On November 12, Senior Consultant Shannon Mount, PhD, LCSW, joined school counselors at the Indiana School Counselor Association (INSCA) conference to present Make Yourself a Priority: Self-Care Plan 2.0—Using AI and Personality Tests to Up Your Self-Care Game. In a packed room, Shannon led an interactive, hands-on session designed to help school counselors and helping professionals move beyond generic self-care advice and build sustainable, personalized burnout prevention plans.
Moving Beyond Generic Self-Care
Standard self-care lists—drink more water, get more sleep, take a bubble bath—often miss the mark because they treat everyone the same. As Shannon shared during the session, a quiet evening restores one person and drains another, while social connection energizes one counselor and overwhelms the next.
To help participants understand how they are uniquely wired, Shannon introduced three personality frameworks—Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, and DISC—to explore why we do what we do, how we recharge, and how we react under pressure. Using these tools as a mirror rather than a box, attendees reflected on what actually fills their tanks and what early warning signs look like when stress starts to build.
Using AI as a Practical Thinking Partner
From there, the session shifted into a hands-on workshop where counselors used AI assistants as a fast thinking partner to build two customized tools:
- A Maintenance Plan (“Feed Your Soul”): A realistic daily, weekly, and monthly checklist tailored to each counselor’s personality, schedule, and real-life constraints.
- A Crisis Plan (“Restore Your Soul”): A “traffic light” action plan created while calm so counselors know their early warning signs, what commitments to pause during high-stress periods, and exactly who to reach out to when they hit red.
Grounded in her background as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Shannon also emphasized smart boundaries when using AI—reminding participants to protect privacy, treat AI as a planning coach rather than a therapist, and keep human connection and crisis resources at the center of their safety net.
Support and Professional Development for Your Team
Shannon brings years of experience leading workshops and retreats on personality, self-care, and burnout prevention—both for seasoned educators and for high school students preparing for careers in social and community services. Certified in Working Genius, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, and CliftonStrengths, she specializes in translating research and practical frameworks into engaging, interactive sessions that teams can put to use right away.
Whether you are looking for a session on sustainable self-care, team dynamics, or student support systems, Inspire Success offers customized professional development and much more for school counselors, student services teams, and youth-serving organizations. If you would like to bring Shannon to your school, district, or organization, visit Shannon Mount’s contact page to connect and start the conversation.
Thank You!
Thank you to INSCA for hosting us, and to every school counselor who took time out of a busy conference to prioritize their own well-being.
Inspire Success is proud to support school counselors, student services teams, and youth-serving organizations across Indiana and beyond. Reach out to Shannon Mount to explore how we can help your team!
