The 7th Annual Solution Focused School Conference
Stop Burnout.
Start breakthroughs.
The world’s only Solution-Focused conference for school counselors. Join 1000+ peers October 10–11 and learn how to do more impactful work in less time - without burning out.
2 Full Days of Live Expert Training
16 CEU Hours (8 per day)
Lifetime Access to Recordings
Downloadable Templates & Handouts
Join from Anywhere – 100% Online
Global Peer Network
A Live Streamed Online Event
October 10 & 11, 2025
8:30am to 5pm CST
You became a counselor to help kids.
So why does it feel impossible?
If any of these sound familiar, this conference was made for you...
Managing 500-1000 students
Seeing the same students repeatedly
Buried in administrative tasks
Never have enough time
Expected to do lunch duty and paperwork
Not making lasting progress
Carrying work stress home
Questioning your impact
Losing your passion
You're not alone.
There’s always a way forward... toward the preferred future you imagined when you started this work.
"It truly will help you feel like you can make a difference to kids when working with them, instead of feeling like you are in a rut."
Krystal Fletcher | Friendswood High School
Conference Attendee 2023
What You'll Discover at the Solution Focused School Conference
Real strategies from real counselors who've transformed their daily practice
🔁
From Repeat Visitors
to Empowered Students
Learn how other counselors help students solve their own problems, freeing up your time for students who truly need support.
📈
From Overwhelmed to Impactful
Discover techniques that let you have meaningful impact in brief interactions—strategies that work even with 500+ students.
🧘♀️
From Burnout to Balance
See how practitioners create lasting change without taking stress home or working longer hours.
This conference has already helped thousands of counselors around the world.
You're next.
Meet Your Host... Dr. Linda Metcalf
With more than 30 years of experience, Dr. Linda Metcalf has helped thousands of school counselors discover what actually works - in the real world, with real students, under real pressure. As a former teacher and counselor herself, she knows the challenges firsthand, and she’s built this conference to solve them.
“What started as a vision to connect school counselors with solution-focused strategies has grown into something extraordinary… each year, I’m more inspired by the way counselors are using these tools to create real change, for students and for themselves.”
- Dr Linda Metcalf
Last year’s attendees called it ‘the most practical training I’ve ever attended.’
Designed for Practical Impact. Built for You
Build Resilience, Ensure Safety, Inspire Transformation
💡 Learn
Build a Foundation That Works in the Real World
Gain clear, practical tools and language - strategies you can use immediately with students, parents, and teachers.
🔧 Apply
Put Your New Skills Into Action Right Away
Use real-world scenarios to practice Solution-Focused techniques, and see how they create instant momentum in your school setting.
🌱 Transform
Create Lasting Change for You and Your Students
Walk away with more confidence, less burnout, and a toolkit you’ll return to all year. Plus lifelong access to session replays and a global peer network.
"You will come away with a bag full of strategies and methodology to implement in your school counseling program immediately!"
Sarah Lacefield | Chisholm Trail Middle School
Conference Attendee 2024
Sneak Peek: Your 2-Day Program Lineup
UNSTOPPABLE SCHOOL COUNSELORS
Powerful insights. Practical tools. Fresh perspectives.
🗓 Day 1: Reignite the Spark
Unstoppable: Solution Focused school counselors can change the world!
Linda Metcalf
Everyday, school counselors are sought after for answers to situations that are complex. No matter the situation, the solution focused school counselor is unstoppable in finding a way to unleash the prferred future in every school client. Getting that unstoppable mindset will reward you every day.
SF Student Mentors - Tier 2 Intervention WIN!
Cher Kretz
Learn how to start a student-to-student mentor program, "The Solution Squad," using the "GPS" system. The program teaches students the solution focused approach, builds leadership skills and personal success. Examples of this program in action will be discussed as well as how to involve teachers who see a student needing engagement.
Reaching Students Where They Are: Unlocking the Superpower of Creativity in SFBT for School Counselors
Lisa Burton, Terina Gardner
By blending creative strategies such as visual arts, storytelling, role-play and journaling with SFBT, students can set meaningful goals and discover solutions to their challenges.This session will show how creative use of SFBT can support a diverse range of students, including various cultural backgrounds, building resilience, solution building skills, positive behavioral and emotional change.
She Was Afraid To Tell: Story Book Series
Carrie Jones
Listen, as Dr. Jones reads her creative book which encourages children to tell an adult when they experience inappropriate actions from an adult. By using the Miracle Question with children, they can identify how helpful it is to tell an adult and write a new story for themselves as a survivor.
SOLutions in Schools (SOLIS study)
Fiona Robinson, Rose McCabe
This session highlights a research project to co-design and pilot a whole school solution focused programme to train school staff in solution focused practice. The trainees were to use the approach in thier daily conversations with studetns, colleagues and parents/carers.
Beyond the Screen: Responding Effectively to Suicidal Ideation
Makenzie Perkins
School counselors are uniquely positioned to be front line responders to students presenting in crisis. This session is designed to enhance a school counselor’s knowledge on current suicide statistics, explore strategies to provide effective screenings, and demonstrate how to create meaningful safety plans. Special emphasis will be placed on empowering student voice through this process.
Self Reflection for School Counselors
Ayse Adil
Learn the importance of reflective practice in shaping how we engage with children and young people, and how our own behaviours, assumptions, and responses can directly influence outcomes. Using case studies drawn from real educational and therapeutic settings, I will illustrate how self-reflection not only supports professional growth but also strengthens relationships, builds trust, and models resilience for students.
Using AI in Solution Focused Conversations
Matt Cameron
This program will share how to use Chat GPT when working with children and sometimes, adults, to generate masterful creative poems or posters to reinforce their ideias. Matt will share some best practice arouond using AI in Solution Focused work!
🗓 Day 2: Take the Lead
Engaging Young People with School Refusal in Solution Focused Conversations
Vicky Essebag
Many schools have been challenged with re-engaging students who are struggling with going to school, staying in school or arriving to school on time. Self-imposed absences contribute to distress in young people and impact their overall success and wellbeing.Solution-focused conversations are extremely useful with students experiencing challenges in school refusal, as they help individuals inspire their own wellbeing while shifting their behaviour.
The Friendship Squad
Diane Busch
Many schools have been challenged with re-engaging students who are struggling with going to school, staying in school or arriving to school on time. Self-imposed absences contribute to distress in young people and impact their overall success and wellbeing.Solution-focused conversations are extremely useful with students experiencing challenges in school refusal, as they help individuals inspire their own wellbeing while shifting their behaviour.
Count Your Class's Connectedness Blessings!
Ella de Jong
As a teacher of Twice Exceptional Students, Ella will share a case experience and demonstrate a lesson about senses and self-help. Focusing on her thesis, "The degree of connectedness in various schools," you will learn the helpfulness of connectedness between student and classmates, the teacher and materials of the classroom.Each is interconnected and have a positive learning outcome. Exercises to uplift connectedness and make students aware of using the lessons will be presented.
The Mindsetter Game: When Play Makes a Difference
Gesa Doringer
The Mindsetter Game is a refreshingly interactive and engaging experience that blends the principles of solution-focused therapy with gamification, resulting in an innovative and powerful tool that could be used in a range of ways - for personal reflection, as a learning experience, and for personal/professional development.
Solution Focused BEARS: Discover Your Best Hopes
Joe Pendleton
This presentation introduces Solution-Focused BEARS (Best hopes, Exceptions, Alternate future, Resources, and Scaling), a practical and child-friendly application of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). This session will provide examples for applying the Best Hopes, Exceptions, Alternate Future, Resources, and Scaling framework in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 settings. Joe will read a storybook he created about Scout: the Hope Detective in the session and share lesson plans and discussions around the story.
Single Session Therapy in School Settings
Deborah Healy, Grazia Acost, Joseph Cox
With nearly 55 million school aged children in the USA, the best access to mental health services is found in the school setting. When school counselors have up to 650 students in their caseloads, viewing each session as a stand-alone episode of help resutls in brief, effective solution focused and impactful conversations with students. This session will provide you with tips to open the door to positive change, knowing that student may or may not return for additional sessions.
Self Care and the School Counselor
Violeta Kadieva
TBD
Simple Tools for the Unstoppable School Counselor!
Andy McNeilly
A comprehensive and delightful way to end this conference and energize us all to create more enjoyment in our work and build connected relationshisop to strengthen our effectiveness. Do not miss Andy's message!
How the Conference Works
Flexible, Focused, and Fully Designed for Counselors
🖥 Live Virtual Experience
35–45 minute sessions led by real counselors, sharing strategies that work in real schools, not textbooks.
🎙 Expert Curation
Each session is introduced by Dr. Metcalf, providing guidance and framing for real-time relevance.
🌍 Global Community
Connect with a worldwide network of counselors facing similar challenges and learning to thrive.
🕒 Anytime Access
Can’t make it live? No problem. Get same-day access to replays and revisit them anytime throughout the year.
Whether you join us live or watch on your own time, you’ll walk away with proven ideas, and the assurance that you’re not doing this alone anymore.
Join the 7th Annual Solution Focused School Conference
UNSTOPPABLE SCHOOL COUNSELORS
Empowered by the Solution Focused Approach
A Live Streamed Online Event
October 10 & 11, 2025
8:30am to 5pm CST
16 CEUs (8 per day) - Fulfill your professional development requirement
Lifetime Access to all session recordings and resources
Interactive Experience with live Q&A and global presenters
Same-Day Access to full recordings
Downloadable Resources directly from presenters
Certificate of Attendance for your professional portfolio
Early Bird Special
$157
$197
Group Pass
for 5 Delegates
$139/delegate
$695
Meets Your PD Goals. Fuels Your Daily Work.
Most schools have budget for Professional Development - why not use it for something you’ll actually apply the very next day?
"The BEST day spent on PD!"
Calley Middlebrooks
Principal, South Walton Academy
What other School Counselors have said about the Solution Focused School Conference
"This was one of the best managed, useful conferences I have attended for a counselor, and I have been a counselor for decades."
Emily Graham
School Counselor, Spaulding High School
"I gained such valuable skills that I was able to implement immediately. Therefore our discipline referrals decreased, attendance increased, and our school climate improved tremendously."
Nancy Weinfurtner
School Counselor, Brinkley High School
"Motivational and renewing! I'm going into my 21st year of School Counseling and am feeling positive like I did in years 1-18."
Geri Alliah
Intermediate & Middle School Counselor
"This event will change the way you think about students and people. You will learn to honor people and their stories because you will see their strength instead of what's wrong."
Ricky Vargas
School Counselor, Madison High School
"With school counseling, it's really drive-through counseling. You cannot keep the student out of class too long. Solution focused counseling seeks to find a viable solution in a timely manner."
Kellie Johnson
School Counselor, Brock Elementary School
"A conference full of presentations from experts from across the globe who share a passion for children, their families, and building hope."
Joy Blythe
School Counselor, Garza High School
"This conference is a must-attend for anyone looking to enhance their professional skills and be at the forefront of solution-focused approaches in their field."
Heather Williams
School Counselor, Homer Elementary School
"Using the solution-focused approach helps both the counselor and the student, parent, or teacher have a direction to focus on to improve the situation. It builds a common goal and prevents getting stuck in the hamster wheel of revisiting history or the problem."
Rhonda Cole
Social Worker, Duncanville High School
STILL NOT SURE?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this conference only for experienced counselors?
Not at all! We welcome counselors from brand new graduates to 30+ year veterans. The strategies are practical and immediately applicable regardless of your experience level.
I've never heard of solution-focused approaches. Will I be lost?
Perfect! This conference introduces solution-focused strategies in a practical, easy-to-understand way. Dr. Metcalf starts with the basics and builds from there.
How is this different from other counseling conferences?
This is the only conference focused exclusively on practical strategies for school counselors using solution-focused approaches specifically designed for school settings.
What if I can't attend live due to school emergencies?
All sessions are recorded and available the same day with lifetime access. You get full 16 CEUs whether you attend live or watch recordings.
How do I get my school to pay for this?
Most schools have allocated PD budgets. We provide administrator conversation scripts and documentation. At $12.31 per CEU, it's significantly below market rate.
Can multiple staff members from my school attend?
Absolutely! We offer group rates: 5 tickets for $695 ($139 each - a 30% savings).
Will this actually work with my difficult students?
These strategies are specifically designed for challenging school situations. Our presenters are real counselors working in real schools sharing exactly how they handle resistant students and difficult cases.
How quickly will I see results?
Many counselors report using techniques immediately and seeing positive changes within days. The approach is designed for brief, effective interactions that create momentum quickly.
What's your refund policy?
If you attend live and don't find amazing value, we'll refund your investment. In 6 years of perfect ratings (8-10/10 from every attendee), this has never been necessary.
What's included in my registration?
Access to 2 days of conference live video stream, 16 CEUs, lifetime access to all recordings, downloadable resources from presenters, certificate of attendance, and interactive Q&A with global experts.
How can I contact you?
The easiest way is to send an email to Linda Metcalf: [email protected].
If you query is tech related then please email [email protected]
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Solution Focused Schools Unlimited LLC is owned by Dr Linda Metcalf - a former middle school teacher, all-level school counselor, licensed professional counselor supervisor, and licensed marriage and family therapist in the State of Texas. She is a Professor at Texas Wesleyan University and Chair of the Graduate Counseling Programs.
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