President’s Letter: Finding My Creativity

Welcome, MSCA members, to a new and hopefully exciting school year!
 
I don’t know about you, but I thoroughly enjoy my summer vacation. It allows me to relax, read and rejuvenate so that I am ready to start the school year full of new ideas, strategies and positive energy that will help our students grow.
 
The theme for the September 2019 issue of the newsletter is creative school counseling, which caused me to reflect on my personal journey of incorporating creativity into my comprehensive school counseling program. I am NOT an artist, can’t sing well, and music is something that I listen to but don’t create, so I didn’t think that I was very creative. It wasn’t until I attended a workshop several years ago with Dr. Ed Jacobs and Dr. Christine Schimmel, associate professors in the counseling department at West Virginia University. Their presentation on creative techniques and impact therapy was engaging, insightful and purposeful. They explained that using props, movement, writing and drawings, and analogies can speed up the counseling process while keeping it focused and concrete. I walked away from this session realizing that I was doing many of these things and that school counselors are very resourceful and creative in many ways. I believe that creativity occurs when new ideas are infused with traditional strategies and methods as a means to develop strong, positive relationships with students. Any creative technique when used wisely and properly to empower students and create a sense of belonging can be a success.
 
Here are a few ideas that may help you become a more creative school counselor:

1. Look around your office. Are the colors welcoming? Do you have paper and markers, fidgets, books and inspirational items like quotes displayed to spark creativity?
2. When updating your old lessons, making sure that they are in proper ASCA format, look for ways to incorporate movement, props and technology.
3. Think of new, innovative ideas to engage your whole school in the school counseling process. For example, create a Kindness Wall where students, parents and staff can write or draw a kind act that they would like someone to do.
4. Attend conferences, workshops and webinars – they may ignite the creativity in you.
5. Collaborate with others – creativity is contagious!

And remember, your MSCA board members are here to support you. Go be awesome!
 
Contact Dr. Laura Jones, MSCA president at president@mscaonline.org.