Ever Tried Capsule Counseling? Maybe You Should.

Capsule Wardrobes for School Counseling

Have you ever gone to get ready for work in the morning ? And you get shower , do whatever you need to do , have your cup of coffee , prepare for the day and you walk into your closet to choose that day's outfit . What are you going to wear to rock school counseling like a boss on campus and you look at your selections and think , holy smokes , I have nothing to wear . If you ever been there I know I'm there a lot I would look in my closet . I would see all these things hanging . It felt like it was just overflowing and yet I felt like I had nothing to wear . It was overwhelming . It was time consuming . It made me a little angry to think of all the money that I had spent on these clothing items that I really wasn't wearing or I didn't know what to do with them , until I found a solution and , interestingly enough , that solution has also informed my practice of school counseling . I'm going to tell you what it is in just a minute , but first , hey , I'm glad you're back with me for another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast . I'm Steph Johnson and I love visiting with you each and every week about the amazing , amazing opportunities that we have to serve students , parents and communities as school counselors and , just like you , I'm a full time school counselor in the trenches .

I just went back to work for the fall 2023 semester and I could not be more excited about that than I am right now . It's going to be a great year . I'm excited to walk with you through a great year as well , and we just got a really cool review from one of our listeners . This comes from Heidi Mus , who titled their review exactly what I've needed . The review goes on to say this I'm still in school for counseling , but I've been a teacher for 15 years and I can easily see the disconnect between what I'm taught and what I think the actual experience will be like . I am so comforted by the realness here and their transparency and honesty . I feel incredibly understood and supported and I'm encouraged as I set out as a brand new school counselor this fall . I am learning so much from this podcast and feel so grateful for this realistic window into the world I'm entering . Thank you , thank you . Thank you , heidi Mus .

You have no idea what reviews like that mean to my team and I , as we endeavor to get this out to you each week . This is a labor of love for sure , and it's a labor of love because it means so much . I truly do care about each of my school counseling colleagues . I truly do care about bringing you the best that I can bring you each and every week , and so reviews like that are worth more than anything you can imagine . Hey , if you haven't submitted a review for the podcast , I would really love it If you'd consider doing that . Just drop a few sentences letting other school counselors know how this podcast has impacted your work . We would be so , so appreciative of anything that you'd like to share .

All right , now back to the closet dilemma , because I know that you've had it too , haven't you ? Everyone does , and I think 98.5% of the audience of this podcast is female , and so I know for that reason , there's a lot of you out there that are nodding your heads with me going yep , I know exactly what that's like , and maybe you're even saying it happened to me today . Right , it happens all the time . Well , I came up with the solution for this because , as a full-time school counselor , as a mother , as a wife , as a business owner , I didn't endeavor to own a business . But here I am . My time is limited . A lot of the times , my extra bandwidth , my extra mental capacity is limited . I have a lot on my mind . You always hear those stories about these high-achieving guys like Steve Jobs and folks like that wearing the same thing every day because they don't want to have to even think about what they put on in the morning . And while I get that , I don't know if those tales are true or if they're just urban legends . I do know that , number one , they're dudes . But number two , I don't think I'd be happy doing the same thing every single day .

As far as my clothing , I do enjoy mixing things , matching things , putting things together and having fun with them . I like knowing that I have the right ingredients at hand for anything that I would want to make . That's not the problem . The problem is just thinking through the process . Sometimes there's just too much variety for the bandwidth that I have and it just feels completely overwhelming . So why am I going on and on about my closet ? We are six minutes into this podcast episode and I haven't even talked about school counseling yet . I've been blabbering on about my closet , but I promise you I'm getting to a point . Here's the point . The day that I discovered capsule wardrobes was the day that changed how I got prepared for work forever .

I run a capsule wardrobe every single season and I don't devise it myself because , again , my time and my mental bandwidth are at a premium . I actually utilize a service that advises me on the basics for my wardrobe , advises me on some seasonal choices throughout fall , winter , spring and summer , and then they give me some handy dandy pictures and show me how to put it all together . The result is , when I get dressed in the morning , I feel great about my selections and I get a lot of compliments too . So not to toot my own horn , because again , I'm not coming up with this stuff , the folks that come up with these outfits are just killing it and I'm able to take full advantage . It's lovely because I don't have too many options clouding my judgment . I'm not getting my day off on the wrong foot every day , wondering and worrying does this go with that ? Did I put it together right ? Do I feel confident in this ? I just know it's a process that's become second nature . I don't have to second guess myself , I don't have to think through it , it just happens .

It's a lot like the way I've been approaching my school counseling programs in the last few years . I've noticed over time this glut of resources that are being deployed by very well-meaning school counselors . Very intelligent folks , people who know their business are putting out resources , for example , small group curriculums , right , individual counseling workbooks , all of these things , all of these resources to help us be better counselors . When all of that started , it was kind of a new thing right , it was a new paradigm for being able to share information on the internet . But then folks figured out they could start monetizing it , and then some things started happening in our school counseling world . We started seeing people providing resources who weren't qualified to do so . We started seeing people who were providing resources that claimed to be aligned with certain standards or goals but were not , or they were misaligned . We started seeing inaccurate information , outdated approaches , lack of flexibility in approaches , which has led a lot of school counselors to believe that they either need some sort of printout , some sort of game , some sort of PowerPoint presentation or some sort of curriculum in order to be an effective school counselor .

That hurts my heart for a lot of reasons . It hurts my heart because these folks have spent years and years and tens of thousands of dollars pursuing their goal of being a school counselor , then they're reducing themselves to the teacher that just hands out a worksheet at the beginning of class and collects it at the end . Now I realize you're probably doing more with those printables than that , but you get my gist right . It is very , very different than sitting across from someone in a dynamic counseling relationship and truly utilizing your skills and expertise . These resources are great for filling in the gaps when you need a little boost , for when you're first learning your approach , but then again , a lot of these resources do not portray one single clear , theoretical approach to counseling . We're left with this closet that's overflowing with resources . Nothing goes with anything else . We don't have a clear vision of what it's supposed to look like , and it all begins to feel so freaking , overwhelming , that you just don't even want to have to look at it anymore .

Am I right ? Right , and so what I have done in my counseling practice in the last , I would say , five or six years is I've stopped utilizing online counseling resources . Now , please don't get me wrong here , because I know I will come under fire from some folks who are really trying to build their teachers pay teachers businesses . I am not here to say that you should not be using those resources . But I am saying that when you use them , you need to vet them thoroughly . You ought to be able to look at them and instantly discern what sort of counseling approach is being used , and don't say eclectic , that's a cough out . You ought to be able to pick out the particular elements of what's going on and then , if you feel like you really need that resource , by all means go ahead and use it . You're the expert on your campus , that is your right . But I will tell you what I've done , which is simplify my resources . Just like I've simplified my closet by going to that capsule wardrobe and taking a lot of the decision making out of the process , I've done the same with my counseling approaches .

I'm finding myself leaning on three main approaches in my school counseling program . So I thought you'd be interested to hear not only about my capsule wardrobe because , I'll be honest , when I tell people about it their ears perk up , they want some links , they want to know what I'm utilizing but also because you might just want to glimpse into how my school counseling program is running . So I want to give you an overview of the three primary theoretical approaches that I use in my work , and I will tell you that I am a full-time school counselor . I work at the elementary school level . I work with pre-kindergarten through fifth grade , and have done so for the entirety of my career . Sometimes it's K through six , sometimes it's pre-K through five , but for all intents and purposes , elementary school students . However , I also have experience with those middle schoolers , and so I'm going to be giving you some insights into the teens and adolescents as well , because I know it's not just elementary folks listening to the podcast . So let me walk you through my three main theoretical counseling approaches that define my school counseling capsule .

Number one and this should be no surprise is solution-focused counseling . Now , a lot of folks hear the term solution-focused counseling and they instantaneously think they know what it's about . It's about finding solutions , and it is . I mean , it is solution-focused , but there's a little bit more that goes into that , and when you start studying with some really great minds in the solution-focused area , then I'll be clear . I am not claiming to be a solution-focused expert . I am still working every day to try to get better and better at my approach .

Solution-Focused and Motivational Interviewing Approaches

But what I can tell you is we're emphasizing finding and implementing solutions rather than looking at what the problem is . We're helping students look for their own strengths , the resources that they have available , or perhaps digging into their resilience to overcome whatever the challenge or whatever the obstacle is that's in their way . We are looking at future outcomes . What does a student want to see happen ? What do they really want to have come about in their future ? And then we're going to be collaborative in trying to come up with strategies to get them where they want to go .

And we're working in schools and we want to make this brief right . We don't want to turn this into something that looks like a therapy relationship . We've got to establish some very clear goals for the students . That means they've got to be thinking ahead . What do they want to have ? What does a positive future look like for them ? And then , by concentrating on the things they already have going for them , all of their strengths , all of the successes that they've had in the past , we can help them realize their own capability to overcome their barriers . We can help them realize their own potential to achieve success . So our job as school counselors is just to help facilitate that conversation . We just want to help the student generate ideas . We want them to determine their preferences . We want them to kind of examine their own perspectives about what the next right step might be .

And this approach is great for schools because it maximizes our time . Solution focus counseling does not need to take 30 or 45 minutes a pop . We can be in and out in 10 to 15 minutes oftentimes , so it makes it super efficient on campus . We're not pulling kids out of class too long , kids out searching for them , wondering why they didn't show up somewhere . We can get it done pretty quick and even with that , you can check in with your students in a solution-focused way where you don't even have to pull them out of class . You can check in with them briefly and discreetly in a hallway as they're passing by an office or something like that . There are ways to get this done that are extremely time efficient and I like solution-focused counseling for that reason .

And I like solution-focused counseling because we're focusing on strengths and assets . I don't have to dig around in their personal business . I don't have to dig around in their family information . It's not relevant and it's not helpful most times when we're going in with a solution-focused approach . And two , these skills are going to provide students the tools they need in their futures , so that when they come up against another problem they'll be able to lean back on what they've done with you , on all of that work , identifying strengths , identifying those desired outcomes and going through those processes themselves , so that they're able to self-determine a little bit more easily . And to me , man , that makes it worth it . In spades I love solution-focused counseling , so item number one in my school counseling capsule is solution-focused approaches . My second preferred approach in my school counseling program is motivational interviewing , and again we're looking at helping students work toward a desired goal or outcome of some kind . But in motivational interviewing it's a little bit different . We're not looking at strengths , we're not looking at past successes . With motivational interviewing we're looking at a student's own intrinsic motivation for change . It sounds really similar , but once you dive into the nuance of the approaches you can see that they're quite different .

Typically , when we're seeing students for a motivational interviewing approach , we're having conversations about academics . We're having conversations about personal growth , personal behavior , those kinds of things . We are trying to collaborate with students . We're trying to show empathy for their situations while we're empowering them to think about how they feel about their current situation . Where do they want to go next ? What are their goals for their own future .

Usually , these conversations are going to revolve around kids who are underachieving on campus . They're not making their grades , they're failing , but they shouldn't be . Students who are showing behavioral issues , students who are experiencing social difficulties . And , to take that point further , we're usually working with students who are showing some sort of ambivalence about change , students who are failing classes but aren't showing up to them either . Students who are showing behavioral difficulties but aren't putting in their own work to try to remedy the situation . This is when we would probably move toward a motivational interviewing piece where we're going to use open-ended questions , we're going to use reflective listening , we're going to provide affirmations , we're going to try to help students express their own concerns for themselves . We're going to try to break through this ambivalence and find some sort of motivation which leads to some sort of aspiration . We're not trying to tell them what to do , we're not trying to give them advice or solutions , but we can help them realize that they need to take ownership of the direction that they're heading and the choices that they're making .

I like this one because looking at values and goals with students , particularly our adolescents , our high schoolers when we're looking at that through a lens of their motivation , where they want to go next in their future . It just paints a picture for them of their path forward . What are their next best steps to get where they want to go ? Because sometimes students get really bogged down in that educational process . It feels like they're never going to graduate high school . Sometimes they're afraid to graduate high school . We've got to bust through that and really help them paint a vivid picture of what they want their future to look like . So again with my two school counseling capsule approaches so far solution-focused counseling and motivational interviewing they both sound pretty similar , right , but there are some differences and so let me call those out , because sometimes I feel like new school counselors and sometimes even seasoned school counselors tend to lump these approaches together and they are not the same .

Solution-focused counseling is focused on identifying and developing solutions to current problems . Motivational interviewing is looking toward what is going to intrinsically motivate the student toward their next steps . They are both very time-limited and both can be pretty quick counseling approaches . I personally think that solution focused is a little bit faster , I think , when you get into motivational interviewing and you really start diving into some reasons for the student's resistance to change , the reasons why they haven't yet changed their behavior . Maybe some personal habits that they've gotten into might take a little bit longer to dig out from underneath , but it's still going to be a much quicker process than some of the other approaches that might be used , say in some outside clinical counseling , and then both have their own sort of key techniques that you will usually involve in the process .

Solution focused counseling involves a lot of scaling questions , and if you've ever talked counseling with me , you know I talk about scaling questions all the time , even down to students as young as six years old . There is a way to adapt scaling questions for young ones and it's a great way to monitor progress . Solution focused counseling can also involve exception questions . So when does this not seem so bad ? When does it not feel like it's as much of a problem ? Those kinds of things ? Or the famous miracle question , which I'll bet you learned about when you were in grad school . Do you remember the miracle question ? It's one of my favorites and when it's used right , it can really open up a whole new conversation . But you've got to use it in a smart way . You can't just be throwing that one out there willy-nilly . Alright , so have I convinced you yet for solution focused counseling , motivational interviewing and notice

The Power of Play-Based Counseling

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In neither one of these did I ever talk about a lot of outside resources . I didn't talk about downloading worksheets , providing curriculums , anything like that . Both of these approaches are driven primarily by the school counselor's own knowledge in these counseling approaches . The third I want to add to my school counseling capsule list is the theoretical orientation that I was clinically trained in , and that's play therapy . Play therapy is amazing for students , of course , it's great for mine at the elementary level , but I will tell you that you can employ some play therapy techniques all the way up into high school if you do it right . So please don't think that this conversation is only for our elementary school counselors . It most certainly is not .

Play-based interventions are usually a variety of activities put together very purposefully for some specific objective , and they could include things like art activities , playing games , storytelling , role-playing all these different kinds of expressive techniques that allow students to really express what they're thinking or feeling , allow them to begin developing some coping skills they may be lacking and really focus on positive relationships . We know from our Carl Rogers and all the folks that came behind him that the primary determining factor and how effective counseling is is the nature of the relationship , and I feel like play therapy techniques really help us build toward that end . One of the great things about play-based therapies is that students can address issues in a more indirect manner . It's more symbolic either the activities or the style of play that they engage in , and that helps them really explore their thoughts and feelings in a way that feels a lot less intimidating . That's a big reason why play-based counseling is so great for middle schoolers , and I'm always surprised how few school counselors talk about this .

You hear school counselors talking about playing games with their students , but it's usually for one isolated objective , whereas when middle schoolers are struggling with things like their identity , when they're struggling with peer relationships because we know those can be really rocky and sometimes contentious in middle school when they're starting to come into that secondary level academic stress that they've not encountered before , when they're starting to try to handle emotional regulation amongst all these other factors , and then you add hormones in on top of that and it gets to be this powder keg of experiences that sometimes they don't know how to deal with . Unfortunately for middle schoolers , they also often lack the ability to really efficiently talk their problems through . They're still developing their abstract thinking skills at that age , and so expressing themselves through play can make the conversation a lot more accessible and a lot easier to engage than trying to just rely on the verbal communication piece . And I think a lot of us really feel like when they get to middle school they ought to be able to talk through their concerns and feelings well , but the truth is they really can't , and if they appear to , they may not be telling you everything they need to . So it would be wise , in my opinion , to supplement with some additional play-based activities , just to kind of test the waters and make sure you're getting the right read on the situation . But again , that's only my opinion .

Experiences are drawn to active and interactive experiences , hands-on activities , things that they can use to relate to other people and where they can enjoy the experience in your office to not feel like they're being grilled or being asked a million questions , or that they're going to be asked to disclose something going on in their family , in their home or in their personal life that they're not ready to talk about yet . You can address all these things through play techniques so that you're not having to worry about putting them on the spot and making them feel like they have to tell you everything . And there are tons of other benefits for these play-based approaches in schools , but I just want to be very , very clear it's not just for little kids . This can go certainly all the way through high school if done correctly . Some examples of play-based interventions I've already mentioned art activities , role play , puppets are phenomenal in play-based approaches .

Board games , if they're done right . I'm not a huge fan of them because I feel like they kind of become a crutch for a lot of people . But you do you A lot of fantasy play is often very useful , particularly for the little ones . And then , as you get into the older students , you might be looking at art activities like creating a life map , role playing , some scenarios that might be coming up , creating collages or creative writing , creative songwriting , creative music , composition , photography , using photography to journal . There are tons and tons of approaches in how to do this . So if you don't have any play-based resources , instead of investing in these one-off activities or these one-off so-called curriculums , you might think about investing in some really great resources for these approaches , because I think it will serve your students very , very well .

Now , I've been talking about this for a while . Today . You can tell I'm super passionate about it and it's because I am so invested in this . I do not want you to cast off the years of training , all of the money , all of the homework assignments , all of the papers and the research that you did to rely on resources that you cannot vet . It is concerning to me that we're doing this in our field when we have the expertise to do it .

And if you don't feel like you have the expertise to dive into these approaches yet , that's when you go find a mentor , that's when you go find someone who's super skilled in motivational interviewing , that's when you go find someone who's super skilled in solution-focused approaches or is extremely knowledgeable in intentional , play-based techniques , and you spend the time and the effort to learn those techniques inside and out , because once you do , a student could walk into your office with a problem and you're not going to be searching for a deck of cards , you're not going to be searching for a specific binder or you're not going to be scrambling to print something out or trying to buy time with them . Until that you can get on a website to download a resource . You will have everything you need right there at your fingertips . It's going to eliminate your decision fatigue . You're not going to have to worry about what you do next . You're not going to have to worry about putting any outfits together . It's all going to be right there for you , laid out because you know your approach .

And it's incredibly empowering , as a school counselor , to step into that true counseling role , to no longer be functioning as a pseudo teacher with all of these worksheets and materials and really come into your own as a true counselor . It's amazing and I want that for you . So give it some thought , and I'm certainly not saying these are the only three approaches that you should pursue . You need to research and find what you feel is best for you , what's best for your students , and once you determine those , really study up on them , learn about them , get really , really good at them , and then you won't have all of this decision fatigue , you won't be scrambling and looking . It'll all be right there for you as though it were tied up with a pretty red bow Phenomenal and amazing .

If you're interested in learning more about school counseling approaches , if you're not sure where to start or perhaps what approaches you might want to start looking into , I know a really smart group of folks that can guide you in the right direction . It's called the School for School Counselors Mastermind . You guys hear me talk about it all the time , so I'm not going to belabor the point in this episode , but if you want more information , head on over to schoolforschoolcounselorscom . Slash mastermind . We love to geek out on this stuff and we would love to talk it through with you , but in the meantime , go out and discover the kind of school counselor you want to be , the kind of theoretical orientation that's going to serve your students in the best possible way . And man , start eating it up , start learning about it , start practicing and getting better and better and better . It's going to not only serve your students well , but you're going to walk through those hallways feeling like a boss . I guarantee it .

Wishing a Great School Year

All right , I'll be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast . In the meantime , I hope you have the best week ever and if you're headed back to school here anytime soon , I hope you have the best start to the best school year ever . I wish you all the best . My friend , I'll talk with you again soon . Take care .