Conquer Counselor Imposter Syndrome Once and For All! [Episode 87]

0:00
Before we get going, I wanted to let you know about a free back to school resource for high school counselors. If you’re loving listening to this podcast, then I know you’ll want to catch this. I aired this last year and I’m re airing it again now that we’re heading into the new school year.

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How to kick start your year as a high school counselor is a free private podcast that’s super easy to sign up for with actionable steps to set you up for success this year. What is a private podcast you may be asking, you get a unique link just for you. When you click on it, a private podcast that’s not searchable pops up in your podcast player.

0:36
I know it’ll be helpful even as a refresher if you listened last year, but also a valuable resource if you’re newer to the job and you haven’t listened to this before. In these three episodes inside the private podcast, you’ll learn how to set up your systems, how to ready your student caseload, and how to use data to make decisions.

0:54
There may even be a few bonus resources and a couple extra podcast episodes in there too. We’ll see. This private podcast will be open all the way through the end of September because I want to give you all plenty of time to listen and learn. And just depending on when you start back to school and have time to listen to it, I want to make sure it’s available to you.

1:13
From here, doors will be opening to the Clique collaborative my high school counseling membership on Monday, August 21. Now that is next Monday. If you don’t have your calendar out right now, I’ll share all about everything you can expect inside the membership and the why behind it all.

1:29
I’ll also share with you how to complete a purchase order if you’re interested in joining with your school’s money. While the doors are open for 10 days to the membership, you’re going to be able to grab a really sweet bonus that’s not available anywhere else.

1:41
When August ends, the bonus will go away but you’ll still be able to join the membership. And I’ll talk more about this next week. For now, go grab access to the free private podcast to jumpstart your year by going to counselor clique.com/privatepod.

1:56
If you accessed it last year, I just turn it on again. So search your podcast player for how to kick start your year as a high school counselor. Now let’s get to the show.

2:11
You got into this profession to make a difference in your students lives. But you’re spread thin by all the things that keep getting added to your to do list. I can’t create more hours in the day. But I can invite you into my Counselor Clique where you’ll finally catch your breath. Come with me as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that will help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your students.

2:33
I’m Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype girl here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job.

2:43
Back to School is always a good time for a pep talk. But I was thinking specifically around imposter syndrome this year. I have some past episodes with a pep talk for veteran counselors and a pep talk for new counselors. But let’s just talk to everybody here as we talk about impostor syndrome because dang, it does not discriminate.

3:02
Everybody’s got something that makes them squirm a little and doubt if they should even be here in the first place. You are equipped for this job. The fact that you’re even concerned that you may not have it all together means you’re wanting to serve your students as best as possible, meet all of their needs, solve all the world’s problems.

3:21
But here, let me give you some permission, you won’t ever solve all the problems of the world. So let’s focus on what’s in front of us instead, your community, your school, your school students, and most specifically your caseload of students. Now I get it, your caseload might be ginormous. But here’s some encouragement, I hope.

3:39
Did you know that we’re possibly luckier in the high school setting with our case loads? ASCA most up to date report say that the ratios on average are lower in the high school settings. And I will say that is true where I am in South Carolina. I don’t know if that’s true where you are.

3:55
This doesn’t disregard the fact that a lot of cases are still extremely large for one person to handle. I’m even saying the recommended ratio of 250. That’s a lot for one counselor to handle. It feels like a ton of pressure on one person to handle hundreds of students issues, problems, futures, you name it. And this is why you’re qualified for the job right now. I just want to let you know.

4:17
You have a master’s degree in School Counseling, you have the education to do this or you’re working on it right now. You may feel like you don’t have all of the college stuff memorized yet, but don’t worry, it always changes you’ll constantly be learning new things about this.

4:31
You may find yourself in charge of 504 this year, but not know what accommodations to suggest. Seriously, who ever does? You may find yourself in a really tough counseling situation with a student where you can’t find the words to make it better. This is definitely going to happen to you. But you’ve practiced and prepared for these counseling situations. You have more skills than you realize.

4:52
You know how to regulate a student who’s upset you know how to ask good questions and be a good listener. You are a problem solver and a team player, I know there are even more unique skills that you bring to the table too. Your humor, your honesty, your outlook and perspective. You have an edge at being a counselor that no other person in the school could play, but you,.

5:14
Your students need you, not the doubting imposter version of you. Someone hired you to do this job because they believed in you. Whether it was the principal, a department head, or someone from behind the scenes who begged someone else to give you a chance, someone out there knew that you could do it before you even thought that you could do it.

5:33
You’re about to make a huge difference in the lives of students this year. It’s normal to struggle with balancing all the deadlines and the tasks that need to be completed, but you’ll get it done. Underneath the schedule changes, the howler emails, the never ending lines out of your office door as the school year starts off, there are good things to come.

5:53
I always had to remind myself of this as these tasks were some of my least favorite and definitely my least favorite to start the school year off with. You’ll be in the trenches for some of it. That’s true. That is real life, and you’ll feel the impostor syndrome deeply some days.

6:08
But I want you to pause in those moments and reflect, especially in the good moments when a student comes back to you to celebrate a success. When a teacher tells you the positive changes they’ve seen a student make because of the small group that you ran.

6:20
When you get a thank you note from a parent, it’s all worth it. I hope this episode is helping you get in the right mental space this year to best serve your students. Remember to grab your access to the private podcast to help you get in the physical space to get ready for this year.

6:37
Each of those episodes is practical and hands on to help you prep your space your caseload and your data. That’s at counselorclique.com/private pod. I want you to be prepared for this school year. I want it to be the best one for you yet. Yes, that is possible.

6:54
I’m gonna give you the how you’re going to keep going and keep learning this year to be the best version of you as a school counselor so that your students and families benefit. I’ll see you next week for that episode.

7:07
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of high school counseling conversations. All the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcast so that you never miss a new episode.

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Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counsleorclique. That’s C-L-I-Q-U-E. I’ll see you next week.