You’re not overwhelmed because there’s too much work;

You’re overwhelmed because too much of it is not your job.

You're not saying yes because you "lack boundaries".
You're saying yes because, in that moment, saying yes made sense.

And that’s the problem.

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Join our new Skool for School Counselors community

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Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us!

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All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

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This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

You sat in the circle.
You heard the apology.
And you knew… nothing actually changed.

Restorative justice can work in schools- the research supports that.

But the versions most campuses are implementing...

Are something else entirely.

Research describes restorative practices as structured, resourced, and time-intensive.

What most schools are doing is faster, lighter, and handed off.

That's how school counselors end up in the middle of things:

• Facilitating conversations that aren't meant to be rushed
• Trying to facilitate a process you were never really trained to lead
• Knowing the outcome doesn’t match what the promises of true restoration, but not having the language to explain why.

In this episode, we take a hard look at what restorative justice actually requires... and how to know if your campus is falling short.

Because this isn’t just about whether you believe in restorative practices.

It’s about whether what’s happening on your campus even matches what the research is measuring-

And what that means for the role you’re being asked to play.

Referred to in this episode:
Ep. 191, "Your Campus Runs on a Pyramid of Lies"

********

Join our new Skool for School Counselors community

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us!

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

********

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.

There’s a reason the same explanation keeps showing up in every staff meeting, every training, every conversation about struggling students.

It feels good.

Problem is- It wasn’t built on evidence.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs became one of the most widely accepted frameworks in education without ever being meaningfully tested the way we use it.

In this episode, we go back to where the pyramid actually came from, walk through what the research has (and hasn’t) found, and take a hard look at why it spread anyway.

Because if the foundation isn’t solid, it doesn’t matter how good your intentions are.

You’re still building on it.

Referred to in this episode:
Ep. 106, "TPT's Dirty Truths & Why You Need an Evidence-Base"

********

Join our new Skool for School Counselors community

********

Want support with real-world strategies that actually work on your campus? We’re doing that every day in the School for School Counselors Mastermind. Come join us!

********

All names, stories, and case studies in this episode are fictionalized composites drawn from real-world circumstances. Any resemblance to actual students, families, or school personnel is coincidental. Details have been altered to protect privacy.

********

Ready to spend a few days this summer with me, geeking out over school counseling and preparing for your best year ever? Grab your ticket here before this limited-seat event sells out!

This work is part of the School for School Counselors body of work developed by Steph Johnson, LPC, CSC, which centers role authority over role drift, consultative practice over fix-it culture, adult-designed systems and environments as primary drivers of student behavior, clinical judgment over compliance, and school counselor identity as leadership within complex systems.