r/schoolcounseling

Solo counselor wearing a million hats. I have no work friends and it’s wearing me down. I’ve tried and tried to be friends with people here or even friendly, but alas I am alone. I cry often in my office when I have a spare moment. Which isn’t often I guess lol. My last school I had several best friends and never felt lonely like this. I have no one. If I need my duty covered if I’m out a day, no one. If I ask for help from the office for anything at all, they tell me it’s not their job and they refuse. I’m just sad

Hi all. Five months post graduate here and have yet to land a school counseling position. I am also applying to colleges, studying for the NCE, and just praying for a door to open for me. I've definitely been declined (rejection emails are just horrible) not only for school counseling positions from several school districts in my state, but also for roles such as paraprofessional, office clerk, etc. with not even one interview. My daughter was telling me it wasn't me, but this whole AI and resumes passing through ATS systems and just rejecting applications and resumes. I'm not so sure about that. I've revised my resume...I stopped counting after 10 times. I guess my question is (before giving up on school counseling altogether), is there anyone else here going through this same situation? I'm ready to do the work, hoping I do not lose knowledge of everything I've learned during graduate school, and just wanting to start building my experience so that I can be of service to students and their families. If not as a school counselor, maybe just pursue a field since my education and skills are transferable so that I can gain experience and do the work to serve individuals and families without feeling like what I've been trained is not wasted. I've worked with students for many years, directly (as a paraprofessional, substitute, teacher's assistant & of course school counseling intern) and indirectly (in school nutrition). At this point, I am seriously considering taking the school counseling exam for Florida and just move. I have my certification for the state of Georgia. Thanks for any advice, and encouragement y'all.

Hi everyone! I’m a 2nd year middle school counselor and truly enjoy my career. For context, I have a lot of responsibilities in my building; I’m the anti-bullying specialist, manage I&RS plans, handle all crisis intervention, handle all scheduling (creation and changes), I’m the testing coordinator, attend/run what feels like a million meetings a year, and more that I’m probably forgetting to mention.

On top of these responsibilities, I’m the 504 case manager, and have almost 30 504 students. I know ASCA identifies this as an inappropriate responsibility for school counselors, but this role feels almost synonymous with being a school counselor. ASCA also advises against having school counselors act as testing coordinators, and this takes up a significant amount of my time in the Spring. With all of this said, have any of you had any success advocating against these responsibilities being assigned to you? Have any of you advocated with no success? I haven’t tried yet, but I can imagine that it’ll be difficult to convince my supervisor and/or admin.

What prompted me to ask this is that I’m being asked to deliver more classroom lessons. With my current responsibilities, a 300-student caseload, and being the 504 case manager, I don’t feel I have enough time to deliver lessons in a meaningful way.

I appreciate any and all feedback/suggestions. Thanks!

Hi, everyone. I'm a school counselor in VA, and I am trying to branch out and earn my LPC. My degree is CACREP-accredited, but I am missing 3-4 classes. Did anyone else in VA pursue LPC licensure after?

I'm taking the classes that I lack this year, but I am wondering if I would need to redo my internships in a clinical setting. In terms of hours, my school counseling internships through my university were the same as the LPC internships in terms of assignments and hours. We had to develop treatment plans, counsel individually and in groups, and our hours were the same as the clinical requirements.

I've tried emailing the VA board a couple times over the last several months, but I haven't heard anything. Just trying to get some feedback more than anything else as I am very interested in leaving public education. Almost everything I do is non-counseling, and it is not my cup of tea. I was a teacher before this.

Thanks, y'all.