buy printable counseling resources anymore.

Haven’t for years.

But to test a theory on the air, I broke that rule. I bought a popular, well-reviewed anxiety resource from one of the big teacher marketplaces and ran my paper test on it live.

I expected to find junk.

I didn’t.

It was polished. Thoughtful. Well-organized. It even cited real research.

And that’s what made the problem harder to ignore.

In this episode, I look at what happens when a school counseling resource looks right, sounds right, and checks the boxes we’ve been told to trust… but still may not contain the thing a student actually needs.

This is not a takedown of one creator.

It’s a closer look at a much bigger question in school counseling:

If you took the worksheets away, would there still be an intervention?

Fair warning: this one may change how you look at your shelf.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

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Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

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All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

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This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

If somebody else could do exactly what you're doing after reading the same slide deck-

Why did you go to grad school? 

That's the question that hit me after I reviewed a state-sponsored training that handed school counselors a watered-down counseling model and called it evidence-based. 

And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. 

But this episode isn't really about one training. 

It's about what happens when a profession starts confusing the appearance of counseling with counseling itself: the slides that look clinical, the activities that look like interventions, the worksheets that look like the real thing. 

I'll give you one simple question to tell the difference.  

And fair warning- a lot of your favorite materials won't survive it.

[Part 1 of 2. This week, the rule. Next week, the test.]

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Topics: solution-focused brief counseling (SFBC) in schools, evidence-based school counseling, treatment fidelity, the limits of printable counseling resources and TPT materials, and protecting the clinical role of the school counselor.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

On the last day of school, the district sent an email about spreadsheets.

But not one person asked what you needed to do your job better next year.

Not what you were seeing.
Not what students needed.
Not what kept support from reaching kids faster.

Just the spreadsheet.

There’s a name for that kind of silence.

This episode is about why nobody asks school counselors what they’re observing… and what it costs all campuses when the people seeing the most are treated like support staff instead of strategic professionals.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

A school administrator once told me the reason I couldn't finish a single classroom lesson was because the kids just liked me too much.

She meant it as a compliment.  It took me years to understand what it actually revealed.

This episode is about the gap between the job we were trained to do and the job we're actually allowed to do. How that gap gets handed to counselors as personal failure. And what happens to a profession- and to the people in it-  when nobody's willing to name that out loud.

I'm talking about how I accidentally became a school counselor, what I've had to publicly un-say after saying it to audiences, why so many counselors silently believe they're failing, and the framework I've spent years building in response to all of it.

This one is different. And if you've ever sat across from a student carrying something you couldn't have imagined- you'll know exactly why it matters.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

Most school counselors think the new school year starts in August.

I don’t think it does.

I think a huge part of your August gets decided right now… in May… while you’re mentally saturated, emotionally exhausted, and trying to crawl to the finish line.

Because the things you leave unresolved this time of year have a way of following you right back into the building.

The role conversation you keep avoiding.
The administrator dynamic you replay in your head at 2 a.m.
The resentment.
The confidence hit you still haven’t fully recovered from.
The professional expectations you never actually agreed to but are somehow still responsible for.

That stuff doesn’t disappear over the summer.

It waits for you.

In this episode, we’re talking about the three decisions that quietly shape your next school year long before summer even starts.

Because what you carry into August becomes your August.

********

Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

You’re about to get a referral that says:

“It’s been happening all year.”

And somehow… now it’s urgent.

This episode is about why that happens, and why treating May referrals like October problems will burn you out fast.

Because most of what’s hitting your desk right now isn’t new.

It’s late.

We’re talking about:

•  The predictable end-of-year referral surge (and what’s actually driving it) 
•  How adult burnout reshapes what gets labeled a “problem” 
•  The one triage question that changes everything
•  And how to protect your time without feeling like you’re failing kids 

You don’t need to do more right now.

You need to decide better.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

You’re doing meaningful work.
You’re supporting students.
You’re handling things no one else on campus is equipped to handle.

But somehow, when big decisions get made, it’s like none of that exists.

This episode looks at why that happens... and why it keeps happening.

The school counseling profession has made its impact almost impossible to see.

So in this episode, we’re talking about the visibility problem in school counseling…
how confidentiality plays a role in it…
and why showing up with passion and position statements isn't enough to protect your position when it matters.

Because when the work can’t be seen, it can’t be defended.

********

Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

You know the feeling.

The one that says:

• If you were better at this, it wouldn't be this hard. 
• If you had advocated more effectively, the caseload would be manageable. 
• If you were really cut out for this work, you wouldn't be sitting in your car wondering if you can walk through the doors.

That feeling has a name. And it isn't burnout.

In this episode, Steph Johnson makes the case- through peer-reviewed research and a story she's never told publicly before- that the school counseling profession systematically produces that feeling. 

This is what institutional gaslighting looks like. 

And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

This Isn't Burnout. It's Gaslighting.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

You’re not overwhelmed because there’s too much work;

You’re overwhelmed because too much of it is not your job.

You're not saying yes because you "lack boundaries".
You're saying yes because, in that moment, saying yes made sense.

And that’s the problem.

********

Join our new Skool for School Counselors community 

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us! 

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.