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The Wildflower Effect
Friday morning a fifth grader burst into my office, threw himself into a chair, said, “I think I’m depressed!” and burst into tears. I think he’s right. Poor guy! He was inconsolable, really stuck in...
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All Pirates Cry. And So Do I.
It’s been something of a sob-fest around here recently. Last Friday, on our last day of school, the fifth grade boys in particular had a very hard time. Two of them burst into tears and could not...
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My Absolutely, Positively Most Favorite Counseling Game of All Time...
Did you get the idea from the title of this post that I might be talking about a game I kind of like? I have a good collection of board games and card games in my office, but my hands down favorite —...
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A Post-It Note Happy Ending
One of the most widely-read posts on School Counseling by Heart is Post-It Note Counseling, which outlines a technique that I use in individual counseling sessions to help kids who are reluctant to...
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Teaching Kids to Recognize Grooming
When thinking about perpetrators of child sexual abuse, many people picture an image of a creepy stranger. Parents and schools generally do a pretty good job of teaching their kids about “stranger...
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“I Got Safe So Quickly!”: How Kids Feel After Telling About Sexual Abuse
In the days after a student discloses abuse, I always touch base to see how things are going. I tell them (again) how brave they were and how proud of them I am. Unfortunately, not all of these stories...
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F is for Success, Not Failure
I never know what I’m going to find in the mailbox outside my office door. It could be a request for help, a thank-you note, a picture, a detailed description of what went on at recess (can you say...
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School Counselors, Meet the Common Core!
You work hard every day to help kids communicate clearly, solve problems, collaborate, gain independence, understand others’ perspectives and cultures, and become college and career ready. You...
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“Be Your Own You” Self-Esteem Resource
There’s a new resource in my office, a favorite of my fifth grade girls. It’s BYOU “Be Your Own You” Magazine, which aims to encourage healthy self-esteem in girls. The bimonthly issue of BYOU focuses...
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Where Do I Begin? Identifying Behavioral Targets
Raise your hand if you’ve ever worked with a kid whose behavior was complicated. Yeah, I thought so. Now, raise your hand if you’ve ever had staff describe behaviors using terms like “disrespectful,”...
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