Dr. Russell A. Sabella is a Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and President of Sabella & Associates. His areas of expertise include comprehensive school counseling programs, artificial intelligence and counseling technology, datability, and solution-focused school counseling. He’s the author of numerous articles and several books, including Solution-Focused School Counseling: The Missing Manual, and is co-authoring the 6th edition of Myrick and Sabella’s Developmental School Counseling: A Practical Approach. Dr. Sabella served as President of the American School Counselor Association (2003–2004) and the Florida School Counselor Association (2013–2014), and received FSCA’s Robert D. Myrick Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. His training and consulting work has reached tens of thousands of school counselors, educators, and leaders across the country.
School counselors make a real difference for students, but too often that impact goes unseen. In this hands-on workshop, Dr. Sabella demystifies how to make data a natural part of your comprehensive school counseling program. You’ll learn practical ways to use spreadsheets for data-driven decision making, monitoring student progress, and reporting results to administrators, school boards, and families. You’ll also see how AI tools can help you clean and analyze data, spot patterns, create charts, and draft clear summaries of your results in a fraction of the time, while protecting student privacy. Participants learn to create a narrated, multimedia results report: a short digital story that shows stakeholders how your program adds value to the school’s mission. Bring your own laptop for hands-on practice.
The solution-focused model offers a structured method that emphasizes solutions rather than dwelling on problems. In this workshop, participants learn how to help others recognize exceptions to their problems and envision future behaviors that align with their goals. The approach builds on the strengths and capabilities of students and stakeholders, such as parents and guardians, rather than their weaknesses. Because students and parents devise their own solutions, they develop a sense of ownership in their progress and a commitment to change. As effective solutions are identified and put into action, confidence and motivation grow for everyone involved. When school counselors, teachers, parents, or other practitioners use this method, the intervention process becomes more efficient and uplifting, which can also help guard against professional burnout. The workshop is especially well received by teachers looking for a new way to partner with parents during conferences.
Learn the most powerful, and often overlooked, features of the applications you use every day. Dr. Sabella shares his most coveted tips, tricks, and shortcuts to help you become more effective, more efficient, and have more fun in your work. You’ll learn advanced ways to create, convert, and complete PDFs; discover tools for producing polished flyers, handouts, and worksheets; and explore Microsoft Word features you probably haven’t thought of, including mail merge, autocorrect, styles, and objects. You’ll also find Google apps you didn’t know you needed, such as Google Voice and Google Scholar, and learn how add-ons, add-ins, and extensions put important functions right at your fingertips. Along the way, you’ll see how the AI features now built into these everyday tools can save you even more time. Expect plenty of handouts and time for questions and answers.
Anxiety is a normal part of life, the body’s way of signaling that something isn’t right. For some students, though, anxiety becomes persistent and overwhelming, interfering with daily activities, relationships, and achievement. Dr. Sabella reviews the factors that contribute to anxiety in children and adolescents and shares practical, evidence-informed interventions school counselors can deliver as part of a comprehensive program. Participants leave with approaches, resources, and tools to help students calm themselves, build coping skills, and stay on track.
Join Russ for an insightful keynote presentation that delves into the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of school counseling. This engaging session is designed for school counselors seeking to comprehend the fundamentals of AI and its application in their profession. Dr. Sabella will equip school counselors with the knowledge and insights needed to leverage AI effectively, fostering a future-ready approach to school counseling. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the transformative potential of AI in shaping the future of your work.
Generative AI is already in your students’ pockets and on your colleagues’ laptops. The question is no longer whether school counselors will use it, but how to use it well. In this hands-on session, Dr. Sabella cuts through the hype and shows how tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can serve as a co-intelligence for your comprehensive school counseling program. You’ll see real examples of AI helping with lesson planning, data analysis, parent communication, small group design, and documentation, along with the limits and risks every counselor needs to understand. Ethics, student privacy, and ASCA guidance are woven throughout. You’ll leave with prompts you can use tomorrow, a simple framework for deciding when AI fits and when it doesn’t, and the confidence to lead the conversation in your building. Available as a keynote, a 2–3 hour virtual workshop, or a full-day training.
Anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide among children and teens remain alarmingly high, and school counselors are often the first to see it. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) offers a practical, well-researched way to help. Grounded in the idea that it’s not events but our beliefs about them that drive how we feel and act, REBT gives students a clear framework for catching unhelpful thinking and replacing it with healthier, more flexible beliefs. In this workshop, Dr. Sabella teaches the ABC model and core disputing techniques, then shows how to adapt them for individual counseling, small groups, and classroom lessons across grade levels. Participants leave with ready-to-use scripts, activities, and student-friendly tools for building emotional resilience.
Closing the Gap projects are at the heart of the ASCA National Model, but many school counselors aren’t sure where to start or how to show results that convince stakeholders. In this practical workshop, Dr. Sabella walks you through the entire process using real examples of completed projects: identifying gaps from data you already have, writing SMART goals tied to the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors, and selecting evidence-based interventions across MTSS tiers. You’ll learn how to collect sensitive, short-term data that shows change in weeks rather than months, and how to triangulate information from students, teachers, and parents using simple tools like Google Forms. You’ll then present your results with clear charts and percent change, and see how AutoCTG turns your data into a polished results report. Whether you’re preparing a RAMP application or want to demonstrate your impact, you’ll leave ready to launch your own project.
