Dr. Jen Clifden
Relational Health Researcher | Educator | Burnout Preventionist
The Light You Cast™
Nurturing & Protecting
Our School Counselors
Our school counselors are passionate, caring, and empathic people who lead, advocate, and create systemic change to ensure equity, access, unconditional positive regard, and safety for all students.
According to the ASCA Ethical Standards for Professional School Counselors, school counselors have Responsibilities to Self to monitor their emotional and physical health to ensure optimal professional effectiveness, recognize the potential for stress and secondary trauma, seek consultation from experienced school counseling practitioners and/or others when needed, and sustain healthy relationships and manage boundaries with those in their care.
The Light You Cast™ for School Counselors is designed to:
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Assist school counselors in monitoring and managing their physical, emotional, mental, and soul health
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Increase school counselor awareness of early warning signs for secondary trauma and burnout
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Increase school counselor mental, emotional, and soul heath wellness practices
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Nurture the foundations of school counselor relational health while enacting protective boundaries for the self and those in their care
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Increase counselor support network for managing impact of secondary trauma and burnout
What We Know About
School Counselor Burnout
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School counselors are at higher risk for experiencing burnout because of their multiple job demands, including paperwork, parent conferences, school-wide testing, large caseloads, and requests from administrators, and other factors such as role ambiguity and limited occupational support (McCarthy & Lambert, 2008; Young & Lambie, 2007).
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48% of mental health workers report experiencing high levels of emotional exhaustion in their current role (Oddie and Ousley (2007).
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Unchecked and accumulated stress in one’s professional life can reach a destructive tipping point where what innocuously begins as an “occupational identity crisis” for the school counselor generalizes to their entire self-concept (Vandenberghe & Huberman,1999).
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School counselors experiencing significant manifestations of secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout provide reduced quality of service to their clientele because burnout relates to lower productivity, turnover intention, and a lowered level of job commitment (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001).
Core Restoration Practices
The Light You Cast™ for School Counselors curriculum integrates healing-centered design, adult Social and Emotional Learning theory, interpersonal neurobiology, trauma-responsive care, and attachment theory with restorative mind-body-soul practices, so to cultivate the 3 R's of school counselor mental, emotional, and soul relational health and personal well-being:
REST
Healing Pillar
Regulate Nervous System | Restore Rhythm
of the Body
Engage trauma-informed, body-centered "pressure relief valve" practices that harmonize, soothe, and regulate the mindbodysoul system.
RESTORATION
Healing Pillar
Making Meaning | Integration
Consciously metabolize
mental and emotional stress through our signature cognitive - behavioral Burn Clean Process to build resilience, self-confidence, mental agility, emotional literacy, and behavioral patterns that align with core worth and values.
REVITALIZATION
Healing Pillar
Connection with Others
Cultivate social intelligence and relationship skills to see, sense and respond to another's behavioral cues without taking it personally while creating resonate relationship patterns where others feel seen and safe.
Core Burn Clean Cycle
The Light You Cast™ for School Counselors illuminates a cyclical process that generates regenerative mental and emotional energy over time where the caregiver heals and becomes more of one's self through the process of helping others.
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"After learning TLYC practices, I now go home after work tired, but happy and grateful.
There is a big difference between being tired and being burnt out."
Hight School Counselor
Our Restorative Healing Process
RECOGNITION
Validate the caregivers experience of being called to a relationship-based profession that is intimately connected to the core of who they are and acknowledge the need need for sustained and systematic support in monitoring and assessing their physical, emotional, mental, and soul health.
EDUCATION | AWARENESS
Explore the 3 R's of school counselor mindbodysoul healing and health:
REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION; raise awareness of the primary sources of toxic stress in public health caregiving: explore the stages and manifestations of the different expressions of soul sickness: burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, secondary traumatic stress
AWAKENING
Discover and engage trauma-responsive principles, practices, and perspectives to REGULATE and soothe the nervous system so to RELATE to stress in a healthy way in order to cultivate REASON and wisdom from pain, uncertainty, stress, and anxiety.
EMBODIMENT
Experience slow and gentle body-based movement poses designed to melt tension while providing moderate amounts of healthy stress to boost mental and emotional energy, improve balance and body-awareness, and help to reduce inflammation that leads to disease; cultivate brain-health through mindfulness-based visualizations that activate the self-regulatory part of the brain to soothe stress, alleviate anxiety, and over-ride overwhelm.
RESTORATION | RESILIENCE
Learn how to engage the Burn Clean Process, our signature 4 step practice for metabolizing stress into mental strength and agility, emotional health and vitality, value-based self-agency and action, and post-traumatic wisdom.
SUSTAINED SUPPORT
Engage in communities of practice that fosters collective healing and peer support structures that are site-based and sustained over time.
Curriculum
The Light You Cast™ curriculum teaches the science of relationships and is based on:
Healing-Centered Design
Mindfulness
Social and Emotional Learning Theory
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Trauma-Responsive Care
Attachment Theory
On-Demand | Self-Paced Offering
The entire (8) module (4.5 hour) signature curriculum, fully online and self-paced, can be licensed for just you, a school or district school counselor cohort, or the entire school district for ongoing, sustained mental health, emotional resilience, and burnout prevention support.
This online offering is ideal for a PLC format. The video series can be engaged collectively on-site, and the downloadable "Put Into Practice" PDFs facilitate reflective practice and provide a roadmap of strategic integration of the core mental health, emotional resilience, and burnout prevention practices.
The Light You Cast™ ONLINE & ON-DEMAND Curriculum can also be offered to complement and deepen any in-person professional development experiences.
On-Demand | Self-Paced
Statistics
40+
school districts and private schools who have engaged and integrated The Light You Cast™ professional development for all educational caregivers and staff
26,000 +
views of the On-Demand | Self-Paced The Light You Cast™ educational content and yoga/mindful movement videos
17,000 +
hours invested by educational caregivers and staff in their mental health, emotional wellness, body health, and soul well-being through the On-Demand | Self-Paced The Light You Cast™curriculum
8,000 +
educators, school counselors, leaders, and school staff that have invested in their mind, body, and soul health through The Light You Cast™ in-person and on-demand experiences
In-Person Trainings
The Light You Cast™for School Counselors
curriculum is designed to be offered as a series of in-person trainings where they gather as a cohort or group to engage in group learning, peer processing, and collective healing.
This in-persona training can either complement the online, self-paced modules, or it can stand on its own as the in-person professional development experience.
All training sessions include:
Direct instruction on current, evidence-based knowledge and research about burnout, compassion fatigue, stress resilience, and adaptive caregiving.
A trauma-informed, somatic practice that strengthens the parasympathetic nervous system's relaxation response, soothes a busy mind, and reconnects your caregivers with their body.
Beautifully illustrated Put Into Practice take-away PDFs that outline detailed application practices to integrate into one's professional and personal life as a caregiver.
Invitations for personal and peer reflection and connection to deepen integration of practices and perspectives.
Foundations Training
Our Purpose
As a school counselor, you have been called to a relationship-based profession. That means that the relationships you have with those in your care are not only core to your sense of purpose, satisfaction, and effectiveness in your calling, they dramatically influence and impact your overall sense of self and personal well-being. Given that all relationships are a sharing of energy, the primary question we will explore is:
How do you strategically maintain a sense of balance and inner harmony between the opposing forces of giving of yourself (think compassionate and present) while not losing yourself (think burnout and compassion fatigue) in the process?
Our Core Questions
We start with exploring the baseline of being well as a school counselor--
strategically creating energetic balance between giving of care while not losing yourself in process. We then discuss and experience the art and science of establishing healthy boundaries with your time, energy, and attention so to protect your greatest asset as a school counselor-- your presence.
This session sets the foundational concepts of the 3 R's of the School Counselor Burn Clean CycleTM of healing and well-being while we explore these foundational questions:
- Why is burnout and secondary trauma such a high "cost of caring" for school counselors?
- What does burnout do to the mind, body, and soul of the caregiver?
- How and why is burnout linked to depression, anxiety, and PTSD?
- How can I care for myself when I am suffering from burnout and compassion fatigue?
- What is soul sickness, and how do I begin to feel better if I identify with stage 3 burnout symptoms?
- How can I model mental health and emotional resilience to those in my care if I am feeling numb, disconnected, and energetically depleted?
- What can I do today to start engaging the cycle of healing and restoration from soul sickness?
-How can I support those in my care with their well-being and burnout prevention?
In this highly experiential retreat, school counselors will:
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Explore and experience the 3 R's - REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION cycle of school counselor wellbeing
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Engage and experience trauma-informed mind-body healing practices that calm a busy mind and soothe the nervous system so to relieve anxiety and overwhelm
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Assess and reconnect with one's core competencies as a school counselor: core values, core strengths, and core calling
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Gain awareness of the top toxic stressors for school counselors that drive burnout and secondary trauma
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Raise awareness of the (3) stages and manifestations of burnout, secondary trauma, and moral injury
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Learn and engage our signature Burn Clean CycleTM for metabolizing stress to stoke social and emotional intelligence and soul health
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Learn the 3 fundamental aspects of balancing caregiving energy with restoring one's inner energetic wellsprings
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Explore easy to apply boundary setting techniques that protect the caregivers most important assets- energy, attention, and presence
Banishing Burnout
Through Balance and Boundaries
*This foundations training can be offered as a stand-alone professional development session if you are looking for one a one time event.
(1 day) 5-6 hour, in-person, training
or
(2 day) 3 hour, in-person, training
Connect with Jen to learn more and request a customized investment quote for the size of your group
"This work has been immensely valuable to me. As a person who works in the mental health field, I call The Light You Cast curriculum a wheatgrass shot, as it is a condensed boost of all that self-care, mental health training, mindfulness trainings I have learned throughout the years."
Lead School Counselor
4 Core Topics Trainings
(3 hours each)
The 4 core topics trainings are designed a circular curriculum sequence of healing and restoration practices and experiences that build off each other.
Each of the 4 Core Topics Trainings engages the school counselor in increasing their awareness of the early (and not so early) signs and symptoms of the three manifestations of burnout and secondary trauma while we engage them in signature, research-based energetically restorative practices and exercises that metabolize the toxic stressors that lead to burnout into the catalyst for burning clean (mindbodysoul health) and burning bright (increased capacity to shine the light of compassion, empathy, an hope for those in their care).
#1
Managing Your Energy, Not Time -
The Art of Energy Management for School Counselors
#2
Soul Buoys -
The science of hope & the soul of joy
This session explores how to conserve, protect, and stoke a school counselor's two greatest assests - energy & time. This session strategically targets the dis-ease of *emotional exhaustion* so the metabolize that energy into *emotional vitality* The Soul Rx: Explore the #1 stressor for caregivers, time-stress, and learn how to create the "slow in the fast" in one's practice Discover one's personal time-stress triggers that drive burnout and learn an evidence-baed CARE practice for transforming a time trigger into greater presence Engage and experience REST mind-body practices that slow the fast moving mind and body to create a sense of groundedness and stability in the present moment
#3
Detoxing Toxic Stress &
Soothing Shame -
Understanding your Soul Distillation System and how you metabolize soul stress
“Hope is not a wish, but an intention. Most of us do not think of ourselves as heroic agents of change, but if we have enough hope in what we see, then we find the strength to make change happen.” (Ladder to the Light, 2021) This session strategically targets the dis-ease of *depersoanalization* so the metabolize that energy into self-revitalization* The Soul Rx: The science is clear-- we can scientifically and systematically learn how to cultivate hope and joy -- even in the midst of the dark moments of one's calling. In this session, we will Learn how to REST one's attention in the present moment so to cultivate the 5 core competencies of joy - especially in one's calling as a counselor. We will then engage TLYC signature practice for RESTORING hope in the midst of darkness, uncertainty, and disillusionment. You will leave empowered to REVITALIZE your school spaces and relationships with your energized, bright, presence!
#4
Stoking Soul Superpowers -
Compassion, Empathy, and Resonance in Schools
"Healing is a practice. It's not a one-time thing or idea. If I get up and do a bunch of exercises and repeat them, over time my muscles with get stronger. Healing is a practice just like this." (M. Schroedl) This session strategically targets the dis-ease of *low self-efficacy* so the metabolize that energy into *self-confidence and secure self-attachment* The Soul Rx: Our school counselors know better than most that healing is practice, and it requires attention, dedication, and commitment. Yet burnout inhibits a caregiver's ability to turn their healing attention on themselves. In this session, we focus our attention on specific practices that school counselors can leverage THROUGH stressful moments to take the toxicity out of toxic stress so to leverage stress as a catalyst to stoking soul strength, mental health, and self-confidence. This session sets the foundational concepts of Toxic Stress, Trauma Reactions, and Healing. We explore the stress spectrum and create space for the caregiver to self-assess their body's response to the different stressors on the stress spectrum. Explore the toxic stress impact and it's connection to trauma: -What is toxic stress vs. healthy/productive stress? How does toxic stress create trauma in the body? -What is productive/healthy stress? -What are the different stages of a trigger? Discover one's personal triggers that drive trauma reactions and learn an evidence-baed H.E.A.L practice for transforming a trigger into healing, insight, and mental health Explore the 4 models of Attachment and reflect on how trauma resides in the nervous system Engage and experience RESTORATIVE mind-body practices that settle and safeguard the body and befriend the nervous system
“It’s critical to realize that this epidemic of compassion fatigue is a shared responsibility. Individuals are not going to ‘resilience their way’ out of this." Oana Tomescu, MD This session strategically targets the dis-ease of *emotional exhasution so the metabolize that energy into *emotional vitality* The Soul Rx: We believe that the calling to be a school counselor is about care and healing for the communities they serve, School counselors can learn strategies, perspectives, habits, and ways of being in relationship to stress and PTSD that stoke self-witnessing, self-compassion, and unconditional positive regard. Compassion for the self begets compassion for those in one's care. Compassion heals burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue. This session sets the foundational concepts of Relationship Revitalization and Compassionate Caregiving: - Learn and practice the 3 core elements of self-compassion while exploring how self-compassion has protective properties that stave off secondary trauma and compassion fatigue - Explore the difference between compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma - Experience the C.A.R.E healing module for revitalizing relationships based on deep listening and empathy - Discover one's personal triggers that drive compassion fatigue - Learn an evidence-based C.A.R.E practice for strengthening healthy relationships and social connections in the workplace where all feel safe, significant, and valued - Engage and experience REVITALIZING mind-body practices that activate the "soul nerve" and drive connection and resonance with those in your care.
Certificate of Completion
Earn a Certificate of Completion for total number of "clock hours" engaged in the in-person trainings and/or the on-demand, self-paced curriculum (4.5 clock hours) to submit to one's accrediting body for Continuing Education Credit consideration.
You can create sustained and ongoing burnout and compassion fatigue prevention at your site!
The Light You Cast™ Soul Circles is where caregivers gather to engage in a community practice of the core aspects of The Light You Cast™ curriculum. Community gatherings dedicated to creating safe spaces of care for our caregivers is essential to healing. It is impossible to heal from burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral injury alone.
Regulating the nervous system, making meaning of pain and suffering, and connecting with others are the pillars for healing. The Light You Cast™ Soul Circles embodies all three pillars each 90 minute session.
Site-based TLYC Soul CirclesTM embody a salutogenic approach to caregiver well-being. We foster and sustain individual well-being by focusing on collective strengths, hope and possibility, and innate resilience while we critically examine the way systemic and care-based stressors impact us on an individual and a collective level.
Become a Light You Cast™ Soul Circles - Fire Protector Facilitator!
