602: Roles and Identities Part 2 (for Counselors and Educators): A Framework for Understanding How Your Roles Shape Your Work

The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions

To kick off Season 6, Ethan shares some practical resources based on a new framework he's been exploring. If you’re a regular listener, you’ll already be familiar with something we call the Roles and Identities List, which is a huge menu of roles (things like “catalyst” and “change-maker” and “party-bringer”) — Ethan has used it as a get-to-know-you exercise with a number of previous guests.

In case you missed it, check out Part 1 of this mini-series where Ethan walked through some practical exercises for students and parents based on the Roles and Identities framework.

But what about counselors? We who spend our days (and often nights) answering emails, phone calls, texting and generally caretaking in 100 different ways… Today’s episode is the second of two where Ethan will share some exercises that counselors can use to recognize patterns they may fall into at times and how they might practice more self-care and show up more fully for their students. Ethan explores:

• How can counselors make sure we fill our own cups (and not just our coffee cups)?
• How can we make sure we’re even more spacious and resourced… so that we’re able to give back from a full cup, and with a full heart?
• And more.

We hope you enjoy!

Play-by-Play

• 0:08 - What is the Roles & Identities Framework?
• 5:34 - Exercise #1 : The Roles & Identities List
• 11:39 - Exercise #2: The “shadow” version
• 21:30 - Exercise #3: The “foil” to your role
• 23:20 - Closing thoughts

Resources:

• The Roles and Identities Exercise
• College Essay Guy’s Personal Statement Resources
• College Essay Guy’s College Application Hub