Online Course for School Psychologists

Do you feel isolated? Are you looking for a practical way to stay connected with a group of dedicated school psychologists who are in the same situation?

Are you always “on”? Are you ready to learn how to practice positive productivity and self-care so you can “shut it off” on evenings and weekends, GUILT FREE?

Do you need help getting organized? Do you want to hit the professional reset button with an easy-to-follow plan so you have the time to focus on more than just testing and writing reports?

Are you ready to trade writing reports alone or on your precious weekends for quality one-on-one time with students, parents, and teachers at work and stress-free weekends with your friends and family?

Are you ready to be proactive and recharge for the new school year by putting in some time reflecting on what in your job is malleable and what requires a mindset change?

Are you just getting started as a school psychologist and want to keep from getting overwhelmed by the steep learning curve?

No matter what stage in your career you are in, do you want to get expert advice and connect to colleagues who can inspire and support you along the way?

7 on-demand video modules available immediately to watch at your own pace
The Thriving School Psychologist Kit: Over 50+ pages of downloadable tools to streamline your workflow and optimize your job satisfaction
NEW BONUS! Up to 12 hours of NASP-approved CPD credit at no additional charge!

ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT

10 months access to a confidential closed Facebook group with access to peer support, feedback, new ideas, and collaboration contests as you work toward your personal work satisfaction goals
10 live online video Q&A sessions with Dr. Branstetter and a cohort of peers to personalize and problem-solve your unique work situation
Additional self-study CPD units toward NCSP certification renewal

Hi, I’m Dr. Rebecca Branstetter, author of The School Psychologist’s Survival Guide and founder of the Thriving School Psychologist.

I have tested students in janitor’s closets and elevator shafts. I have spent my days running around, frazzled, and putting out emotional fires all day long. I have ruined soooooo many weekends writing assessment reports. And I have been so stressed about the day-to-day hassles of school bureaucracy that I became that school psychologist I never thought I’d be—cynical, burned out, exhausted, and feeling like my skills were being wasted. Yes, I admit, I've cried in my car on the way home from work and fantasized about quitting. Even though I was super organized, I could never successfully manage my insane caseload. I felt frustrated and disillusioned with the career I chose.

After becoming a parent, I realized my stress was going to be my child's stress. I knew that I was not going to be able to be a happy, emotionally healthy parent and sustain my crazy stress-driven career as a school psychologist. So I dove into the research on the science of job satisfaction vs. burnout and gathered tips about streamlining workflow and coping with the demands of the job from thousands of other school psychologists.

Because of the TSP Collective, my evenings and weekends are MY evenings and weekends. I completed 90% of my psychological evaluation reports at work this past school year, which meant MUCH more time for my family and friends.

The feeling that I should be writing reports instead is GONE. The guilt from spending time writing reports when I could be enjoying life is GONE. And if I’m being honest, this past school year was by far my most productive year yet. I got more kiddos tested and more reports done than I ever have, and that wouldn’t have been possible with the old habits I had. Thank you!!!

- Jess S. (Georgia)

Streamline your workflow with school psychologist specific time-management hacks. You got into this profession to work with kids, not spend hours writing reports and filling out paperwork! This module teaches you how to streamline your assessment work flow to free up time to be with kids, parents, and staff, doing interventions that positively impact the school community.

Together we will explore:

• The 10 best time-saving "hacks” for managing paperwork, reports, and heavy caseloads without sacrificing quality.

• Why traditional time-management techniques fall short when you work in schools and how to work smarter, not harder and longer (and how to say goodbye to report writing on evenings and weekends!).

• Specific data-driven strategies to reduce your assessment caseload (so you are seen as a resource for intervention instead of a “gatekeeper” to services).

• How to use The Year Planning Guide and The Organized School Psychologist Checklist to build out sustainable organizational systems to shave off hours of unproductive "time sucking" activities.

• Access to one Data-Based Techniques recorded webinar from Schoolpsych.com for 1.0 NASP-Approved CPD credit so that you can streamline your data collection and report writing using technology.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.5 hours in duration for 1.5 NASP-Approved CPD credits. Also includes access to one Data-Based Techniques recorded webinar from Schoolpsych.com for an additional 1.0 NASP-Approved CPD.

Automate your reports without sacrificing quality. The number one complaint from school psychologists is the amount of time writing assessment reports, which takes away from the rewarding part of the job—working directly with kids, teachers, and staff, and doing hands-on interventions. This Module teaches you how to write quality, consumer-driven reports in less time. Work smarter, not harder!

Together we will explore:

• The most powerful proven methods for finishing your reports during your work day.

• The one critical change to your work habits that will make report writing more efficient and less taxing (especially those dreaded parts of the report!).

• Section-by-section report time savers and templates from the TSP Google Drive so you can have a personalized bank of high-quality report templates.

• How to tailor the "No More Weekend Report Writing Guide" to your personal situation so you can establish solid work habits and mindsets that will reduce or eliminate your unpaid weekend work time.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.5 hours in duration for 1.5 NASP-Approved CPD credits. Access to a second Data-Based Techniques recorded webinar from Schoolpsych.com for an additional 1.0 NASP-Approved CPD credit is included in this module.

Break the "Test-IEP-Repeat" burnout cycle. I’m about 1000% sure that none of us got into this job to be a gatekeeper to special education services! We got into this profession to help struggling students when they need it most. This Module teaches you how to analyze your referral stream to uncover patterns that create over-referring for testing (and build out your MTSS efforts to address needs earlier!)

Together we will explore:

• How to engage in prevention and intervention activities when you feel like you literally have NO time.

• How to use the Referral Analysis Worksheet to see where the majority of your referrals come from, your "hit rate" for eligibility, and what unserved need is driving referrals that you can address outside of special education.

• Top 3 consultation strategies for school psychologists to use in pre-referral meetings to shift the lens from "YOU need to test this student" to "WE need to problem-solve together."

• How to leverage and create supports at your school to reduce caseload, “Finding Resources for Students with No Additional Funding Guide" so that you can provided SEL and academic services to students without a big grant or special funding.

• How the MTSS Intervention Pyramid Consultation Tool can help you identify gaps in your Tier 1 and 2 services at your school sites to find areas to improve (which ultimately reduces your referrals for assessment and increases your involvement in prevention).

*This presentation is 1.75 hours in duration for 1.75 NASP-Approved CPD credits. Module includes facilitation with guest lecturer Lainie Sgouros, M.A., (University of California, Berkeley), Credentialed School Psychologist in California, Arizona, and Missouri.

Hone your consultation skills and protect your energy. When I entered the field as a school psychologist, I was grossly underprepared for the amount of time I would be spending navigating the complex relationships of the job with adults. This Module will teach you how to effectively use consultation tools to diffuse emotionally charged situations, break through resistance during consultation, and help adults change their lenses from “The problem is within the child and you need to test him” to “What can we do now to support the child?”

Together we will explore:

• Four essential strategies for effective consultation with teachers, so you can spend more time in intervention and prevention than in testing children once they have “failed enough” to need to be tested.

• How to deal with “Negative Ned” or “Naysayer Nancy” when consulting, using a new framework for understanding resistance that will transform and enhance your consultation with parents and teachers.

• How to avoid energy-sucking toxic relationship traps at your school site and put on your "psychological hazmat suit" to protect your positive energy.

• How to use the “The School Psychologist’s Consultation Cheat Sheet” with powerful scripts to address the top questions/concerns school psychologists have to field in consultation.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.75 hours in duration for 1.75 NASP-Approved CPD credits.

Expand your counseling and therapeutic assessment skills. I had this fantasy when I started out in school psychology that I would spend time counseling students in a nice office with ample play therapy and art supplies. Then, I realized quickly that a) I didn’t have an office and b) I was going to be testing and writing reports all the time. My “counseling” time was always crisis counseling. In this Module, you will analyze your current caseload reality and learn ways to increase therapeutic one-on-one student time into your day.

Together we will explore:

• How to build counseling in your day, even if your primary role is only assessment, using 3 techniques of “therapeutic assessment.”

• How to use the “School Psychologist’s Therapeutic Toolkit” for easy-to-implement activities you can do without a lot of training or time in several modalities (e.g. mindfulness, CBT, solution focused, play therapy, crisis counseling).

• Easy ways to run therapeutic groups, even if you don’t have any experience running groups or time to plan for them.

• How to start small and scale up so that you are spending more time directly supporting students instead of just writing about them in your assessment reports.

• 10 Powerful and easy to implement counseling activities withThe Counseling Checklist so that you can figure out the feasibility of individual and group counseling at your school site and how to garner resources and support to start or improve counseling services as a school psychologist.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.5 hours in duration for 1 .5 NASP-Approved CPD credits.

Learn how to make self-care a habit during the day. If you’re a new or early-career school psychologist, chances are you may be overwhelmed by the steep learning curve and flood of new information about how to apply best practices in a less-than-ideal situation. If you’re a seasoned veteran, it may be that you have a relative handle on the job demands but are feeling ineffective, exhausted, and cynical. In this Module, you will do a "control audit" and learn what about your current role is changeable and how to cope with what is not.

Together we will explore:

• How to "shut it all down" at the end of the day and prevent overworking or overthinking after school hours.

• Why “fight and flight” is an outdated model of how to cope with on-the-job-stress, and how you can immediately implement the new “Science of Burnout” strategies to reduce stress.

• Why self-care is NOT enough...and what the science of self-compassion can teach school psychologists about the most powerful antidotes to burnout.

• Specific, day-to-day, and practical strategies for remaining engaged and positive during the most stressful parts of the job.

•What your personal "burnout trap" is using The Burnout Analysis Guide so that you can pinpoint "school psych-specific" behavioral and mindset shifts to escape the traps.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.0 hour in duration for 1.0 NASP-Approved CPD credit.

Expand your role to do passion projects. Ever wonder how some school psychologists have the staying power to be in the career full time for 30+ years until retirement? Well, I interviewed them to find out! In this Module, you will learn their secrets to long-term career sustainability and healthy work-life balance.

Together we will explore:

• The Top 5 things veteran school psychologists know about career sustainability and how you can apply them to your career now before it's too late.

• How to carve out more time for passion projects that expand your role and fill you up!

• How to use the Thinking Outside of the Box tool to make a strategic plan to expand your role in your current district that gets you energized and excited to go to work.

• What to do when you feel like your district will never make any changes.

• What the science of happiness can teach us about how to have long-term career satisfaction and a healthy work/life balance.

*This presentation by Dr. Branstetter is 1.0 hour in duration for 1.0 NASP-Approved CPD credit.

Do you want to turn INFORMATION about thriving into actual TRANSFORMATION in your daily life? Many of us "know" that we need to take better care of ourselves and prioritize our learning and professional growth, but don't carve out the time to actually do it.

That's why I studied the science of habit formation and built in two ways you can keep moving forward in the course, even during the busy school year.

Every module includes:

• A science-backed practice for building self care in your day--that can be done in just 10 minutes a day! Using the “The School Psychologist’s 10-minute Burnout Prevention” Tool, you will get 7 practical ways to turn information about positive psychology into action (and then you can teach your students and staff how to do it too!)

• Each month, there are prizes for completing the modules. These "Collaboration Contests" are fun and low-key....when you finish a module, you're entered to win cool School Psych swag, resources for your students, time-saving apps, and more!

What does watching the modules "on-demand" mean? Is this a work at your own pace kind of thing or do I need be available at certain times to be available to watch the trainings?

This is a work at your own pace PD program. You have a total of 10 months to watch the modules from when you enroll. The online modules are on-demand (not live) and you can watch at any time convenient to you. The only “live” part is the Q&A calls. But you do not have to attend them live. You can watch the recordings at another time if you wish.

Do I have to show up live on the monthly video Q&A sessions to participate? What if I miss them?

You might set aside time to come to the Q&A session and then something comes up. Not to worry! You can submit a question in advance my team and I will answer it live and put it to the "mastermind" of the other school psychologist participants for their input. Then, since the Q&A live video sessions in are recorded and stored in your online portal, your can listen to them at your convenience.

I’ve been a school psychologist for a while. Will the strategies be new for me?

I always joke that one year of being a school psychologist is a “dog year” of new learning. So, I’ve been a school psychologist well over 140 years! Seriously though, you can learn new strategies all the time. The course will give you new ideas, as well as help you with the mindset to modify what you are already doing to make needed changes.

The longer we are in the field without taking time to learn new things, we can get entrenched in our ways of doing things, feel hopeless to make change, and get burned out. Think of the course like a re-boot and a way to re-energize your passion for the job and protect yourself from burnout. There are also so many new tech tools that we can use to streamline our workflows (even if you are not super tech savvy). There are webinars in the course that share tools ranging from novice ("Tech scares me!") to advanced ("I'm practically an Excel genius") that will work for you!

I’m still in graduate school. Is this course applicable to me?

I wish I had this course when I was in my internship year! There are so many “unwritten” rules in the job that are not covered in coursework. This course will give you a preview of what to expect in the job and ways to hit the ground running with the right mindset and behaviors to be efficient, engaged, and avoid the pitfalls of burnout early in your career. However, the course does not count as supervision and is not a substitute for university training (see Course Disclaimer below).

Can I earn continuing professional development credit for participating?

Yes! The course is eligible for up to 12 National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)-Approved CPD credits with the opportunity for additional self-study CPD units toward NCSP renewal available. In partnership with SchoolPsych.com, participants have the option to submit proof of participation in any of the Modules to earn credits. NASP-approved credits count toward renewing the NCSP, and in some districts, CPD units can even be used for salary advancement. Participation in CPD activities within the course is totally optional (but hey, why not? There's no additional charge and it's super easy--just watch the modules, take a short quiz, and boom! CEUs.)

Does this course meet the requirement for NASP's new criteria for NCSP renewal for 3 hours in equity, diversity, and inclusion?

One of your elective webinars from schoolpsych.com can be used towards this renewal criteria for one NASP-approved CEU. Two additional self-study units can be earned by participation in Zoom workshops where we highlight how to select and implement culturally affirming SEL and MTSS practices.

Are these the same strategies that are covered in the book, The School Psychologist’s Survival Guide?

The School Psychologist’s Survival Guide is a jumping off point for the course, but the material will not be redundant. The concepts covered may overlap, but the live course is designed to extend, apply, and refine your practice of the concepts with the ongoing support from Dr. Branstetter and your team of like-minded colleagues. Additionally, there are a number of updated strategies due to the boom of technological tools since the first edition was published. All of the PDFs and Power Tools are brand new!

I feel like my work situation is unique. Will this course be flexible enough to apply to me?

The beauty of this course is that the concepts are delivered in engaging, interactive webinars, and there is access to Dr. Branstetter and a cohort of school psychologists across the country with different viewpoints and expertise to share. All participants will have the closed Facebook group with the support of Dr. Branstetter as well as colleagues to bounce ideas off of and learn from one another.

Can I get my district to pay for this course?

Many districts do have funds for professional development that can be used to support school psychologists. Please have your director email sarah@thrivingstudents.com for information about using a purchase order to pay for you to take the course. Discounts are available for 5 or more school psychologists participating in the course.

Do I have lifetime access to these course modules?

No. The TSP course is designed to be completed in 10 months. This is to avoid procrastination so you can take control of your career satisfaction during this unique opportunity to step back and reflect on your career. I don't want you to buy the course and let the strategies languish in your "one day when I have time" folder. This keeps all of us moving towards thriving and not just surviving!

How does the payment plan work? Is it a monthly subscription I can cancel at any time?

You can purchase the course in a one-time payment at a discounted rate, or spread the payment over the course of 10 months. If you opt for the payment plan, it is NOT a "monthly subscription" model. It is a way to break up the payments if you cannot pay one lump sum. There are no refunds after 30 days from purchase. Individual modules and tools cannot be purchased or viewed separately because the course is an entire transformational experience, and each module builds on and compliments the next.

How do the Collaboration contests work?

Accountability partners and fun contests are already built into the course, so you can keep forward progress and apply what you learn in the modules to your life. Basically, there are cool prizes for keeping up with the modules! In this program, you will post your progress in the Facebook forum to be entered to win. Then, winners are announced on the Q&A calls. This structured support will help you keep forward progress (and have a little fun too!).

Imagine if you could stay connected with a community of school psychologists, improve your time management, and foster self-care during challenging times…

Imagine if you could...

Leave your workbag of files AT WORK every afternoon and be done for the day...guilt and worry free.

Be more than a "testing machine" so you actually have time to help kids when they really need it.

Get a daily dose of connection with school psychs who are also positive-minded and interested in expanding their roles beyond testing.

Have "turn on a dime" support and fresh ideas from school psychs across the country...for whatever new challenge crops up for you.

Have access to a curated Google Drive of "Done-for-You" templates and downloadable SEL tools so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Have a personalized self-care action plan with strategies that you can actually do ON the job, where the stress is actually happening.

You can make a big impact in the world being a champion for students, feel energized to go to work, and have a life outside of work too.

INTRODUCING...

The Thriving School Psychologist Collective™!

An online course and professional learning community just for school psychologists

WHAT WILL I HAVE ACCESS TO?

HERE'S WHAT I'VE LEARNED IN MY RESEARCH

Change is possible.

SEE WHAT WE WILL LEARN TOGETHER IN THE THRIVING SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST COLLECTIVE!

Join Me and Your Virtual Community in The Thriving School Psychologist Collective™!

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