Professional School Counselor Academy
A Day for School Counselors on November 5!
Join Region 7 ESC for the 2026 Professional School Counselor Academy, a vibrant day of professional learning, connection, and encouragement designed specifically for school counselors.
This year's theme, Sprinkle Kindness Around Like Confetti!, celebrates the impact counselors make every day through meaningful relationships, encouragement, resilience, and support.
Denise Toro
Meet Denise
Denise Toro is the creator of The Rapping School Counselor and a school counseling leader who helps PreK–12 schools and families build resilience, confidence, and emotional wellness. Her work combines music, movement, relationship-centered practices, and neuroscience-based counseling strategies to help students regulate, reconnect, and thrive.
Fill Your Cup & Flip the Switch
In today's schools, many students, as well as educators, are operating in survival mode. When the brain is overwhelmed, learning shuts down and behavior takes center stage. But what if we could flip the switch?
This high-energy keynote introduces the ROSE Framework, a powerful and practical approach to supporting students from the inside out.
Blending the energy of the Regulation Mixmaster™, a rhythm-driven approach to help students regulate, refocus, and re-engage, alongside Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the Learning Skills Pyramid, this session delivers a fresh and engaging approach to regulation and coping.
Participants will leave with practical tools, consistent language, and ready-to-use strategies to look beyond behavior, build perseverance, and create classrooms where every student can succeed.
Choose What Speaks to You
Explore breakout sessions designed to give school counselors practical ideas, meaningful strategies, and tools they can put to work right away. Additional speakers and topics are still being confirmed, so there's more to come!
A.R.T.ful Conflict Management: The MIC Framework for Navigating Crucial Conversations
Explore practical strategies for navigating difficult conversations with parents, students, and colleagues. Participants will identify their personal conflict style and use the MIC Framework to stay grounded, reduce tension, and keep high-stakes conversations calm, clear, and solution-focused.
Storytime with a Purpose: Using Children's Books in Guidance Lessons
Discover how children's books can become engaging tools for classroom guidance. This session will share book recommendations, lesson ideas, and simple strategies for using stories to teach meaningful social and emotional skills to elementary students.
Additional breakout speakers and topics are still being confirmed. Attendees will receive the complete conference program with session topics, speakers, rooms, and times on the day of the Academy.
No advance breakout selection is required. You'll choose the sessions you'd like to attend at the conference.
See the Kindness in Action
Take a look back at moments from last year's Professional School Counselor Academy.
Learning That Lasts Beyond the Academy
Hear from counselors who have attended previous Professional School Counselor Academy events.
I look forward to this session each year. I always learn something new through the speakers and counselors from other districts.
I learned so much and felt excited about taking what I learned back to my campus.
I plan on using some things this year, but I will also begin planning for next year!
This was possibly the best workshop I have ever attended.
I loved the speakers and walked away with a wealth of great knowledge and ideas.
Ready to Sprinkle a Little Kindness?
Join school counselors from across Region 7 for a day of connection, encouragement, practical learning, and ideas you can take back to your students and campus.
Register for November 5Have questions or need more information? Contact a member of our Counseling Services team below.
