Hi, I'm Lydia Caines!

I will be finishing my M.Ed. School Counseling this upcoming December 2024! I graduated with a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Addiction Studies in 2021. I have experience in working with children in behavior therapy as an RBT, as well as working as an in-home support personnel collaborating with therapists for underprivileged children. For the past school year, I completed both my practicum and internship I at a local high school, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I am so excited to work with elementary-aged kids next!

This artifact displays that I adhered to the ASCA standards of ethics by obtaining guardian permission before filming a counseling session with a student.

This artifact is a Columbia suicide screener, which I used with students who may be experiencing suicidal ideations. This screener asses the degree with which a student may be at risk to themselves, and shows us the degree to which we need to intervene.

This artifact is a sample of the mental health booster that I helped give to a group of students. This presentation helped raise student awareness of what mental health and wellness is, and how to remove the stigma and negative assumptions around mental health. This presentation also detailed signs of suicidality, and where to go if a student needs help. This presentation promotes equity among students and staff in the way that mental health and wellness is viewed and discussed. This presentation was sensitive to diversity within the student body, and advocates for promoting positive change in the way mental wellness is viewed socially.

This artifact displays the results of the O*NET Work Importance Locator that I administered to a student before a career counseling session. This assessment identified the student's personal and career strengths, which helped guide the counseling session, and gave the student an idea of what to look for in a career.

This artifact was used in addition to mental health & wellness, in addition to suicide awareness. This assessment was used as a part of the BESS screener, which allowed staff to assess social and emotional barriers and then intervene. I helped to meet with students who may have needed to talk to someone, but not immediately.

This artifact displays the data I took on a student's disruptive behavior during classroom time. This demonstrates the analyzation and data research that was used to determine what sort of supports the student might need.

This artifact demonstrates that I used a relevant technology, Google Forms, to gather new data to develop and enhance school counseling programs, namely a group for making friends.

This artifact displays the promotion of academic development by rewarding good learning behaviors. The reward for completing all of these behaviors was a snack cart and celebrations from the school counseling staff, which I helped to deliver!

This was a 504 review meeting that I attended. In the meeting, we collaborated with the parent and the teacher to figure out exactly what the student needed to succeed, and we consulted with mom to see if any updates needed to be added to the plan.

This artifact demonstrates leadership in that it is a resource guide that I created to enhance the school counseling program by being able to easily and quickly contact stakeholders and others within the community, in order to better support students at school and within the community. 

Case Conceptualization and School Counseling  Treatment Plan
This benchmark meets RESEARCH AND EVALUATION, COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION, as well as DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY AIA standards. 

Final AIA: Internship 2

Benchmark Case Conceptualization & School Counseling Services Treatment Plan
This benchmark meets DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY, ASSESSMENT, as well as COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION AIA standards.

Benchmark Data Presentation Assignment
This benchmark meets the LEADERSHIP, RESEARCH AND EVALUATION, ASSESSMENT, as well as COLLABORATION AND CONSULTATION AIA standards.

Benchmark School Counseling Brochure Assignment
This benchmark meets the LEADERSHIP, ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT, as well as RESEARCH AND EVALUATION AIA standards.

Benchmark Exploring Reliability and Validity Assignment
This benchmark meets RESEARCH AND EVALUATION, ASSESSMENT, as well as LEADERSHIP AIA standards. 

Benchmark Initial Interview Assignment
This benchmark meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION, as well as RESEARCH AND EVALUATION AIA standards.

Benchmark ProEthica: Final Assignment
This benchmark meets FOUNDATIONS as well as DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY.

Benchmark Educational Philosophy in Practice: Prewriting and Peer Review Assignment
This benchmark meets LEADERSHIP, FOUNDATIONS, as well as ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT AIA standards.

Benchmark Quantitative or Qualitative Research Reporting Assignment
This benchmark meets ASSESSMENT as well as RESEARCH AND EVALUATION AIA standards. 

Benchmark Research Proposal Assignment
This benchmark meets ASSESSMENT, RESEARCH AND EVALUATION, as well as LEADERSHIP AIA standards. 

Benchmark Psychoeducational Group Assignment
This benchmark meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION AIA standards. 

Benchmark Critical Incident Paper Assignment
This benchmark meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION as well as FOUNDATIONS AIA standards.

Benchmark Counseling Skills Assignment meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION AIA standards.

Benchmark Final Skills Competency Scale (SCS) Participation Assignment meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION AIA standards.

Quiz: Benchmark Live Supervision Participation meets COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION AIA standards.

Benchmark: Cultural Immersion Project Paper: Research & Events Paper Assignment meets the DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY as well as RESEARCH AND EVALUATION AIA standards.

Benchmark: Cultural Immersion Project Paper: Interview Paper Assignment meets the DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY AIA standards.

Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues in School Counseling Benchmark Ethical Vignette Paper
This benchmark meets FOUNDATIONS AIA standard.


Benchmark Attitudes and Beliefs Reflection Paper
This benchmark meets FOUNDATIONS AIA standard.

Benchmark Essay: Addiction in Adolescence
This benchmark meets the COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION as well as DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY AIA standards.

Benchmark Paper: Developmental Analysis 
This benchmark meets the COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION as well as DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY AIA standards.

Benchmark Paper: Trauma, Development and Spirituality 
This benchmark meets the COUNSELING PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION as well as DIVERSITY AND ADVOCACY AIA standards.

This PowerPoint details the psychoeducational group I facilitated at Jeffersontown Elementary, which covered social skills and healthy friendships.

This PowerPoint details the four-lesson classroom guidance series I presented to ninth grade students at Eastern High School. The series was a classroom requirement, which went over study skills, mental health awareness, as well as the importance of an individualized learning plan.

This PowerPoint details the six-session small group I facilitated at Eastern High School on anxiety and coping skills.

• Prompt #1:– In your own words, summarize how serving in both elementary and secondary schools has contributed to your understanding of the diverse developmental needs of K-12 students, including exceptionalities? What have you learned about how K-12 students differ in their development and approaches to learning? How have you created opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners?

Serving diverse learners with exceptionalities in a counseling framework has helped me understand the wide variety of needs of students. It has helped me anticipate additional supports that may be needed. With some of the exceptional learners I served at the high school level, I was able to aid in obtaining 504 supports for them, as well as aid in additional social supports for diverse learners in a small group I facilitated. Additionally, at the elementary level, I helped adapt the schoolwide classroom guidance lesson for the needs of exceptional learners in the self-contained classroom. It was such a joy to provide the supports that were needed to help them learn!

 

• Prompt #2:– The Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC) states, “The professional counselor recognizes that the client’s beliefs (or absences of beliefs) about spirituality and/or religion are central to his or her worldview and can influence psychosocial functioning.” How have your field experiences contributed to your understanding of the importance of including K-12 students’ religious and spiritual supports, especially if religion and spirituality are valued by the K-12 student?

                In both the high school and the elementary levels at which I served, many students held a wide variety of religious beliefs; some of them held these beliefs very closely, and some loosely associated with a specific religion. Regardless of the students’ specific beliefs, it is important to recognize that all beliefs play an integral part of shaping their self-concept, as well as their outlook on the world. Thus, it is important to keep these beliefs in consideration and their effect on the student’s worldview when counseling them, so as to encourage the student's own understanding instead of imposing one's own. 

 

• Prompt #3– How have your field experiences contributed to your understanding of the importance of including the K-12 student's family, community, and culture as a source of support?

                If there is one thing that I learned in both the high school and elementary levels is that when a student’s family, community, and culture are all involved and on the same page, the student is much more likely to experience academic and social-emotional success. This can be seen especially when attempting to put support in place for a student who is struggling. At the elementary level, I often attended ARC meetings and when all of the staff and parents were on the same page, then the student was able to receive the support needed. If not, it made the process much more difficult and the path to success was delayed. Thus, the importance of including the wider community surrounding the student cannot be overstated.

 

• Prompt #4– How has your field experience strengthened your professional identity as a school counselor? What aspects of the school counselor's role, scope of practice, and the referral process have you learned from collaboration and consultation?

                My field experience has helped shape my professional experience as a school counselor by giving me a wide variety of experiences serving students of all ages and thus has made me much more confident that I am capable of serving a school environment well. I have learned that advocacy when it comes to the scope of practice is imperative, as there are often many responsibilities that need to be completed that are often laid upon the school counselor because there is no one else who is willing to do them. In the same way, addressing a student’s long-term needs is not part of the school counselor’s scope of practice, and thus the referral process is extremely important.