Welcome to the school counseling program at St. John School. Chloe Shaw, cshaw@st-johnschool.org, our school counselor, works with students in Kindergarten through 8th grade to support their social and emotional development through one-on-one meetings, as well as in group and classroom settings.
As students make their way through school and life, there are many common challenges they may experience during these years. The goal of the school counseling program at St. John is to support students as they navigate these issues. Here are a few common reasons that students and families might contact Ms. Shaw:
- Social skills or friendship problems
- Coping with big feelings
- Home stress or family changes (moving, death, divorce, etc.)
- Behavior concerns
- Resources or referrals to community agencies
St. John School uses the Second Step social-emotional learning program, developed by Committee for Children, to help students in Kindergarten through 8th grade with their social-emotional learning. Second Step is CASEL aligned and helps students develop five main social-emotional learning competencies:
- Self-Management
- Responsible Decision-making
- Relationship Skills
- Social Awareness
- Self-Awareness
RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES
1-On-1 Counseling (All Students) / Self-Referral Form
Ms. Shaw is available to work with students as requested on a goal-oriented, short-term basis. To arrange this service, families may email Ms. Shaw, or fill out the I Would Like to See My Counselor online self-referral form.
COUNSELING REFERRALS
St. John has partnered with Care Solace. If you are looking for counseling for your student or someone in your family, Care Solace can help you quickly find treatment options matched to your needs regardless of the circumstance. Care Solace is a complimentary and confidential service provided to students, staff, and their families by the Archdiocese of Seattle. Care Solace’s team is available 24/7/365 and can support you in any language.
Ms. Shaw can assist you with accessing Care Solace by submitting a referral on your behalf, or you may reach out to them directly:
- Call 888-515-0595
- Visit www.caresolace.com/archseattle and either search on your own OR click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone.
Information on individual treatment providers is gathered by Care Solace based on criteria such as geographic proximity, whether the provider accepts the authorized user’s insurance, and whether the provider is accepting new patients. The Archdiocese of Seattle does not recommend, endorse, promote, or refer to any of the individual treatment providers.
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Social Skills Group Referrals
The list below includes local recommended social skills groups. These groups are very popular and often fill up quickly; however, there is usually a waitlist if you cannot get a space for your child.
SEL RESOURCES
The list below has activities and resources to inspire social-emotional learning at home.
- (K-1st) Life’s Little Lessons is a fantastic digital collection of resources based on the PBS show, “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” It uses Fred Rogers’ social-emotional learning curriculum to teach children how to manage emotions and develop key social skills.
- (K-2nd) Kelso’s Choice, the social-emotional program that we use in all of the primary grades, has wonderful videos and activities to continue learning and practicing how to solve small problems. Kelso’s Choice has also released their entire Willow Pond story series as videos and PDFs. These are fantastic, engaging stories that really reinforce the learning.
- (K-2nd) ClassDojo is a great online resource that has short videos that teach about many different topics such as; moods and attitudes, positive thinking, big challenges, empathy, mindfulness, and more. The videos are short and even come with conversation starters for parents and kids to talk about the message of the video together.
- (K-3rd) The Imagine Neighborhood is a great podcast that talks about feelings. I can’t recommend this podcast enough!
- (K-3rd) Emotional ABCs in a great online resource that families can subscribe to and pay a monthly fee (ranges $10-15/month) to access many social emotional lessons and activities. The lessons focus on social-emotional skills that support school readiness, learning to cope with frustration, and skills to manage impulse control.
- (K-5th) Calm down jars are a wonderful tool to use when you’re upset and need to calm down. Here is a link to a few ways to make them.
- (K-5th) Create a calm down space in your home. Ideas to get you going on what this might look like are here.
- (K-8th) Check out this list of 30 things St. John students can do to practice emotional health.
- (K-8th) Complete the Social Emotional Learning Scavenger Hunt for St. John students! There are 8 tasks that are both silly and fun, but also nurture mental health and well-being.
- (K-8th) Looking for fun and simple ways to spark social-emotional conversations as a family? Print out and play this Family Talk board game, use these 48 Family Conversation Starters during dinner, or do this fun Family Selfie Scavenger Hunt.
- (K-8th) The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has tons of great ideas and activities that spread kindness.
- (K-8th) Make a coping skills fortune teller. If you need some ideas for positive coping skills, check out this list with 100 ideas of healthy coping skills.
MINDFULNESS RESOURCES
Check out the list below for some activities and resources that can help children get started with mindfulness.
- (K-5th) Mind Yeti is one of my favorite mindfulness programs. Check out 19 of their mindfulness videos to stream for free! Videos are usually five minutes or less and focus on mindfulness skills such as; breathing, calming the mind, listening to your body, and focus and attention.
- (K-8th) Go Zen is a program to help kids learn strategies to manage stress and build resilience.
- (K-8th) Looking for an app to de-stress with and practice mindfulness? I recommend Calm and Headspace. See additional recommended mindfulness apps and reviews from Common Sense Media here.
- (3rd-8th) How about some mindful coloring? You can find a PDF of printable mandalas here and more mindful coloring pages here.
- (6th-8th) Spend some time getting mindful in my Virtual Calming Room! There are coloring activities, meditations, journaling prompts, music, and much more!
