The burnout crisis amongst school counselors
Burnout is a persistent state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion—and for many school counselors, it’s becoming the norm. When the weight of student needs, administrative demands, and limited resources piles up, it can lead to constant dread, emotional detachment, and a growing sense that the job is no longer sustainable. As burnout rises across the profession, counselor well-being, job performance, and student support are all being compromised.
If you’re dragging yourself to work each day or quietly questioning whether you can keep doing this long-term, you’re far from alone. Research indicates a decline in emotional health and increased turnover in the field, largely attributed to school counselor burnout. In one study, 90% of counselors said student mental health significantly affects their own emotional well-being, while 64% reported feeling stressed about their ability to adequately support students.
The good news: support exists, and burnout doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Read on to learn what school counselor burnout looks like, how it shows up day to day, and the tools and strategies that can help you prevent burnout—or reconnect with purpose and joy in your role again.
How burnout shows up for school counselors
Burnout is rarely caused by a single issue. Instead, it builds up over time as multiple pressures compound. Together, these pressures show up in several interconnected ways, affecting counselors emotionally, mentally, and professionally.
Emotional exhaustion and mental load
School counselors shoulder an immense amount of emotional labor every day. You support students through trauma, crisis, social challenges, academic pressure, anxiety about their future, and more. It’s not uncommon to find yourself crying at work or carrying your students’ problems home with you long after the school day ends.
Meeting the needs of students can be especially difficult early in a counseling career. Interns and those new to the profession often face a steep learning curve, with little time to adjust before the emotional weight sets in. Over time, this constant emotional strain can make it more challenging to stay present, focused, and emotionally available—key components of effective school counseling.
Even when the pain, worry, and exhaustion feel never-ending, this isn’t a personal failure. Your response is a sign that you care deeply—yet the systems you’re working within are rarely designed to support counselor mental health or long-term sustainability.
Heavy workload and role overload
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a student-to-counselor ratio of 250:1, yet the reality in many schools looks very different. Nationally, counselors are often responsible for 376 students or more, making it difficult to sustain meaningful, ongoing support.
Beyond overwhelming caseloads, the role itself has expanded far beyond counseling. Many school counselors spend a large portion of their day creating lessons, coordinating testing, managing schedules, and completing administrative tasks—often at the expense of direct time with students.
These pressures are exacerbated by staffing shortages. In 2023, 40% of schools reported difficulty hiring school counselors, increasing demand on those already in the role and making relief feel out of reach.
When a significant amount of energy is invested in tasks that seem disconnected from student mental health, it can leave you feeling overextended and questioning whether you’re capable of performing the work you were trained to do. Over time, this constant role overload can erode job satisfaction, contribute to emotional exhaustion, and lead to accelerated burnout.
Poor administrative and management support
In any profession, leadership contributes to burnout just as much as individual workload. When administrative support is lacking, even routine responsibilities can start to feel like constant uphill battles. Without clear backing, adequate resources, or protected time for counseling, it becomes increasingly difficult to perform your job effectively and harder to feel valued in your role.
In contrast, supportive administrators recognize the emotional labor that school counselors carry. They protect time for direct student work, set realistic expectations, and model healthy boundaries that promote a work-life balance. Having leadership that listens, validates concerns, and actively supports your role can make a meaningful difference in reducing burnout and improving long-term job satisfaction.
Work-life imbalance and boundary challenges
Setting boundaries can be challenging in any job, but it is especially crucial for school counselors. It’s easy to feel pulled back in, even if you make dedicated attempts to disconnect. Perhaps you’ve tried removing your email from your phone, scheduling self-care, or taking work-free lunch breaks, but in unhealthy work environments, these efforts are generally only effective if systemic issues are also addressed.
Boundaries help preserve your energy, and self-care can revitalize your dedication and combat burnout. Caring for yourself leaves space for meaningful and effective student interactions. It helps prevent the chronic exhaustion that burnout causes.
Realistic ways counselors can set boundaries and practice self-care:
- Create office hours and communicate them clearly
- Schedule check-ins with yourself the same way you schedule student sessions or staff meetings
- Set ground rules about off-hours contact—and use an auto response to relay them
- Take lunch breaks every day
- Create transition rituals, like listening to calm music on your commute or journaling for five minutes before you leave each day
- Delegate when you need to
- Ask for clarity when necessary to avoid stress and burnout in your role
Career uncertainty and the desire to pivot
Limited advancement opportunities or increasing administrative demands can leave you questioning whether this role is still sustainable in the long term. It’s common to feel conflicted—emotionally drained yet unsure where to go next, despite your training, experience, and commitment to students.
You may start thinking about pivoting or exploring other roles, either within education or beyond it. While the right path looks different for everyone, moving into a different title or setting can help restore a sense of purpose and energy—and in many cases, reduce the administrative load that contributed to burnout in the first place.
Tools and strategies for school counselor burnout
As a trained counselor, you know better than anyone that having strong coping mechanisms is important, but they’re not a substitute for meaningful systemic change. That said, practicing self-care strategies such as boundary-setting, seeking social support, and taking mental health breaks can be game-changers in overcoming burnout. Keep in mind that, even when you’re doing everything you can to stay grounded and calm, a toxic work environment will often override your efforts.
Some simple ways to practice self-care without the guilt include:
- Blocking off 15-minute daily check-ins where you can debrief high-stress cases with a peer or trusted confidant
- Having a crisis debrief ritual in place for difficult days
- Using breathwork, grounding exercises, or short reflections to let go of your day before leaving school
- Relying on administrative support to take on non-counseling tasks
- Having a boundary script ready to use when teachers or families want to contact you outside of work hours
- Scheduling peer-supervision sessions to help to normalize the difficult cases
"It can be hard for counselors to leave work at school, sometimes writing a list of what needs to be done the next day before leaving can help provide some relief of the ongoing anxiety counselors may take home."
- Laura Magnuson, MA, MS, LAMFT, VP of Clinical Engagement
Systemic solutions and organizational recommendations
Self-care alone isn’t enough to prevent school counselor burnout. From caseload management to cultural shifts, there are systemic solutions and organizational recommendations that can transform workplace culture.
For one, research indicates that schools with smaller student-to-counselor ratios tend to achieve higher standardized test scores. They also have better attendance rates and higher student GPAs across the board. Graduation rates improve, and disciplinary infractions are reduced when counselors aren’t overwhelmed and burned out.
How school administrators can help counselors
To reduce school counselor burnout, schools and administrators should focus on shifting culture and reducing emotional labor.
The following actions can make a meaningful change for school counselors:
- Offer flexible schedules
- Create formal recognition programs
- Allow mental health days
- Invest in wellness programs
- Minimize administrative burdens by delegating non-clinical tasks to support staff
- Provide dedicated time for counselors to focus on consultation, collaboration, and professional development
- Foster psychological safety through transparent leadership practices
- Build opportunities for counselors to co-design SEL programs and crisis-response plans
- Partner with Talkspace to provide supplemental therapy for students
- Advocate for additional resources that support both counselors and students
Rebuilding a future that supports counselors and combats burnout
For school counselors to avoid burnout, both personal effort and organizational reform are needed. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single miracle fix that will alleviate the burdens that cause school counselor burnout. However, when systems are in place that protect your time and respect the emotional weight of your role, you can find a space that benefits both students’ and your well-being.
Partnering with Talkspace can mean sustainable change for every school counselor, teacher, and staff member. If you’re ready to change the culture and reduce the burden on your school, it might be time to invest in mental health. Advocating for yourself and others by approaching school leaders is the first step. Request a demo today to learn more about how the tools offered by Talkspace can streamline counselor tasks, protect students, and offer mental health support for everyone at your school.
Sources:
- Tinabyland, and Tinabyland. 2025. “Catapult Learning Survey of K-12 School Counselors Reveals Critical Shortfalls in Addressing Youth Mental Health Crisis.” Full Bloom. July 18, 2025. https://fullbloom.org/news/catapult-learning-survey-of-k-12-school-counselors-reveals-critical-shortfalls-in-addressing-youth-mental-health-crisis/. Accessed December 8, 2025.
- Niles, Jennifer K., Stephanie Dorais, Craig Cashwell, Patrick R. Mullen, and Samantha Jensen. 2024. “School Counselors’ Burnout, Hope, and Self‐efficacy: A Sequential Regression Analysis.” Journal of Counseling & Development 102 (4): 472–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcad.12530. Accessed December 8, 2025.
- Turner, Samantha M., Rebbecca Gossett, and Courtney M. Fay. 2025. “Beyond Burnout: Decoding School Counselors’ Departure From the Profession.” Professional School Counseling 29 (1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759x251403475. Accessed December 8, 2025.
- “School Counselor Roles & Ratios - American School Counselor Association (ASCA).” n.d. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/about-school-counseling/school-counselor-roles-ratios. Accessed December 8, 2025.
