6 MORE Ideas for Teletherapy and Virtual Counseling sessions

Earlier this week, I hosted a virtual learning PLC session for school social workers, counselors and mental health providers who wanted to find out ways to engage struggling students in the digital space. One of the things we talked at length about what the need to connect coming before any education can begin.

The digital space, which so many of our students are used to using for entertainment, is now turning into, well WORK and for many kids, they couldn’t care less about logging on for school so we need something at least interesting for them to try. This post had 14 ideas that were good for a wrap up, but I added a few more here for an even 20 to keep your students connecting and learning too.

Emotion Scavenger hunt- Choose an emotion from the emotion wheel or from a card deck and have the student find something as quickly as possible that represents that emotion for you.

Do a song analysis-Let the student choose a song, preferably edited, but you can also let them choose from a few edited options you have and analyze the lyrics. Have them pay attention to how they felt before and after the song, what words stuck out, how do they think the person felt while writing it. You can repeat this for several songs during a session to show the power of music.

Create a Google JamBoard- which is basically a virtual collage. Give the students a certain amount of time to create their own jamboard, possibly with some prompt questions and then discuss. You can create one as well and then share and discuss.

Values Card sorting game-This can be helpful when you’re looking for some direction or with children who are a little resistant. This motivational interviewing tool essentially asked children to label certain things by their importance.

Online Uno through the web, which takes the standard board game version and makes it covid friendly. You can add in the EQ twist by connecting the colors with emotions, talk about the WILD card and what happens when we’re overwhelmed by emotions or just play for fun.

View live cams from Zoos-The San Diego zoo has quite a few live cams, but your local facility might have some as well. Whether the kids like animals or not, they can talk about what they think the animals are thinking, how they feel while watching the animals or even what animal they would or wouldn’t want to be.

For more lesson ideas, check out the School Based Session Planner which includes over 300 links to FREE tools and resources from around the web.