How This High School Counselor Planned an Unforgettable Student Wellness Day with Tylee Resetich [Episode 99]

Lauren 0:00
Hi friends, I want to introduce you to an internet counselor, a friend of mine Tylee. This is actually the second time Tylee has been on the podcast. But this time I’m bringing her in to share specifically about the wellness day she just hosted at her school.

Lauren 0:15
Now, this is something she’s done for years at her school, but she’s learned and grown from each of these events that she’s put on. Recently, she shared inside of the Clique Collaborative about her experience running this year’s wellness day. And I knew I needed to get her on the podcast to share more because well, it’s just seriously amazing.

Lauren 0:33
Tylee is in her fifth year of being a high school counselor and her second year as the Department Chair of school counseling at our school. She works at a Catholic college prep school in Indiana. In fact, it’s the same high school that she attended. She received her master’s degree at DePaul University. She’s the women’s varsity basketball assistant coach and she’s the student advisory leadership team moderator.

Lauren 0:55
Tylee’s passion projects are all things wellness and prevention. So she’s the coordinator of many tier one events at her school. If you want to learn more about tylee and her journey plus what her experience has been like over in the clique collaborative, go back and listen to episode 34 when she was on the podcast the first time. I think you’ll be interested in running a similar event to her wellness day, either next semester or next year. After you get some of your questions answered about an event like this after this week’s episode. I know you’ll be able to pull it off too after you hear what she has to say. So let’s get to this week’s episode with Tylee.

Lauren 1:36
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.

Lauren 1:50
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. 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.

Lauren 2:08
Hi, Tylee, welcome to the podcast.

Tylee 2:11
Hello, thanks for having me.

Lauren 2:13
I think you might be one of my only if only second time guests on the podcast. So that’s fun.

Tylee 2:20
That is very fun. That’s so exciting.

Lauren 2:23
Well, I’m really excited to talk to you about your wellness day that you had at your school because I know that you have a passion for wellness and mental health with your students. And you actually brought that to life with a full on wellness day. When I was in school, we did a mindfulness day. And I think similar vibes. But that was like years ago. And I was like I want to hear from someone who has just done this really recently to be able to walk people through what you did, what roadblocks you ran into, so that they could emulate the same thing, maybe next semester or next year if they want to start dreaming now.

Tylee 2:57
Yeah, for sure. It is quite the task to take on. But I think the like the feeling afterwards. And the outcomes of it outweigh that, for sure. It’s a pretty fun event. And we’ve actually seen it at Carmel or my high school. We we’ve done it now for I guess you could say six years, because we did it the year before COVID hit so 2019.

Tylee 3:24
And we did it in this model, which we’ll talk about. And then through COVID. When we were in school, we did it through a lot of different ways to to try to like still have it but it was never quite the same. And so last year was the first year we went back to our old model. And this year was the second year of it. And it was really awesome.

Lauren 3:44
Cool. So you got some like things under your belt. You’re like, okay, this worked. And now we can actually have two years of a very similar event,

Tylee 3:51
Lots of feedback during the COVID time. So we’re glad that we were able to move it back to what it started as.

Lauren 3:57
Tell me when you when or how you decided that a wellness day was something that your school and your students needed?

Tylee 4:05
Yeah, so it actually started before me. When I was in grad school to become a school counselor, we had a guest speaker come in who had gone through our program and worked at a neighboring high school that I currently work at and actually a high school that I live in the town for. But she came in and she talked all about wellness day and her position, she was no longer a school counselor there but she was sort of their prevention specialist working a lot on like, Red Ribbon Week, and you know, suicide awareness and prevention, all of that.

Tylee 4:39
So she was looking for tier one, initiatives that weren’t only focused on like, what month it was or what week it was, but what could help the students overall all the time and also incorporate the staff because I think a lot of times what we do maybe even push into classrooms or different things, we don’t always get the opportunity to work so closely with our full staff.

Tylee 5:07
So she was looking for ways to do that. So she presented on her wellness day, where there were going to be different sessions with faculty led, and community led activities. So whether that’s like yoga or anything like that, and then the students like chose things to do with that. So I was like, Oh, my God, you know, and in grad school, you’re like, Oh, my God, I want to do all of this. You like, have all this eager, you know, energy.

Tylee 5:37
And so then where I did my internship, which is the high school I work at, currently, they were putting together a wellness day, because they had gone to the same grad school, I did and heard the same presentation. And so they were feeling very eager and excited. And just the need for a community event where all the students could get involved in something fun that also the staff could share their passions and their hobbies.

Tylee 6:03
Because we think of wellness. And we think like, oh, you know, meditation and yoga, and those things are, but they’re also like, so many other things, like, you know, someone this year lead, he used to be a lawyer. So he did like a legal lowdown session, like that’s wellness, because he’s talking about something that he loves and is passionate about. And some of our students who want to be lawyers, or even are just interested in that sort of thing got to be a part of that.

Lauren 6:30
Or maybe who even have stressors in their own life that they’re like, how do I learn more about this, so I don’t have to be stressed about it.

Tylee 6:36
For sure. So that’s, that’s sort of like the way background. And so like I said, as I was doing my internship they were putting it on. And it was this model where the staff lead different activities that they proposed. So they said, you know, I want to run soccer, or I want to do, we even had like a Nerf guns thing where they did like, as a whole fun, kind of like, they did relays, but then they also played like, almost like a paintball type game

Lauren 7:07
Sounds really open ended, like their creativity kind of led the day,r

Tylee 7:11
Rght? It’s like, whoever, whatever teachers are really wanting to do, they got to do and as long as we could either get them the supplies, or we have the supplies, like we rely heavily on our PE department, and they are amazing. They’re like my favorite people in the world right now. Yeah, so they could lead anything that they wanted to lead. And the kids could choose.

Tylee 7:34
That year, they chose three sessions. And then we also had a wellness like speaker at the beginning.

Lauren 7:41
So like a Keynote or something?

Tylee 7:43
Mhm. So the kids could go listen to that. And I, to be honest, don’t even remember what that speaker was now. But we had it in the works for the following year, when I was actually working there when I was a first year counselor, but then COVID came and we couldn’t obviously have something run like that we weren’t even in the building.

Tylee 8:04
So we really lost out on that opportunity. So as soon as we were back into school, those two counselors who were kind of heading that left and went to different schools, so I was the only one left that was super, like, we need to keep this going, other than our admin or admin was very, like, yes, let’s let’s do this.

Lauren 8:27
But they probably needed a point person to say, we need someone equally as excited.

Tylee 8:32
For sure. So during COVID, we were a school that were, we were able to have our students in the building, we were a little bit hybrid for a couple of months. But for the most part, we were all in the building at the same time with different protocols to make sure it was safe.

Tylee 8:47
So we ran wellness day, a little differently, though, where we kept them sort of in like, pods, and they went through different wellness activities. And so we had two speakers come and we had sort of group type wellness activities like group games or meditation.

Lauren 9:07
Honestly, that’s like not a bad way to run it in general. Like you probably saw that and you were like, Okay, if we needed to do this in the future, we can move them around in pods and groups and that would be okay, too.

Tylee 9:17
Yeah, it was totally fine. I think the and totally good and had great goals and all of that. I think that what our downfall was with that was that the kids, not all of them, but like three grades of them had seen it the year before. And they were like, wait, we want that and I was like okay, we do our goal is to get back to that.

Tylee 9:46
So, you know last year, like I said, was our first year that we were able to get back to that and the excitement around it and like the buzz because maybe a week before we put out the session names and the descriptions, and we told the teachers to start putting, like talking about them in their classes.

Tylee 10:02
It was like, it was like a homecoming week excitement, like it was so crazy, which was awesome to see. Because, you know, they, they didn’t mind it the other way. It just, it needed to be updated a little bit and with anything that runs for like three or four years, right. And I would say like the buzz from our teachers was back where in those years before they didn’t, although they had a role, it was a role that that was placed on them.

Tylee 10:32
Because you know, oh, you’re a sophomore homeroom teacher, okay, you’re gonna move with the sophomores to these days. So they didn’t get to sort of choose their day also, which I think is a big part of why this is so successful. Because not only are the kids getting to choose, but the teachers and and the staff, even people in our like admissions and business department and all that get to choose what they want to do, or do a session with a friend or a colleague that they want to be with and then get to, you know, meet all these kids that they typically wouldn’t get to meet.

Lauren 11:12
Yeah, it sounds like the student buy in then. And the staff buy in was super important to get excitement levels up to get just a buzz around the school to get people excited about it. So tell me was this a full day event like, beginning of the day to end of the day, we’ve got it all planned out.

Tylee 11:30
We do it as a half day, I think I think mainly logistics of lunch in a setting like this is really hard. So we were like let’s try to get this to be a half day for more reasons than that. But it is just a half day. This year was the first year we actually brought back a speaker this year, we had a well, like a keynote speaker at the beginning, the kids did two sessions. So they only had two instead of three, which they didn’t love.

Tylee 11:32
But they still had a great time they wanted three. And then that speaker, we served our our faculty and staff lunch. And then that speaker stayed for a keynote for the staff in the afternoon. Really, although we got out earlier than we normally would. But it was a long day. I mean, if you’re like playing a whole sport for two hours, and then kind of sitting for lunch and then go in this. It was a long day.

Tylee 12:23
But I think it was really nice. And the speaker was really uplifting. And I think our teachers really connected with him. So and it was the same speaker that spoke to the students in the morning. So it was a nice kind of full circle for everyone.

Lauren 12:38
So what kinds of things did the teachers this year did? Were those the examples that you already gave? Like what were then then what was the teacher’s responsibility on the day of so they came up with their idea? They presented it to you, you approved it and made your list? And then what did the teacher have to do on the day of?

Tylee 12:55
Yeah, for sure. So at like faculty staff, when we all you know, in service, when we all come back to school I presented on wellness day again, I shared that we were doing it the same way and then a little more information for new staff and teachers. And so that starting then they could send me ideas through a Google form about their sessions. And really, all of them get approved. There’s no like approval or decline. It’s more just like how can we make like, do we have the space and their flexibility is just amazing.

Tylee 13:30
So we had 49 sessions proposed this year, and they stemmed everything from Ultimate Frisbee volleyball. We had kickball so like some more like organized sports type things to like legal lowdown, like I said, we had hanging with the dad, which was like a Grateful Dead listening sesh.

Tylee 13:53
We had mandala painting, coloring, slime making a meditation, we had more this year that were more like teachers in their classrooms doing doing like a smaller group like up to 20 kids than we did last year. Last year, we had a lot more of those sport type activities that were outdoors.

Tylee 14:17
And so this year, I think it was really cool to kind of see the teachers see like, oh, you know, I can really like niche this up like I could really go into like, what I love to do and share it with the kids and there’s going to be kids that connect with me too. I think they didn’t know that last year, or they they weren’t sure they were unsure if it would get kids to come to their sessions and that sort of thing. And then they saw all the buzz about it.

Tylee 14:45
So this year they were a little more willing to share like themselves. So after they would say like any materials that they needed now, I try to be very creative because there’s not really a budget, our admin is amazing. And they are really supportive. And our principal is like, yeah, we will find a way to get anything that they need. But I also try to be very cognizant of what I’m asking for.

Tylee 15:13
And so like I said, we we lean on the PE department, we lean on the sports teams to share their basketballs, or you know, those types of things. And you know, if anyone has something really big that they need, but we got everything everyone needed this year. So it was it, we didn’t run into any issues that day or for that problem.

Tylee 15:35
But then on the day of, they had to take attendance in their classroom with their advisories. So we do that instead of homeroom now, and then go to the speaker, and then they got to run their two sections in their classroom or wherever their location was, which was, like all mapped out for them.

Lauren 15:53
That feels easy. Like, if they know where they’re going to be, they’re given the materials, they take attendance like they normally would, and the kids are coming to them, they’re really not having to do the logistics and moving people around the school or anything like that, which that’s a stressful thing for teachers.

Tylee 16:08
Yeah, I had a team with me, we call that our security team, we were in the hallways, we were kind of all over just making sure the kids are going to where they are, if they needed help finding where they were going. I really like I said, I wanted it to be a day, and it has been, where the teachers are getting some wellness too. Because if they don’t, then there’s not going to be buy in there. And then I just don’t think it would be as successful as, as it’s been over the last couple years.

Tylee 16:38
So I tried to you know, I try to have all the equipment in the places that they’re going to be, again, a shout out to our PE department because without them it would not be the I mean, the one our one PE teacher, he, like runs everything around where it goes that morning and then cleans everything up in the afternoon. And it’s amazing before, like, I’ll text him and be like, Okay, where do you need me? And he’s like, Oh, it’s already done. I’m like, what, what?

Lauren 17:04
Whenever you have people on a team, like I like, I’m so grateful for someone who just thinks outside of like their own box due to like, some responsibility somewhere.

Tylee 17:13
Yeah, so I’m very lucky to be working with the people that I do that just step up and help without me even like asking, because, I mean, as you know, there are projects that you’re just like, I don’t even know what kind of help I need, until I’m like, oh, yeah, I need to put all this equipment out. And that’s a lot for one person to do.

Lauren 17:34
Well, the first time you do it, too, you don’t know, right? You there’s some little details that are gonna slip through the cracks. And so each year you refine what you’re doing and how you’re communicating with the people. Because yeah, you’re gonna make mistakes, the first time you do it, you’re gonna forget that somebody has to go move this from the gym to the cafeteria to make this event happen or something in between. But you start figuring those out, you add to it each year. And like even someone who’s never done it before it can take some steps and make it happen.

Tylee 18:03
For sure. For sure. Ai. It’s funny, you said that like my list this year was so different than my to do lists last year. And I swear I made the to do list for this year, last year in the afternoon right after the day.

Lauren 18:18
Do not forget this for next year.

Tylee 18:20
I’m like, Okay, we got to put the water jugs out because it was like 100 degrees last year. And you know, it might be really hot this year. So it was much more refined this year. But just as exciting.

Lauren 18:37
Is it a goal of yours to get some small groups up and running at your high school? Are small group the tasks that just keep getting pushed down on your to do list and never make it to your actual calendar and then out into the world? I want you to check out my curated podcast playlist just for small group counseling.

Lauren 18:52
The episodes featured cover topics like overall benefits of small groups, partner buy in, student buy-in, facilitation tips, and more. Head to counselorclique.com/smallgroupplaylist to put this playlist in your Spotify lineup and get inspired to run some small groups this year. That’s counselor click.com/smallgroupplaylist. Now, let’s get back to the episode.

Lauren 19:16
And I’m sure not only are you refining what you’re doing, but you’re asking students what they liked, and asking teachers how it could be better because with both of them being as invested as they are, whether that’s their excitement levels, or what they have to prepare for the day. How do you get feedback from students on the sessions or how the day went? And then same with teachers.

Tylee 19:36
We put out a like Google form to get their feedback on it. And actually, we haven’t done it for this year. It’s just been such a crazy time. But last year we did it maybe like a week or so after this year. We still got to put that out but we do a Google form where they can share for the staff we asked things like did you run a session or did you just help out with one or did you know because there are some people that didn’t propose a session, but they’re very eager to still help.

Tylee 20:04
And so I just like, placed them places or ask them and hey, I have these two sessions, which one would you prefer to go to? You know, we got a lot of kids going or we have one that we have a seminary across the street, that is a beautiful like walking path. And so that needs a couple more staff members to just because if 30 Kids are going over there, we just need they require more staff to do that.

Tylee 20:30
So I just asked them like, Did you run a session? Did you have? Did you get placed with a session? How did your session go? Or would you run one next year? Would you run the same one? Or would you want to run something different? And last year, our feedback was really positive, I would say the most, the biggest thing, and we saw it change this year was the desire to either run their own session, because maybe they partnered up with someone to do like a bigger thing. And they found that, oh, no, I could do this on my own.

Lauren 21:03
They were like, maybe nervous and wanted to do it with a friend.

Tylee 21:08
Totally amazing too, right? Team up with someone and they still had a good time. It was just like, Oh, now that I see how this works, I would definitely do my own. You know, that was probably the biggest one from the staff. And then the students. It was all very, very, very positive. And most of them were like, Oh, we wish there were more spots in sessions.

Lauren 21:31
Yeah, how did you decide were there ones that were like really popular, and you had to give someone their second choice or like how did that work?

Tylee 21:37
So we we use our like student information system to do all the signups and we are able to make it so that it closes when it’s full, so that this just has to pick their second choice, because when we first did this, like five or six years ago, we did it through Google Forms. And we would have to do the second and third choices. And it was like, impossible.

Tylee 22:02
And how do you decide like who, you know, do you go by? Who signed up first? Or do you go by grade? And so I just remember that being a nightmare. So shout out to another team, like our tech team for this was amazing, because they were able to help me put together a form that would, it was almost like they were like buying tickets to something, they would pick their quantity. And then it would close if it filled up.

Lauren 22:31
There’s this many slots left and you better log in on the day that I told you, the signups are happening if you want your first choice.

Tylee 22:37
And actually this time, I was able to make a very funny joke, or I thought it was funny. I was like the Taylor Swift of our student information system. It actually like broke the system nationwide, for a little because of how many kids like went to log on at the same time. We use bear across and I it’s you know, it’s a great system for everything we do, but like Bear cross call our tech team, and they were like, um, so we’re gonna, we don’t know, like what you’re doing. But like, we’re gonna need you to like, pause it for a second, because we are seeing like issues across the nation.

Lauren 23:18
And you’re like, we’re just in our wellness day era. I don’t know, what is

Tylee 23:23
going on. And they fixed. Everything was fixed very quickly, but it was just like, oh, my gosh, I you know, I feel pretty powerful right now.

Lauren 23:36
But that’s great advice to like, not try and do this by hand. And I mean, your school is not huge, huge, huge. So there might be some schools who are trying to do this, that would be great advice. Like, don’t do this on paper, don’t do this with a Google Form. Try and get some sort of system where it registers the slot. Even signup genius is free. And I think you can limit the amount of slots in it.

Tylee 23:56
Yeah, yeah, I would say I mean, like I said, we did it through Google form, and we got it done. And if we needed to do it, we could do it again. But this was just a lot easier when it came to like making sure things closed, and it didn’t, other than it breaking down for a little bit there. It didn’t ever, like put it overboard or anything like that. It worked really well. And then it makes rosters for the staff that are running it. So that worked out really nice.

Lauren 24:27
That’s perfect. And then you have an even number of people or you don’t have you know, hundreds of kids show up for one thing and zero kids show up for the other where they’re the right amount of sessions and students that there were sessions or there weren’t sessions that you had to close because they didn’t have enough people or it really just kind of all filled up.

Tylee 24:46
We did not have any sessions that didn’t at least have one student. And those sessions that were like maybe a little bit lower in numbers were ones that were totally fine to have low numbers like silent reading or something like that, where a loan number didn’t affect it. And there were a couple, like silent reading options.

Tylee 25:09
So you know, where one might have had like, eight, the other one had like, you know, two, but those teachers just combine them. And then there was two that were more to do with like games and like group games. And together, they made a bigger group. And it was easier to play the game. So we just combined them. But other than that we didn’t like each session like totally filled up or got close. And on the day of we only had, we have about 1100 students.

Tylee 25:21
That’s bigger than I was thinking,

Tylee 25:42
I was thinking 1072 or something like that. I think we only had about 80 kids that didn’t sign up for anything. And then, you know, of those 80 that day, maybe like 40 showed up like the other party just like didn’t come to school that day. And so we had to find sessions, and most kids were like, very, okay with going to wherever they just like, didn’t choose or, you know, they didn’t care, but then I checked in with a lot of them, because I just wanted to do that. And most of them seem to have a very fun day. And it was very exciting for them.

Lauren 26:19
That’s great. When you look at your wellness day as a whole, I’m guessing you’re gonna keep doing it. How do you feel like students benefited from the day when all was said and done?

Tylee 26:30
I think that and we do this on purpose, or you know, we’re we try to be strategic with it, it’s on a wet it. We did it on a Wednesday. So in the middle of a week, we tried to do it where it’s still a little bit warm outside so we can make the the sessions that need to be outside work. But I just think that that break in the week, or even in like that start of the school year hustle and bustle, because it was in like mid September.

Tylee 26:57
You hate to say it, but it’s already so busy in mid September at a school for each grade for different reasons that that sort of break in their normal everyday scheduling is what I see the most benefit for them. And then just like the ability for them to just like, I know, not all sessions are like play-based, but just to see them like play, or like kids just paint like, I mean, one session was it was Van Gogh outside.

Tylee 27:26
And it was painting like with Van Gogh paintings, like just to make it see if you could like paint like them. And the kids that were in session one I saw like, and this is very stereotypical, but like football players that like you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t expect to see them there. And they’re in there, like they’re painting amazing paintings. And you’re just like, This is so great, like, and they’re so focused.

Lauren 27:53
Giving kids an opportunity to be somewhere in the school, or do a hobby or try something new that yeah, maybe they don’t have permission to do that in their normal life, or even the time margin to do that.

Tylee 28:05
Yeah, I think just like the time to give them to be kids. I think it’s very easy to forget, sometimes that high schoolers are still kids, and very much need a break and need lay or need focus on something that’s not college applications or their sport that they do, or their activity or club that they’re so passionate about. I want them to learn that it’s okay to take those types of breaks. And that your sport or your activity, or your college application, or your history homework, or whatever it is, is still going to be there and it’s still you’re still going to be able to get it done.

Tylee 28:50
And you actually probably will be able to do it better now that you’ve exercised another skill or develop something that you never had done before or something like that. So I think that over arching thought is what I really focus on. And like I said, I don’t have any actual like data saying that that’s the case. I don’t know how to, like ask that question. But just from my own observations, I really feel like they’re getting that.

Lauren 29:20
And that’s practice each year or each semester that you do that for launching them out into whatever they do next, like you’re forcing them to stop and pick something or try something new. And you hope that wherever they go, if they go to college next, like they’re going to be in the same high pressure environments where they’re going to have to decide on their own to stop and go pursue something new or try a new hobby, join a club try and activity and you want to like give them the confidence that hey, I did that when I was in high school and it wasn’t that scary. And I went by myself to something and I can do that when I get to college or when I get out in the real world too.

Tylee 29:56
For sure for sure. And I think that they see like, there are teachers who, you know, they only see as a math teacher or a coach, or this, doing these, like, random hobbies or these really cool things that they just never thought or never even knew that they do. And my hope is that they’re inspired by that as well, or just even get to, like, build a relationship with someone that they never got the chance to do before.

Lauren 30:24
Totally, I was gonna say they might not even know that this adult in the building shares a similar interest with them. And now whether they will ever have them for a teacher or not in a big school. Now they know this adult who, you know, like they are gonna pop into that teacher’s classroom and ask them what they’re learning on the guitar or ask them if they’ve gone to see the new anime movie or whatever, like you get to make these opportunities for connections that wouldn’t happen otherwise, with a safe adult in a school.

Tylee 30:53
Yeah, for sure, it’s been really cool to see like, the connections that they’ve made and things like that.

Lauren 30:59
So I think there’s a lot of benefits to this. Anything that you’re going to take from this year, into next year’s wellness day that maybe was a little different from years past?

Tylee 31:10
Well, so this year, we actually get to run, we get to run one in the spring. And having the keynote speaker is a is a nice thing. So we want to continue that. I don’t know if it’ll be where you know, the whole school goes or if we break it up, because sometimes speakers kind of focus on different things with different grade levels, or just like want a smaller group setting or like I said, our schools pretty large. So having them all in like our gymnasium is a lot of kids.

Tylee 31:46
But I think the biggest, and I don’t know if it’s a change, but the biggest thing that I and I think it was a really big positive was that switch in the amount of sort of smaller group sessions that there were. And so I think that I want to push those more than having the larger group.

Tylee 32:04
And even though the larger group ones are, the more, they just tend to be more sporty in nature, but those sort of group activities, they got a lot of buzz, and they had a lot of kids at them. But I think the more that we can have the smaller group, the more connections, we’re going to see the more growth and development of skills that kids maybe never thought that they could I think with that push, we could have even more for kids. But I also don’t want to lose the big ones.

Lauren 32:35
But with 49 different events, and then only choosing two, you could easily do this twice a year, all four years of them being in high school, and they don’t choose the same thing twice. Now, will they? Probably if they really want to go play ultimate frisbee with their friends, yes. But you’re not going to have complaints over there’s nothing to choose from as long as you have staff in the school, you’re always going to have enough events to keep everyone entertained and wanting to try something new.

Tylee 33:02
For sure. And I think that the students share that, you know, like even Oh, I wish we had more than two and you know, but I don’t want them there all day long, like doing eight different sessions. I’m like, that just becomes another school day for you. Right? And so I it seems like they understand why there’s only two. So that’s like, that’s a good point, right? That if we do this two times a year, for all four years, they can choose all those different things that they wanted to do, or new ones that come up.

Lauren 33:34
I love it. Is there anything else that you wanted to add that we didn’t talk about, but you wanted to hit any highlights for for your wellness day?

Tylee 33:42
I don’t know if there’s any, like highlights or anything, I would say that. If it’s something that you’re wanting to do with your school, I think that it, it is like a major feat. And it’s so worth it. And if you can get like a solid amount of people around you that believe in what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Tylee 34:04
But even if you can’t, but you can get like that one or two people or just a couple staff members to run sessions and kind of see what it’s like or if you do it on a different scale where maybe you do sort of how we did it through COVID where we kind of move them through things and then kind of build on it. I think the the payout is worth it.

Tylee 34:27
And you’ll you’ll get buy in it’s it’s a fun day. I mean, like it’s interesting to walk around and watch teachers like play basketball, like full on basketball and play and play these things. And so it’s just so worth it. So if it’s something that you want to do, I say do it. It’s just worth it. It’s worth doing it’s worth trying with your school. By no means was that first time that we tried it perfect. Not even like three weeks ago or four whatever it was now was it perfect.

Tylee 34:56
There’s still so much growth that we’ll have from it. And I think that’s the beauty in it, that it can have the same kind of idea and the same goal, but change so much, even from fall to spring. And, you know, the sessions can change because people are different seasons of their lives, and what they’re interested in, and all of that.

Tylee 35:20
So I just think that it’s worth trying and willing to support in any way if I can, if they have questions or anything, I’m willing to share sort of what, you know, challenges or how creative ideas to try to get through something, you know, I mean, we went as far as like trying to get donations from not even like monetary donations. But like, for one of our yoga sessions, we didn’t have any more yoga mat. So we needed like towels, and a staff member was like, Well, I have five kids, and we go to the beach all summer, like, I have a million towel. So I’ll bring them in. So just like easy ways to find supplies that you wouldn’t just like normally think of.

Lauren 36:06
That’s That’s great encouragement, and great advice for someone who has never done it before to just step out there and start with something because you can always make it better. You can always get feedback and adapt it for your school, your staff, your students. So thanks for that.

Tylee 36:22
Yeah, of course.

Lauren 36:23
Well, thanks for being on the podcast, I feel like this is going to be so helpful and inspiring to counselors to think, you know, what is a large scale event that I could do for my students, and staff that would benefit everyone, and maybe just be something different that they hadn’t considered before. And you gave us some great things to think about even just logistically, like how you made it happen. And hopefully, it’ll get their wheels turning on how they can bring it to their school and do the same thing.

Tylee 36:47
Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. I was you know, it’s something I’m very passionate about. So I’m glad I got to talk about it. But thank you so much for having me on the show.

Lauren 36:57
Are you totally inspired now because I know that I am. If you have questions specifically for Tylee. I’ve linked her Instagram handle over in the show notes. So head over and send her a DM and while you’re at it, send me a DM and tell me that you listen to this episode. I want to know what your next steps are around planning an event like this.

Lauren 37:16
I’ll see you next week for our 100th Episode. Get excited. 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 counselor clique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcast so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique. That’s C-L-I-Q-U-E. I’ll see you next week.