A Powerful Technique for Counseling or Classroom Management
Counseling Essentials is a proactive, visual-interactive core curriculum for schools to address student behavior. The six lessons presented in the 3-hour workshop are psycho-education for teens and pre-teens. The lessons were designed to engage teens and pre-teens in the problem-solving process. The lessons form a foundation and a framework for both counseling and classroom management that can be used throughout the school year. The lessons can be used by regular and special education teachers and counselors.
This approach fits within the scope of the PBIS framework at all three tiers. It is based on the accumulated research in the fields of self-control, cognitive behavior therapy, positive behavior supports and therapeutic crisis intervention. The lessons address some of the most egregious and common fallacies of teen thinking that lead teens and pre-teens to make poor choices.
Counseling Essentials is a series of six lessons developed for schools to help pre-teen and teenage students develop three building blocks of maturity:
Self-Acceptance – Students will gain the understanding that the road to maturity is not always linear. The essence of self-acceptance is being able to be OK when you fail so that you can pick yourself up and try again.
Self-Responsibility – Students and educators will gain an understanding that self-responsibility is not about assigning blame or feeling ashamed about making a mistake but about developing problem-solving skills. It’s about becoming ready to take part in the problem-solving process.
Self-Empowerment – Students have intrinsic motivation to be self-empowered. Students will gain an understanding that the way in which we become self-empowered is by developing self-responsibility.
The Counseling Essentials program was developed to make expectations clear to students regarding student behavior. These interactive lessons can be used to provide a solid foundation for other classroom management strategies which address student behavior or it may stand-alone as a classroom management tool or it can be used school wide as a school- community philosophy.
The Counseling Essentials program can be used when addressing students’ social/emotional goals in IEP development, when addressing goals via student behavior intervention plans (BIPs), to address school-wide implementation of PBIS and to prepare students for working with the school counselor at the secondary or tertiary level of PBIS.
This program is available for use with upper elementary, middle school, junior high and high school students as well as students in special education, counseling or alternative school settings. A modified version of this program is available for parenting workshops. This program can be used with a diverse population of students.
This is what one teacher said after using my lessons with her students. She used it and achieved results!:
…Now that the whole class is on the same part of the lessons it seems more effective on how they behave toward each other throughout the day. Also, my most reluctant children are getting into it…. class room meltdowns have gone from twice a day to twice a month!….
Counseling Essentials puts teens and pre-teens on the path to maturity!
Please e-mail janeaidell@prodigy.net for further information.