Educator Spotlight: Counselor and Author Erainna Winnett

I am so excited and grateful to have author and counselor Erainna Winnett as a guest on the blog today. Not only is she sharing a little about herself and her journey to becoming an author, but she is giving away 5 signed copies of her book Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High Fives. Read below to be inspired by Erainna and to see how you can have a chance to win!

First, thank you so much for having me as a guest blogger, I am honored to share my story with your readers. I’ve been in education for the past twenty-two years. After fifteen years in the classroom I felt a calling for something more—a deeper way to connect with and help children, which is how I discovered school counseling.

I moved from classroom teacher to school counselor in 2011 and absolutely fell in love. However, I soon discovered there weren’t a lot of up-to-date resources available for school counselors. After hearing me gripe about it for months my husband finally told me to write my own resources. Isn’t it nice to have someone who knows what you need before you do?

And so, I began researching self-publishing and taught myself the basics of publishing a book. To be honest, there were some costly mistakes: the cover for Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High-Fives was redesigned five times—YIKES—before I found one that I felt was ‘right’. Most students didn’t even know their school had a counselor, much less how one could help them.

The first week of school during my second year as a counselor I went into every classroom and read the Mrs. Joyce book. The children loved it and I received many thank-yous from teachers. Needless to say, the following week my office was constantly busy.

I continued listening to my students and knew that I needed to write other books to address individual needs. This launched me into the Helping Kids Heals therapeutic activity book set. I’m thrilled with how well all of these books have been received. Just last week, I woke up to an email from Ireland requesting copies of my books. Who would have ever thought a small-town Texas counselor-author could reach professionals across the ocean?

As educators, counselors are often the least familiar to parents, students and sometimes teachers. I hope my efforts have offered you some tools and helped you appreciate the power of your roles in our children’s lives. And I invite you to continue to add to our community. I wish you luck in the giveaway and hope you are having a relaxing, restful summer. All the best and Happy Counseling. Erainna

Thank you so much, Erainna, for being an advocate for the role of counselors and for using your creativity to provide resources for educators. You can check out a trailer for her book below and also don't forget to take a look at her other resources and books HERE.

If you would like to enter for your chance to win your own signed copy, all you have to do is comment in the post below for one entry. For an extra entry, you can share this link or the link from The Stylish School Counselor on FB and comment that you did in the comments. Good luck! Winners will be announced on the blog on Friday, July 5th!