School for School Counselors Podcast

The Fat-Free Fix That’s Failing School Counselors

• School for School Counselors • Episode 137

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As busy school counselors, we often find ourselves reaching for quick-fix solutions to help our students. But are these convenient resources truly serving our students' needs? In this episode, I challenge the effectiveness of "print and pray" materials that have become way too common in our field.

Thinking back to the misguided "fat-free" diet craze of the 90s, I explore how mass-produced school counseling worksheets and activities might be doing more harm than good. Because while they promise quick results and seem helpful on the surface, they often lack the substance needed for meaningful change.


00:00 Introduction: 90s Diet Culture

02:21 The Problem with "Print and Pray" Resources

04:33 Effective Counseling Strategies

06:50 Behaviorism and Counseling

08:15 Trauma-Informed Care in Counseling

09:48 Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

12:39 Practical Tips for School Counselors

20:11 Conclusion


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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey there, school counselor, welcome back to the School for School Counselors podcast. I'm Steph Johnson, a full-time school counselor, just like you, and I'm so excited to see you back here at the podcast. Now, you may notice I sound a little different than normally, a little bit more hoarse, this week. That's actually why the podcast is being released a few days late. I have had no voice for quite a while about a week now and it's slowly coming back, and I could not wait to get back behind this mic to talk with you about school counseling. So let's jump into it.

Speaker 1:

Do you remember back in the 90s? If you were old enough to remember the 90s, some of you may have just been born then, but in the 90s there was diet culture, right, I think. From time immemorial, people have been trying to find the best ways to lose weight and look nice and feel great, right? And in the 90s, diet culture was focused on fat-free. The 90s diet culture was focused on fat-free. Companies started slapping fat-free labels on everything that you could think of, and the entire American culture was convinced that eating fat was the enemy. They were taking fat out of cookies, out of yogurt, salad dressings, all kinds of foods, and people literally ate it up. But what we didn't know when all that was going on is that when food manufacturers removed fat from food, they had to replace it with something else to make it taste good, and the something else that they started putting into all of these fat-free offerings was sugar. And not just a little sugar y'all this was a ton of sugar. So we have all these people thinking that they were making healthier choices by buying fat-free foods and they actually ended up consuming more sugar than they ever had. And then we started seeing things like weight gain, blood sugar spikes, long-term health problems, all due to the fat-free fad.

Speaker 1:

Now in school counseling I hate to break it to you we have our own version of the fat-free debacle, and those are print and pray resources. These are mass market worksheets and activities that look like school counseling solutions, but the majority of them are actually just filler with not a lot of substance. They seem super helpful, they promise quick results, they're cute and they're easy to grab when you're in a rush or when you're feeling overwhelmed, but the truth is, most of these materials are the fat-free cookies of school counseling. Most of these materials are the fat-free cookies of school counseling. They might look like they're helping, but, y'all, over time I think they're doing more harm than good. And I'm going to tell you right now I'm going to catch a lot of hate for this episode, and that's okay. I invite some healthy debate and if somebody has the numbers, the statistics, to back up why I'm wrong, bring it. Steph at schoolforschoolcounselorscom. S-t-e-p-h at schoolforschoolcounselorscom, email me and send me straight. I would love to see some evidence to the contrary, but while we're waiting on that and I'll be honest y'all I've been talking about this for a couple of years and no one has been able to produce those kinds of numbers for me yet let's talk about why these quick fix resources are failing, and we're going to look at it through the lens of some psychological and counseling frameworks. Now, you may or may not know this about me I am a licensed professional counselor in addition to being a certified school counselor. I think that has contributed to me having a little bit different perspective on the world of school counseling than most people. So I think this is going to be a good lens for us to look through to really think critically about some of the resources that you might have in your school counseling office right now.

Speaker 1:

First, let's go with the old, tried and true cognitive behavioral therapy CBT. It's one of the most researched, backed approaches for supporting all kinds of maladaption Students with anxiety, depression, behavior issues. Cbt is going to be recommended and it works because it has structure, it guides students and we're going to be talking about students throughout this conversation. We know this will apply to a broader counseling context. Right, but for the purposes of this conversation you're going to hear me say students. Cbt is going to help our students recognize their negative thought patterns. It's going to help them challenge those negative thoughts and replace them with healthier ones.

Speaker 1:

And while we see a lot of resources that claim to follow a CBT framework, they really don't. And this is the thing that really just kind of sticks in my craw about this whole thing is that we are so quick to toss out these labels of evidence-based or standards aligned and nobody really takes the time to look past the label, kind of like the fat-free thing. Most of the printable resources that you download do not follow a true CBT structure. They might have an isolated worksheet on changing negative thoughts, but they're not scaffolding those skills over time. And y'all we know through our counseling training, change takes time, it takes intention and it takes repetition. Handing a kid a thought replacement worksheet isn't going to magically change the way they see their problems. Magically change the way they see their problems. It's just not realistic. And yet we keep printing these things out, we keep making stacks and stacks of copies of this kind of stuff and handing it out to the kids and then wondering why they're not working. Are you starting to see, maybe, why I haven't been able to get any action data from anybody on any of these printable resources? Because it's not there.

Speaker 1:

Let's look through another lens. Let's talk about behaviorism. Behavioral psychology tells us that reinforcement strengthens behavior. Again, we're back to intentionality, time and repetition. One single worksheet about changing a thought or utilizing a coping skill whatever the conversation is about is kind of like going to the gym once and expecting to walk out with abs of steel. It's not going to happen. It takes repeated visits. It takes repeated effort and reinforcement over time. A one-and-done worksheet doesn't do that. It's just a piece of paper. And again, like those fat-free foods we were talking about, didn't actually make people healthier. They just made them feel like they were eating healthier. These worksheets are doing the same thing. They're not actually helping students build the skills they need. They're just making it look like they are.

Speaker 1:

Do you see why I keep coming back to this theme on the podcast? Because we are charged ethically and morally with trying to do our best to support students and a lot of these materials are missing the mark. Let's think about it through the lens of trauma-informed care we know from. Let's think Bessel van der Kolk right, the Body Keeps the Score. You've probably heard of that book and lots of other people who have studied and lectured and trained therapists and counselors in trauma-informed care. They've all told us trauma affects the way the brain develops. It affects executive functioning skills. It affects a student's ability to regulate their emotions. So again, can we hand them a worksheet If we know that they have a trauma history and expect this worksheet to do some good? I don't think so. It's going to be missing some of the deeper work that these kids need. It's going to be negating the relationship building before we expect the behavior change. It's not providing those safe, consistent interventions that signal safety and relationship to students.

Speaker 1:

Trauma-informed approaches are intentional, they are layered, they work over time. No worksheet can replicate that, no PowerPoint game is going to do it, no craft is going to hit that mark. And last, let's look at it through the lens of solution-focused brief therapy. That's a champion for school counselors. I know so many of us rely on that approach with our students. But solution-focused is about customizing interventions to the student, to their unique strengths, to help them reach their own unique goals. When we start mass producing resources for a solution-focused therapy approach, we lose that chance to individualize the intervention.

Speaker 1:

It's like going to the vending machine grabbing a fat-free snack that was made for anybody to eat. Right, technically it's food. Technically it will fill your stomach a little bit, but does it nourish you? If you have a vitamin deficiency, if you have a health concern and you need to eat better, you need a specialized diet. You're not going to be running to the vending machine Now.

Speaker 1:

You may be listening to this and thinking, yeah, I mean, that's great and I see your point, but I don't have any other choice. I am so freaking overloaded that I cannot stop to find something else. I don't have the time right. Some of you are scheduled as glorified SEL teachers. You're not even counseling kids so much as you are sitting in a classroom seeing rotations of students come through while you teach social emotional lessons, and that's a travesty. I think it is a gross misuse of our expertise and training. That's a whole other podcast and I want you to know that I get it.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes you don't have time for these deep dive interventions. You may be thinking hey, steph, we're not supposed to be engaging in these long-term therapeutic relationships with students. We're supposed to be doing short-term counseling on our campuses six to eight sessions, bing bang, boom, we're done. But we still need to be looking at the mechanisms of what makes this stuff work. As we're talking through these lenses of cognitive behavior therapy, behaviorism, trauma-informed care, solution-focused, brief therapy. That doesn't necessarily mean we're providing therapy. We need to be informed. We need to be building our fluency about why counseling works.

Speaker 1:

A lot of school counselors graduate from grad school. They sign up for their Teachers, pay Teachers account and then they forget all the stuff they learned in grad school. We don't want that to happen. So here are some things we can do, and no, I'm not going to tell you to get rid of this stuff. Cold turkey. I would love it if you did. I think that would be amazing, but I know many of you are not in the position to be able to do that right now. So what can we do instead?

Speaker 1:

First, if you're using a printable, make sure it's part of an actual strategy. A strategy is not printing something and following the directions. That is not a strategy. A strategy is knowing your modality, knowing what point A and point B and point C are, and then aligning one of those printables with the component of that strategy. Does that sound complicated? Maybe, guess what? I have a resource for you that's going to make it so freaking simple. You're not going to believe it. I'm going to tell you about it in a minute. But solution one is just to try to print with purpose. Make sure that whatever you're printing and using is part of an actual counseling strategy, a true strategy. Y'all, I can't say that enough. Y'all, I can't say that enough.

Speaker 1:

Secondly, identify your go-to high impact strategies. Have a toolkit of things that you know can move the needle without having to print anything, and you don't have to know a million of them. You don't even need to know 10. Three or five will do the trick. Let me give you some examples, some of these you may know already. Feel, think, do. That is a CBT strategy Takes probably 60 seconds, maybe a little longer if your students are a little younger. Name it and reframe it. Shifting perspective Again, a quick intervention. It's a go-to. You don't need a paper for that, you don't need to write anything down or draw any pictures. I mean, you can if you want, but you don't need a specialized printable to do that. Can if you want, but you don't need a specialized printable to do that.

Speaker 1:

What about a two-question check-in, just to get the dialogue started in a solution-focused way? And once you practice with this, it gets so easy. I use this in my school counseling office all the time. Let me give you some examples. Question one what's one thing that's going okay for you right now, even if it seems small? Leading to question two what's one little thing you could do today to make things just a teeny bit better? That's it. They're reframing perspective. They're focusing on what's working instead of perseverating on what's wrong. On what's working instead of perseverating on what's wrong, maybe we ask for question one. We say okay. So if I time traveled to next week and I saw that you were feeling better, what would be different? Followed by okay.

Speaker 1:

It is just endless how many variations you can provide with the two question check-in, but it's going to move the needle and it's not going to require paper. It's not going to require paper, it's not going to require printables and it's not going to require you to sit down with kids who may not be super excited to read or write. We forget that too. We serve lots of kids with disabilities, with learning challenges, and it seems like a lot of times we say, oh, sit them down, put a pencil in their hand, all right. So we've talked about printing with purpose, aligning a specific printable page with an actual, real counseling strategy. That was one. Two is identifying your go-to strategies that don't need any printing Think, feel, do, name it and reframe it. Two-question check-in In my office I have kids scale every time they walk in the door.

Speaker 1:

If they visited me a few times, they're not even surprised. They sit down and automatically look for the emoji chart and we walk through the basic categories of their day. That is low lift, high impact. It helps me pinpoint exactly where we need to go in real time, in a quick way. What are those high impact strategies for you?

Speaker 1:

Third, streamline your counseling with repeatable frameworks. You do not have to find a new resource every time you have a new concern. Pop up for a kid. Every session does not require a new worksheet. Every new class lesson does not require a new download. Find your repeatable frameworks. What are the things that are actually tested and we know work and use those. It's going to save you time. It's going to allow you to provide consistent, meaningful support that actually moves the needle and it's going to be research-backed a needle and it's going to be research backed Because, just like those fat-free cookies did not make people healthier back in the day, most of these printable resources are not going to make your school counseling program better, because your kids don't need more stuff.

Speaker 1:

They don't need to feel like they've just entered a different kind of classroom with a different kind of worksheet and a different kind of activity to do that really sort of feels like what they did in math and science and social studies earlier in the day. They need you, they need your expertise, they need your intentionality, your relationship and your ability to guide them through challenges as you read their voice tone, their body language, all of those essential skills that you worked so hard in your grad program to cultivate. That's what we should be leaning on, not the printer, and even if you feel like you can't get away from those resources just yet. You can take some of these ideas and start moving in that direction If this is resonating with you, if you're like yes, that makes sense. We should be doing more actual research-based interventions. I know that that one isolated change your thoughts worksheet is not going to change much over the long term, because I've watched it happen over and over again. It's time for you to elevate your practice and one great way that you can do that is to come join me in our School for School Counselors Mastermind.

Speaker 1:

We have playbooks built. They are already loaded in our mastermind library with the blueprint for exactly what I am talking about. We have playbooks for anxiety, school refusal, behavior, intervention, executive functioning. We have all kinds of playbooks in there and not a ding dang. One of them requires you to print out a worksheet for anybody. It doesn't require a PowerPoint game. It doesn't require any of that stuff other than you and your expertise and your ability to listen and inspire change. This is where the good stuff is y'all.

Speaker 1:

If you're ready to move past the vending machine, school counseling and you want to become a true expert in your craft, you want to become an authority not only on your campus but in your school district where people call you and they say I know you know your stuff, can you consult with me? That's a cool feeling when somebody calls you and asks you that Can you advise me, what would you do? Or your principal walks up and says, hey, these teachers are having trouble with this kid. I have no idea what to do. Do you have any ideas? And you say, yeah, actually I do. And you just start rolling them off because you've become so fluent in your craft through these repeatable frameworks that you were able to see the patterns where no one else can see them. That's where I want you to be and that's what we work on each and every week in our School for School Counselors Mastermind.

Speaker 1:

You can find out more at schoolforschoolcounselorscom. Slash mastermind. We'd love for you to come join us, but at the end of the day, I really want you to focus on are you leaning on your counseling resources because they're easy and they're cute, or are you leaning on them because you know they're actually providing the nourishment that your students need? All right, that was kind of heavy and in your face this week, but I'm doing it with love and I'm going to be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast, hopefully without this raspy, croaky voice. In the meantime, I hope you have the best week ever. Take care, my friend.

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Steph Johnson

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