Monroe Elementary Counseling

Welcome back, Hornet Families! Please check this page often to see what's happening in the school counseling department. We look forward to working with your students throughout the school year. If you have any questions regarding counseling services for your child please feel free to reach out to us.

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Counseling Tips

Each month, this section will highlight some parenting tips to help your student be successful. Going back to school can cause a lot of anxiety for our students. Below are some tips adapted from GoZen.com to help ease a student's anxiety.

Nine Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try      

Most parents hate to see their child scared or nervous, and want to help.  But it can be hard to know what to do.  If your child is ever anxious about going to school, here are nine tips to try with your student.

1. Stop reassuring your child

Instead of simply saying “trust me, it will be okay,” try the FEEL method:

Freeze: pause and help your child take some deep breaths to calm down

Empathize: Name the feeling your child is displaying. They want to know you get it.

Evaluate: When your child is calm, discuss possible solutions with them

Let Go: of your guilt – you’re a great parent, teaching the tools to manage worry.

2.  Worrying can be good!

It’s normal to worry. Worrying has a purpose – it rings alarm bells to protect us from danger!  Sometimes our body sets off false alarms, but this kind of worrying (anxiety) can be managed with some simple techniques.

3.  Bring the worry to life

Use a toy to create a worry character with a silly name. This character helps protect your child but can also get out-of-control sometimes.  Practice role-playing – have your child talk some sense into the worry as if it was a real person.

4.  Be a thought detective!

Teach your child to recognize those out-of-control worries by using the Three C’s:

1. Catch your thoughts: imagine thought bubbles coming out of your head. Pick one and catch it (example: “no one at school likes me”)
2. Collect Evidence: feelings are not facts. Find evidence that either supports or doesn’t support the thought.
3. Challenge your thoughts: Teach your child to have a debate with themselves based on the evidence they’ve collected.  Is the thought they caught really 100% true?

5.  Have worry time:

Schedule 10-15 minutes a day for your child to write down or draw all of his/her worries.  When time’s up, put the papers in a “worry box” and say goodbye to them for the day.

 6.  Change the “what if” to “what is”

Focus on WHAT IS going on in the present – be mindful.  Start by focusing on taking deep breaths.

 7. Avoid avoiding

Help your child face his/her fears by trying a little at a time until they can reach their goal.

 8. Make a calm-down checklist:

Teach your child steps to calm down, starting with taking deep breaths.  Remind them to use this checklist, and help them make a poster of it to hang at home.

 9. Practice self-compassion:

To help your child, you must love yourself first. You’re not alone, and you are not to blame.  Let go of the self-criticism and forgive yourself so you can be your child’s champion.