General Tips

How to present a meaningful individual counseling lesson.

Structure

Especially with elementary school counseling, students need objects or activities to help start conversations. I give students choices about what they can have, such as LEGOs, art supplies, stress balls, or my sandtray. These objects give me insights into my students' thoughts and feelings and also make the 1:1 counseling environment less intimidating.  

Portable Sandtray

Sandtrays are an excellent method of self-expression, especially for students who may have a hard time verbalizing their thoughts and feelings. Creating you own sandtray is easy.

Here's what I purchased:
Tray (with lid)
Moon Sand
Misc. Objects: Can be found at any discount store. Simply choose a variety of objects.

*I always take a picture of a student's sandtray and put it in their file (my documentation system).

Counseling Journals

I often have students who request to see me many times throughout a given school week. Since I have an entire school population to serve, I cannot always be there for them face-to-face. So, I decided to start creating counseling journals with these students. We make them out of notebook paper and colored construction paper (for the cover). Students can decorate their journals however they wish. I typically write the first message, reminding students about how the process works, and then, from that point on, students write as often as they need to. This is also a great way to document student progress. Students love it and it's cheap and easy!

Check-In

This is something new that I've started in my individual counseling sessions. It serves a few purposes - it helps me gather data on how effective the sessions are, helps students self-reflect, and works as a discussion starter.

My students have really taken to this check-in method and I've definitely noticed a positive change in their ability to reflect and process what is happening around them. My next step is to take the data from the year and see if the self-reflections match each student's behavior and overall performance.

I print this check-in page on the back of my session summary form. That way, all of my notes for the session are in one place.
Individual Counseling Check-In (WORD)
File Size: 116 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

LEGOs

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My students LOVE playing with LEGOs while we talk! It's also interesting to see what they build and how they interact with the various mini-figures.
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