School for School Counselors Podcast
School counseling is one of the most rewarding professions on the planet, but also one of the most intense and misunderstood. Most school counseling resources continue to focus on ultra-filtered, perfect-world examples of school counseling instead of the raw, real-world realities of the profession we love: that’s why we created this podcast. The School for School Counselors podcast is for school counselors working their hearts out while fearing they’ll never meet the expectation of a “perfect” comprehensive program. It’s for school counselors who are feeling frustrated, discouraged, or misunderstood. And it’s for those of us who just simply LOVE working in and thinking about school counseling because we want to learn, grow and inspire positive change in students. If you’ve been looking for a circle of school counselor colleagues who just GET IT, and if you’re not afraid to be REAL about things like comprehensive school counseling programs, data-driven school counseling, and the joys and real challenges of the modern school counselor’s role on campus, you’ve come to the right place.
Recent Episodes
210
Aug. 25, 2026
The School Counselor Advocacy Trap
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 ev
209
Aug. 17, 2026
School Counselors: You’re Advocating... So Why Isn’t Anything Changing?
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 a
208
Aug. 10, 2026
Four Decisions to Make Before the School Year Starts
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 bette...
207
Aug. 3, 2026
Why You Need Sanity-Based School Counseling
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 counse...
206
July 27, 2026
When Good School Counselors Go Quiet
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. Som...
205
July 13, 2026
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 comp
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