Advice for New School Counselors
I love supporting new school counselors. Whether you are fresh out of grad school or switching professions halfway through your career, there is definitely a learning curve when it comes to school counseling. And in my experience it’s not always what you learn in grad school that prepares you for this challenging yet immensely rewarding job.
New school counselors usually learn what it’s really like through internships, trial and error, and asking mentors. That’s why I decided to survey my Instagram audience with their advice for new school counselors.
3 Tips for New School Counselors
1. Build rapport with teachers
Collaborating with teachers is essential for establishing a successful counseling program. Teachers know their students best. They see them day in and out and can provide so much insight on how to best support them. Remember, you are a team! Introduce yourself to the faculty and tell them how you can help them whether it be through customized class lessons, behavior supports, or setting up a classroom calm down corner.
2. Don’t ever try to do it all by yourself
I think being a school counselor is the best job in the world, but it can be taxing! You’re going to be wearing so many hats and doing a juggling act between teaching class lessons, leading small groups, seeing individual students , attending parent meetings, creating behavior plans, and more! It is totally okay (in fact it’s encouraged!) to ask for help. The more help you receive, the more students you can help.
Don’t be like me… My first year I was so stubborn and intimidated to ask for help that I almost bought my own laminator before asking where ours was located! Seriously!
3. Be patient and ask for help if needed
It takes time to build a comprehensive school counseling program, and there’s a chance you are the first school counselor at your site. Be patient and gracious with yourself. These things take time. And again, ask for help!
While your program is getting established, you will likely face challenges. For help setting up stress free systems, check out my Stress Free School Counseling course. In this video course, I teach you how to maximize your productivity using scheduling, organization, and data collection tools.
School counselors need support too!
Are you seeing a theme here?
Collaboration is vital for school counselors. Whether it’s your co-worker counselors, teachers, or admin, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. If you don’t feel like you have a network or community to collaborate with (or even if you do, but want more!) we would love for you to join us inside IMPACT, my membership for school counselors. Not only do members get unlimited access to all of my counseling resources, but we have an amazing community who supports each other by brainstorming solutions to problems, troubleshooting tough cases, and cheering each other on! Find out more about IMPACT here.
Check out my free new school counselor bootcamp for more strategies to get you ready for year one.
Go get ‘em new school counselor. You’ve got this!