5 Things I Wish I Knew as a New School Counselor

So you finally landed the job out of grad school and are ready to start as a Certified School Counselor. Congrats! It's a difficult profession but you will make a difference in the lives of children, hooray for you! One thing about starting a new job is that you can feel like there is so much to learn and not enough time.

Now that I have a few years into the profession, I find myself saying "I wish I knew this when I first started". So here is a list of things I wish I knew as a new School Counselor to hopefully help you.

Top 5 Things to Know as a New School Counselor:

#1 Be Flexible

Our job can sometimes feel like we are putting out fires all day long, and then other days we are knee-deep in paperwork, and then other days we are being counseling superheroes.

I am one of those super organized plan every minute of my day kind of people. This had to change quickly when I became a School Counselor. I try to plan where I can but I also allow room for flexibility.

For example, if you have counseling classroom lessons in the morning, try to leave my afternoon open to address the concerns that came up while you are away from you office in the classroom. There may be certain things on my to-do list that you need to tackle, but you have to accept that you may only get to one or two things on the list depending on what comes up.

It’s always the days that you plan out the most that a crisis will happen or the principal will give you a task that was time-sensitive. Plan for these to happen and things won't feel so stressful!

#2 Embrace the many hats (roles) you will wear

When I was in grad school I had no clue as to how much School Counselors really do. I definitely had no idea how much non-counseling duties they have to do. Non-counseling duties can mean different things depending strongly on your administration.

Common ones include:

• testing coordinator
• RTI coordinator
• ESOL contact
• lunch duty
• bus/dismissal duty
• covering classes
• 504 liaison
• organizing honor roll assemblies
• and more!

It's normal to initially feel upset that you cannot focus more on counseling because of all of these other roles.

The most productive thing you can do is try to make the best of it, collect data, and work to slowly remove a role each year. Start small, something you are likely to convince your admin of. Even something small like organizing honor roll assemblies will free up more time for you, then next year try a larger role.

When I say make the best of it, I mean try to fit in counseling-related tasks in with those non-counseling roles.

Example during lunch duty:

• touch base with your frequent flyers (kids who request to see you a lot)
• touch base with kids who you have spoken to recently
• go around and introduce yourself to kids who have never spoken to you
• talk to kids about what you do and where they can reach you

Do the same during morning and dismissal duty. When you are asked to cover a class, if possible do a counseling lesson while you are there.

#3 Seek out a Mentor

Educators need each other, I can not say this enough. Our jobs are not easy, and they often come with little reward. I do not think I could have survived my first year as a new school counselor without my go-to friend and mentor.

She was my internship supervisor and was (and still is) my greatest asset for counseling knowledge and most importantly someone who I can vent to. Counselors take on a heavy burden of listening and helping others all the time. We need someone to listen to us every once in a while.

It helps when it's someone in our field, that way they can directly relate. If you do not have a mentor, reach out to your district counseling department and ask if they can pair you up with someone. One thing that I always sought out my mentor's advice on was handling angry parents.

#4 Use an updated Curriculum and Books

My first office consisted of so many resources that were left by the previous counselor who retired. Many of them were outdated and although I tried to use them, I found that kids were not that engaged. I was on a budget, so I did some searching online and found Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT).

This was a total game-changer for me! I could search for exactly the topic I wanted to teach, spend very little money (or even find free stuff), print it right then and BAM lesson planned! After a year or so, I started creating my own curriculums and lesson plans on TpT. Use this FREE Editable Curriculum Map to guide your program.

Click here to visit and follow my store: Heart and Mind Teaching                

We created a School Counselor Resource Membership, check out Counselor Collab to get new resources every month!

⭐Here are some FREE lessons to get you started:

Self-Regulation Activity FREEBIE

Positive Thinking Activity FREEBIE

These are some Small Group Counseling Curriculums to get you started:

• Social Skills Small Group Counseling Curriculum
• Anger Small Group Counseling Curriculum
• Divorce Small Group Counseling Curriculum
• Self-Esteem Small Group Counseling Curriculum
• Success Skills Small Group Counseling Curriculum

⭐Here are some FREE small group forms to help you get started:

Small Group Counseling Referral Form FREEBIE

Small Group Counseling Needs Assessment FREEBIE

You will also need some books to help with class lessons, there are so many amazing counseling-related books out there. Here are a few suggestions to help get you started on your counseling library:

• Books that teach Empathy
• Books that teach Self-Control
• Books that teach Growth Mindset
• Books that teach Inclusion

#5 Practice self-care

We hear work-life balance and how important it is but we often just say, "oh easier said than done". However, burnout is real and can not only impact you but also your students. It’s like on an airplane, they say to put the air on yourself first before you help anyone else. This is because you are no good to anyone if you pass out (or in our case get burnt out).

Have you ever noticed when you are overwhelmed, overworked, or tired you tend to have less empathy? This is because your basic needs are not being met, so it makes it harder to feel for others who are in need.

When you first start as a counselor you will want to do it all and change everything. The smarter way to go about it is to change a few things that are important to you first. Then, try to do what you can with the time and resources that you have.

Make sure to take care of yourself as well.

⭐Here is a FREE poster to use in your new office:

Suicide Prevention Poster

I hope this helps you as a new School Counselor. Hang in there, friend!

You might also enjoy reading:

How to Handle the Most Difficult Classroom Behaviors