Music and Counseling

I recently went to a counseling conference that my large, urban district put together. It was amazing!!! Two fellow counselors in our district shared a pretty good presentation on using music in counseling. Being a past Kinder and 1st Grade teacher, I often used songs in the class and just sang my lil' heart out! I had used a couple of songs in counseling and I would love to share some with you! I know there are A LOT of good ones out there but these two happen to be my FAVS. These can be used in guidance or small group.....even individual!

I have actually used this with a Friendship group! Along with that we used the Ah-mazing book above Girls in Real Life Situations which I use quite often. You can find it on Amazon for about $38 but it is SO worth it!!

We looked at the lyrics and discussed what we thought she could be talking about (bullying, girl drama, mean friend, boyfriend/girlfriend trouble).  We then talked about a time in our lives when someone made us feel that way. What did we do? How did we feel? It was a great conversation starter for the group!
(NOTE: some of the latter part of the lyrics are a bit inappropriate for my elementary kiddos so I cut the song short and didn't put those lyrics on their sheet...always listen to the song and read the lyrics FIRST. I didn't show the youtube videos, I just played the song and they had a copy of the lyrics)!

Another song that I think is great for counseling is "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. I had planned on using this song during Character Counts week. My plan that seemed so perfect in my head was that the school would come out of their classes and make a chain of kindness and character while the song played on the intercom. It didn't exactly turn out as planned due to a fire drill and some other events that day but I hope to do it next year!

And before I go, I have to share my goodies from the counseling conference that I went to...I am still figuring out the Kimochi but it seems like fun! And can you believe I didn't have these books? It should be against the law for a counselor to not  have these...haha! I hope to make some fun activities to go with these stories soon!

 Thanks for stopping by and please don't forget to follow and like The Stylish School Counselor on facebook...what are some songs you use in your counseling program???