School for School Counselors Podcast

Why do schools keep celebrating the same kinds of helping, even when students keep having the same problems?

You know the frustration: You're working to implement meaningful student supports, consulting with teachers, and trying to address what's actually driving a behavior concern.

Meanwhile, somebody takes the student for a walk and gets a standing ovation.

In this episode, we're looking at the psychology of helping, the surprising ways schools reinforce quick fixes, and why evidence-based school counseling interventions don't always get the recognition they deserve.

Plus, I'm sharing a personal experience I've never discussed publicly- and what it taught me about professional recognition, school counseling expertise, and the work nobody sees.

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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.

You know what a comprehensive school counseling program is supposed to look like.

You've studied the model, you've advocated for your role, and you've done everything you know to do to move your program forward.

So why won't your school let you do it?

An administrator that doesn't listen, a schedule exploding with responsibilities...

And every time you think you're finally making headway, something (or someone) knocks you right back to square one.

After a while, you start wondering why the heck you even keep showing up.

Here's what you need to know-

A school counseling program that doesn't look the way you want isn't necessarily a program that's failing.

If you're tired of pushing the same boulder uphill, questioning whether anything you do makes a difference, or just trying to make it through the school year without having a full-blown come-apart, I've got a few things I want to talk through with you.

So pull up a seat.

Or better yet, hop in. You're riding shotgun today.

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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.

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.

How in the world can a student demonstrate every executive functioning skill you practice in a counseling group perfectly...

and still fail their classes because they don’t turn anything in?

Happens all the time.

Because knowing how to do something is not the same as actually being able to do it when it counts.

In this episode, we’re looking at why planners, checklists, and executive functioning small groups don’t always translate into better functioning in the classroom, and what we need to be looking at instead.

Because the goal isn’t to get kids better at “executive functioning.”

The goal is to help them function better where it actually matters.

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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.

********

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.

“Executive function” has become one of those phrases we use ALL THE TIME in schools.

Kid’s disorganized = Executive function.

Missing assignments = Executive function.

Can’t get started = Executive function.

Impulsive = Executive function.

ADHD... Well, obviously, executive function... right?

Maybe.

But what the heck are we actually SAYING when we say a kid “struggles with executive functioning?”

Because- as it turns out, that answer is a whole lot more complicated than the cute little executive function group plans would have you believe.

And- some of the things we’re confidently calling “executive function problems" might not be executive function problems at all.

So before we make another assignment tracker or study skills sheet, or start wondering about ADHD...

we probably ought to figure out what the heck we’re looking at.

Y'all, this one sent me down a research rabbit hole, and I did NOT end up where I thought I would.

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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.

********

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.

Whodunit? It's time to open the case file, y'all.

We’ve got a student who keeps leaving class, a behavior plan that is NOT working, and a school counselor whose fingerprints are all over it.

So... who’s actually responsible for the mayhem?

Because when campuses start talking about behavior plans, the details get complicated fast:

Should the school counselor be involved?
Are you actually qualified to write the plan?
And if you do write it, does that make you responsible for whether or not it works?

We’ve got a whole lineup of possible suspects: the student, the staff, and the school counselor.

And by the time we close the case, you may be surprised to learn that “Who wrote the behavior plan?” is the least important question of all.

Grab the companion guide at schoolforschoolcounselors.com/plan

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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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https://www.schoolforschoolcounselors.com/plan

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.

When a student is struggling, school counselors often hear, “Can you talk to them?”

But in determining if a student needs counseling, we tend to skip some very important steps.

In this episode, I'm talking about a common jump everyone on campus tends to make (and nobody ever questions)- and why it's such a big deal.

You’ll hear why context matters more than the referral itself, how easily schools move from observation to interpretation to prescription, and the one question that can keep you from taking on student problems that may not belong in your office in the first place.

(Also- there’s also a huge plot twist here for experienced school counselors.)

If your caseload is exploding, teachers are constantly asking you to “check on” students, or you’re trying to make smarter decisions about behavior, anxiety, coping skills, and other student concerns, this one is for you.

Listen before you add one more student to your list.

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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!

********

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.

It doesn’t work.

And if you’ve tried it, you know it's true.

The school counseling advocacy model most of us were taught was supposed to be simple: explain your role, show your data, cite the standards, make the case.

THEN we were supposed to be able to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.

The problem is- information isn’t influence.

So in this episode, we’ll talk about how school counselors can become influential long before "advocacy" meetings ever happen.

We’ll talk about why your principal does NOT need to care about school counseling as much as you do, why constantly sharing information can keep you stuck, and how a little out-of-the-box school counseling thinking can completely change your situation.

There’s a HUGE difference between being the school counselor who's always asked for more effort, and being the person they stop in the hallway to ask:

“Hey- what do you think?”

One is asking for your labor, but the other is asking for your judgment.

THAT’S influence.

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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!

********

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.

School counselor advocacy is supposed to create change. But what if some of what we’ve been taught to call advocacy is actually doing something else?

You can explain your role, bring the data, cite the standards, and make a compelling case...

And still walk out with the same testing assignment, MTSS responsibility, impossible caseload, or non-counseling duties you walked in with.

This episode takes a hard look at the advocacy model our profession has inherited, why school counselors can do everything they’ve been told to do and still end up stuck, and three questions that may completely change how you approach advocacy on your campus.

If you’ve ever stated your case, watched admin nod in agreement, then wondered why absolutely nothing changed afterward- this one is for you.

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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!

********

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’ve explained your role.

You’ve shown the data.

You’ve pulled out the appropriate and inappropriate duties list.

You’ve advocated.

But... nothing changes.

So- what are you supposed to do now? Just advocate harder?

(Spoiler: Nope.)

In this episode, I’m questioning one of the biggest assumptions driving school counselor advocacy.

Because there’s a big difference between someone not understanding what your job is supposed to be, versus someone understanding your job... but not changing anything.

Which means: we may all have been working to solve the wrong problem all along.

Before you print that list yet again, listen to this.

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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!

********

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.

Everything difficult or weird on a school campus somehow gets shuffled to the school counselor.

And nobody is likely to stop you from taking it all on.

In fact, sometimes the whole campus seems perfectly happy to let you do ALL the things.

So before the school year really gets rolling, there are four decisions worth making.

These aren’t decisions you can make with a list of “appropriate” and “inappropriate” duties or another lecture about setting better boundaries.

They require a better way to look at what keeps landing in front of you, and a way to decide when something really deserves more attention or effort from you.

Bottom line: caring deeply about your students and your school does NOT mean you are responsible for fixing everything that needs fixing.

Make these four decisions now, before the year starts making them for you.

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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!

********

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.

School counseling on paper and school counseling in real life are not the same job.

You were trained to support students, build relationships, and run a comprehensive program. Then you walked onto a campus with an impossible caseload, unclear expectations, constant interruptions, and demands coming from every direction. So you did what good school counselors do: you worked harder.

But what if effort was never the missing piece?

In this episode, I'm looking at:

• three places where school counselor training collides with campus reality
• why self-care, better boundaries, and repeated advocacy cannot fix a structurally misaligned role
• why capable counselors so often end up questioning themselves instead of questioning the expectations placed on them

And I'll give you three questions that can change how you make decisions this year, starting with your first week back.

You do not need another program, planner, or motivational poster. You need a way of doing school counseling that works in the school you actually have.

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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!

********

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.

The educational system doesn't need to plot to keep you quiet.

It just needs to keep you tired.

And after that, the silence takes care of itself.

A few nights ago, I watched over a hundred school counselors simultaneously go quiet.

It was weird.

They'd been engaged in my presentation. They were animated and alive. The conversation was popping.

But then... I changed the subject from talking about the problems to talking about what to do next... and suddenly the entire room changed.

Some people instantly started explaining why it wouldn't work.

But most just...stopped talking.

I left that session asking myself:

What just happened here?

Why did so many dedicated, talented school counselors suddenly retreat?

If you've ever wondered when you stopped speaking up- or why- it starts here.

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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!

********

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 plan their programs in the same order they were taught: start with the data, identify the need, choose the intervention, and try to make the model fit.

But that's exactly why so many carefully built plans fall apart by October.

In this episode, Steph explains why school counselors may be planning their programs backwards — and the two questions that should come before goals, calendars, initiatives, or action plans.

Because the goal is not to reach May with the most comprehensive school counseling program.

It is to reach May still recognizing yourself in the work you do each day.

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"Best Year Ever!" happens July 21-24. Get your ticket today.

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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!

********

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 can describe what they do all day.

Crisis response. Small groups. Student check-ins. Parent calls. Schedule changes. Behavior support. Data meetings. The fifty small things that happen before 9:00 a.m.

But ask a school counselor what makes them remarkable, and things can get quiet fast.

In this episode, Steph talks about why it can be so hard to name the specific instincts, patterns, and abilities that make you unusually effective in your role.

This is not about generic compliments or personality quizzes. It is about learning to identify the thing you do in a way almost nobody else on your campus can.

You’ll hear why confidence in your own ability actually changes what you do on campus, and why using what you’re good at is completely different from just knowing it exists. You’ll also hear how years of being second-guessed or undervalued can make you stop seeing what is remarkable about you at all.

You'll hear three places your remarkable work may be hiding: interpersonal skill, data and pattern recognition, and the counseling approaches you naturally reach for when the work gets real.

Because if you cannot name your value, the system will keep naming it for you.

This episode will help you start answering a question most school counselors have never been asked directly:

What makes you a remarkable school counselor?

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"Best Year Ever!" happens July 21-24. Get your ticket today.

********

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.

Last week, we looked at what happens when schools finally put a price tag on the mental health fallout of social media.

This week, we're looking at the strange second half of that story.

If technology is part of the problem... why are some schools turning to even more technology as the solution?

Across the country, districts are adopting AI-powered mental health tools that monitor students, flag concerning behavior, and even carry on conversations with kids in emotional distress.

The marketing promises earlier intervention, greater access, and support at scale.

But what does the evidence actually say?

In this episode, we look at the research behind AI mental health tools, a new Nevada law that draws a legal boundary around their use in schools, and why one of the biggest questions facing school counseling today may not be whether AI belongs in our profession- but where the line should be.

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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!

********

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.

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

********

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.

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

********

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.

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.