Ready to cut through the noise and get to the heart of what it really means to be a school counselor today? Welcome to The School for School Counselors Podcast! Let’s be honest: this job is rewarding, but it’s also one of the toughest, most misunderstood roles out there. That’s why I'm here, offering real talk and evidence-based insights about the everyday highs and lows of the work we love. Think of this podcast as your go-to conversation with a trusted friend who just gets it . I'm here to deliver honest insights, share some laughs, and get real about the challenges that come with being a school counselor. Feeling overwhelmed? Frustrated? Eager to make a significant impact? I'm here to provide practical advice, smart strategies, and plenty of support. Each week, we’ll tackle topics ranging from building a strong counseling program to effectively using data—and we won’t shy away from addressing the tough issues. If you’re ready to stop chasing impossible standards and want to connect with others who truly understand the complexities of your role, you’re in the right place. So find a quiet spot, get comfortable, and get ready to feel more confident and supported than you’ve ever felt before. For more resources and to stay connected, visit schoolforschoolcounselors.com.
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. ******** 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 Planning Your School Counseling Program Backwards
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. ******** "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.
What Makes You a Remarkable School Counselor?
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? ******** "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.
The Student Mental Health Bot Nobody Asked For
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. ******** 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.
Social Media Drama Just Got a Price Tag
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. ******** 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 Broke My #1 School Counseling Rule (Here's What Happened)
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. ******** 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.
Is It an Intervention, or Theatre?
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.] ------- 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. ******** 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.
When They Want Your Spreadsheets, Not Your Insight
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. ******** 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.
The Kids Just Like You Too Much
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. ******** 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.
3 Decisions You’ll Regret Not Making Before August
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.
“It's Been Happening All Year.” So Why Is It a Referral Now?
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. ******** 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.
No One Knows What You Do- And That's Dangerous
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.
This Isn't Burnout. It's Gaslighting.
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. ******** 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 Year Full of “Yeses”… and a Lot of Regret
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.
Restorative Justice Works (Just Not Like That)
You sat in the circle. You heard the apology. And you knew… nothing actually changed. Restorative justice can work in schools- the research supports that. But the versions most campuses are implementing... Are something else entirely. Research describes restorative practices as structured, resourced, and time-intensive. What most schools are doing is faster, lighter, and handed off. That's how school counselors end up in the middle of things: Facilitating conversations that aren't meant to be rushed Trying to facilitate a process you were never really trained to lead Knowing the outcome doesn’t match what the promises of true restoration, but not having the language to explain why. In this episode, we take a hard look at what restorative justice actually requires... and how to know if your campus is falling short. Because this isn’t just about whether you believe in restorative practices. It’s about whether what’s happening on your campus even matches what the research is measuring- And what that means for the role you’re being asked to play. Referred to in this episode: Ep. 191, "Your Campus Runs on a Pyramid of Lies" ******** 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.
Your Campus Runs on a Pyramid of Lies
There’s a reason the same explanation keeps showing up in every staff meeting, every training, every conversation about struggling students. It feels good. Problem is- It wasn’t built on evidence. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs became one of the most widely accepted frameworks in education without ever being meaningfully tested the way we use it. In this episode, we go back to where the pyramid actually came from, walk through what the research has (and hasn’t) found, and take a hard look at why it spread anyway. Because if the foundation isn’t solid, it doesn’t matter how good your intentions are. You’re still building on it. Referred to in this episode: Ep. 106, "TPT's Dirty Truths & Why You Need an Evidence-Base" ******** 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.
Stop Finding Your Why
At some point, someone has probably told you to “find your why.” I gave that advice last week. I wish I hadn't. In this episode, I’m getting more personal than I ever have on this podcast. I’m sharing what one of the hardest years of my career has done to me physically… what happened when I defaulted to the weakest advice I could have given… and what the research actually says school counselors should be doing when purpose isn’t enough to keep you going. If you’ve been trying to survive this year on nothing but passion and willpower- and it’s not working- This one’s for you. ******** 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.
Your School's Pressure Valve Has a Name. It's You.
You said yes… then suddenly it was your job. At some point in your career, something changed. You stopped being the person students came to see and started being the person students got sent to. Behavior referrals. Classroom removals. Crisis containment. The emotional labor nobody else knew how to handle. And it happened one "yes" at a time. In this episode, I'm taking a hard look at how school counselors slowly became the system's pressure valve- justified by "trauma-informed care"- and why that shift has fundamentally changed what we're asked to do in school counseling. We'll talk about: Where role creep actually starts Why behavior intervention, trauma treatment, and school counseling are three different professional functions How "helping" can accidentally turn you into the building's behavior containment system The ethical trap of trying to bridge gaps that the system refuses to fill The one question that can stop role creep before it becomes your permanent job Because the thing is: A pressure valve exists so the system doesn't have to change. And the moment you stop being one… the system is forced to find a different solution. If you've ever felt like your job morphed beyond the role you trained for, this episode will give you the words for what's been happening, and how to get back to doing the work you truly love. ******** 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.
How Many Rigorous Studies Support Trauma-Informed Schools? Zero.
"The research supports trauma-informed schools..." You've probably heard it in a staff meeting, read it in a district memo, or repeated it yourself. But when you go looking for the studies, something becomes clear: most people are citing a sentence, not a source. This episode is for the school counselor who's been asked to implement trauma-informed practices without anyone handing you the actual research- and who wants to know what it actually says. What we cover: What "trauma-informed schools" actually means in the evidence base (and what it doesn't) The difference between trauma-informed principles and whole-school implementation Why rigorous studies are harder to find than most people realize This isn't an episode about rejecting trauma-informed practice. It's about being the person in the room who actually checked. ******** 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 Not the Behavior Department
Is managing student behavior actually school counseling? If you’re spending most of your week handling behavior referrals, putting out fires, and decoding defiance before you’ve even opened your calendar… this episode draws a line most schools never clearly defined. Because somewhere along the way, behavior didn’t just increase. It migrated. And it landed in the school counselor’s office. In this episode, we unpack how school counselors quietly became the default behavior managers in many buildings when discipline structures softened without being clearly replaced. You’ll hear: How PBIS and trauma-informed shifts reshaped discipline systems- and what that meant for school counseling roles Why behavior intervention and school counseling are different specialties What burnout research actually says about non-counseling duties The simple line that helps you sort capacity from compliance in real time If behavior has been swallowing your week, this conversation will help you see what belongs to you... and what doesn’t. ******** 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.
