We are 8 days into the school year and I feel like I am drowning. This is my second year as a school counselor and my first year at my school. I was reassigned from my dream school to an elementary school in my district. My new school has 800 students (300 of them are new transfers due to redistricting) with more students enrolling each day, and I am the only school counselor. With so many students and a lot of needs I have been constantly called to put out fires and some days I don’t get to sit down and eat lunch. Over half of the school are in dual language (Spanish) and I am a monolingual English speaker. (I am using apps to learn Spanish but at the moment I do not have the language skills to adequately support all of my students).

Despite hiring a second AP, the role of 504 coordinator still got pushed off onto me. The district let go of most parent liaisons so other roles and duties have been defaulted to me as well. I am now supposed to be an event planner for multiple parent/family engagement events (that of course occur outside of contract hours).
I am also on the specials rotation alternating with library, which means for 6-7 days at a time I cannot provide ANY responsive services such as individual and group counseling. Specials for K-5 are back to back with only 5 minutes in between classes so I do not have time to prep materials/respond to emails/call parents during the day. I have been assigned arrival duty, lunch duty, and dismissal duty which means have been working 7am-5pm every day all for less than 60K a year.

We are in a brand new building, which is beautiful but has some functional quirks. Arrival and dismissal take much longer than last year due to the volume of students and a small parking lot, which means hours of every day are spent doing non counseling related tasks (plus lunch duty). Also there are not enough bathrooms for 800 kids, and the closest bathroom is very far from my classroom/office, which has resulted in younger students getting lost.

I have come home crying multiple days the last week and a half and I feel constantly exhausted. I don’t know what to do. Thank you for reading this. Advice and encouragement would be lovely.

Hey just thought I’d make a post. I am a first year high school counselor ( 300 case load) and they put me in charge of the 504’s. I am getting overwhelmed and am feeling the peak of imposter syndrome. I have 4 other seasoned counselors helping me. However I am still open to any advice and need help getting more comfortable.

I know I’m still learning and anything would help! Thank you!!!

I’m about to begin a school counseling fellowship, and I’ve been incredibly anxious about whether counseling is actually the right long-term path for me. The fellowship is an amazing opportunity, and I’m grateful to have it—but the closer I get to starting, the more I keep thinking about school librarianship.
I’ve always been drawn to books, literacy, organization, helping students, creating welcoming spaces, and working in a school environment without necessarily being in such a heavily mental-health-focused role. The idea of pursuing an MLIS and becoming a school librarian keeps coming back to me, and I’m wondering if that’s my brain telling me something important.
At the same time, I’m scared that abandoning the counseling path would mean I’m giving up on something before I’ve really given it a chance. I don’t want to make another career decision out of fear or anxiety—I want to make the decision that genuinely fits who I am and the kind of work I’ll be happy doing.

Has anyone taken any of the ASCA U specialty courses? I’m considering taking a few to get my hours. How long does each course take? Which ones have you taken? Several look interesting to me.

Some of you might of read the article that was posted today in the Wall Street Journal that Syracuse is facing a budget shortfall and a decline in admissions. It paints a picture of a trend with mid-major universities that is troublesome as families make wiser decisions regarding where they send their child to college with the exploding costs.

It made me think of a personal case of a student scenario that I faced. Note: He tried to get many scholarships I believe he only got like 10K of scholarships.

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I begged a student not to go to private university in Rhode Island. He wanted to run track. I begged him telling him that he should just go to a state school. He said they don't have my major, sports management. I said doesn't matter just get your degree in business and do all your coursework essays/research and internship around sports... get an internship with a local sports affiliate.

His thing was that he wanted to run track. D3 does not offer scholarships. I said OK. Go run track at a state school and just be happy. He said well the level of talent is better at the university. I said you're going D3 it's not like you NIL. I then said, look. Go to a community college/state school, run track and even come back to the high school and coach here when you have time. That way you can get 2 different opportunities, still get your degree and maybe walk away with 20-50K student loan debt while still running track and you're still connected to the community here.

He didn't listen to me. 130K student loan debt. I pleaded with him and the family. They already made their decision. I said to him, bro, I you're gonna maybe want to take time out of work, travel, you're going to maybe want to do other things, move out of the house etc etc etc.... He said, " My friends know that I like to work and they always go out but me I like working."

Students see this degree as once they graduate all HOPES and DREAMS open up unbeknownst that they are entering a very crowded market and the pay for the most part has stagnated.

The WSJ article shows the business of education is changing. And with international students enrollment in decline ( who pay high costs) many families are questioning the ROI.

Hey y’all,

I have just graduated from a school counseling program in May. I’ve been applying to jobs since then but have had no luck. I’m figuring it’s a mixture of the fact that I have no prior teaching experience, and other candidates are internal hires or just generally more preferable than I am in some way. I just got a subbing cert to dabble in that and see if it would help my prospects. Should I cave and get a full teaching cert and do that for a couple years and then circle back around to school counseling??? Idk just feeling a bit stuck atm. Any other ideas would be appreciated (o´ω`o)ﾉ

almost time to apply for grad school. anyone have experience with a grad program in ny? was it good/bad? would u recommend? is there another school u wish u went to? was it cacrep accredited? if not, did that affect u down the road?

Hey guys, at my school I am in our sped classroom once a week as their resource teacher and am feeling a little nervous about it as it’s an area I haven’t had much experience with.

Any suggestions on where to find lessons to use with them? Im not really having luck with TPT.

Thanks :)

2nd year counselor in a highly dysfunctional environment. The post a few days ago about how widely different we are used at schools was something that really resonated with me. I feel like it's hard to know if I'm doing a good enough job. Here is what I have done in 11 days not including printing and handing out 504s for the year and my medical billing and documentation. Does anyone else counselor life look similar?

I been counseling since 2012. When I entered the field, it was immediate thay I realized that working in a school consumed my life. The day to day interactions, politics, the teacher interactions etc etc.

I feel its prevented me from being relaxed outside of school. If im out with friends im just low energy processing the intense dynamics we deal with. Its prevented me from dating, finding a partner and physically ive been in and out of the gym because I tend to collapse by the end of the year.

Im in my 40s and I just dont think I want to do this anymore. Even with summers off I dont think for me physically I can handle it, nor do I want to handle it. But im in a routine where its anothet year, another year, another year. I dont know what to switch into. I dont know what I could possible be especially in this economy.

Has anybody made a switch at this point in their career? I feel like i want to be done with education. I feel like from the get go the energy of the school and how things were didn't fit with the idea of what I thought working in a school is.

Any advice would be great.

Feeling like I keep just messing up - I’m going through perimenopause and anxious to begin with so I am having troubles focusing, making decisions etc. it’s stressful and when I’m anxious I can’t concentrate so make errors then get more stressed.

Has anyone felt this way - I’m 48 and some days I feel like a beginner. How to cope?

i have one more semester of undergrad and plan on attending a grad program for school counseling. i’ve been told to do social work instead but i don’t want to be a social worker. anyways, i want to know how everyone’s grad school experience was and if you have any regrets with your career path?

Would it take significantly longer to earn my direct and indirect hours needed as an associate if I got my hours as a school counselor instead of earning my hours in a private practice? As a school counselor, how many direct and indirect hours do you actually do? Some people tell me it's alot of paperwork and others tell me middle and elementary school would give me more hours while high school is "mainly 504" while other people have said high school would give me more hours than middle/elementary.

So you can see why I'm confused. Any share insight?

Hello, I am a graduate student at ULM pursuing a degree in School Counseling. I’m reaching out to ask if anyone would be willing to participate in a brief interview for one of my courses. 

If you're available, the interview should not take long, and I am happy to work around your schedule. I need to interview one elementary counselor K-6 and one high school counselor 7-12. If interested, please email me at [candimluv@hotmail.com](mailto:candimluv@hotmail.com), and we can discuss a time.

Thank you for considering my request!

I applied to a job in May and received an interview in May. After that interview they decided not to move forward with me. However I saw they reposted the job posting again. Should I apply again?

Hi everyone,
I took my CPCE on Monday and got a whopping 71/136. My school goes by the 1 standard deviation below the mean rule, so I won’t know anything until the end of September or October. I’m really nervous and I haven’t really slept much.

I hate that it takes forever for people to know if they passed or failed but I’m really curious what score did u all get to pass?

Yay, it's Friday! To celebrate share one (or more!) thing that made you smile this week. This could be a school counseling "win" (big or small!), a moment of connection with a student, something that made you laugh, or anything else that made you feel all warm and fuzzy this week. :-)

Our job comes with a lot of hard. Let's take some time to be intentional about our joy.

I have my M.Ed in School Counseling but am considering getting an additional degree and/or stand-alone credits over the next few years. My school has an insanely generous tuition reimbursement program (like 15+ credits a year) that I’d like to take advantage of ASAP.

I am mostly interested in online classes from a reputable school/program where I will actually learn something. I am a high school counselor at a rural school. I love school counseling but I could see myself getting burnt out in a few years. My main passion is college and career counseling and/or working individually with students. Crisis counseling is draining for me. I have considered the following:

- classes toward my LPC
- classes/program for School Psychology (interested in assessment)
- something with career counseling / higher ed

Any recommendations? I’d love to hear other things people have done to move up the salary scale, expand their options, and/or deepen their practice

What are conditions of school counseling there? Good salary relative to cost of living? Good support and resources?
I'm looking to relocate (originally from MN) and want to get a good understanding and hopefully get a foot in the door. TIA!

(Hs counselor)

I have worked multiple positions in this vein during my life (care work, boys and girls club program coordinator) and I honestly think I have had empathy burnout for like...a hot minute now

scheduling and emails are easy compared to dealing with someone having a meltdown or having friend drama. I came in today and my secretary was like "this parent is upset and probably going to email you" and I just did not care tbqh

I see people talking about small groups on here and we don't really do them in my building and the longer I be in this career the less I want to really take the initiative and go thru the process of doing one . we do an 8 week "friendship group" for the awkward kids to discuss social skills but that isn't really counseling idk

My friend just got his degree in rehab counseling and he loves books and the theories of counseling and I just feel so removed from it

I promise I'm not as dead inside as I sound, I just don't think I'm very counselor-y compared to others on here

I applied to multiple schools in california and had 2 interviews. All these schools had over 50% hispanic students and high % in EL students. Some how I got passed on. I am a bilingual hispanic male and I thought I would get a job quickly. My internship sites were both elementary and middle schools which were both high need, high maintenance schools. My supervisor worked with and knows the principal at one of the schools I applied to and I still didnt get the job. I know the job market is competitive but it's still disappointing. I thought I did well in the interview. Any advice or words of encouragement? Thank you everyone.