My friend Denise Wilson has developed some fantastic behavior supports.  Her website is http://www.trackingbehavior.org . You”ll find some great resources for behavior, social skills and counseling there.  Check her website out when you can.

Measurable Counseling goals

Research-Based Supports

Counseling progress monitoring (use of Excel for graphing)

Elementary School Counseling Curriculum

Social Skill of the Week Concepts

Tiered Behavior Supports

Social Behavioral Concern Questionnaire

Attached is a resource for identifying skill deficits to focus on in counseling sessions. Please feel free to download and share.

Eric Elias is a certified school psychologist with over 25 years of school-based experience and one year of clinical counseling experience. Eric holds a BS in Social Science from Roberts Wesleyan College and an MS Ed Psych from Bucknell University.

Welcome to Random Acts of Counseling.  As a School psychologist with 25+ years of experience, I have explored the process of providing counseling and tiered behavior supports for much of my career.  In education today we are required to make data-based decisions. The art of teaching is now guided by the sciences of education and psychology. State agencies are requiring scientific documentation for the allocation of our limited time and resources.  Counseling services in school, while therapeutic in nature, are not always scientific, measurable or research-based.  This is what I call “Random Acts of Counseling.”  We may see the students on a regular schedule or when they are upset or sent to the office and we read a few books or do crafts/activities that are therapeutic in nature, consult with parents and teachers.  In the end we hope that we are making a difference, but how do we know whether we really are making a difference? Henry Ford once said, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” We know that the traditional approaches for student support and classroom/school discipline don’t work for all kids. In this blog I will explore and share resources for using stream-lined data collection and support methods which will hopefully lead to effective, efficient, goal-directed and research-supported help for our students (so that our supports are not random).