Welcome

Welcome to Random Acts of Counseling.  As a School psychologist with 30 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 some kind of regular schedule or when they are upset or sent to the office and we read a few books or do lunch-bunch, 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 actually measure outcomes, how do we know whether or not we are actually 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 behavior concerns can have a significant impact on classroom and school climate. These issues remain at the top of staff and parents’ priorities. We also know that the traditional approaches for student support and classroom/school discipline don’t always 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 counseling supports are not random).