Perfectionism & Handling Mistakes Small Group Counseling Curriculum
This 12-session counseling curriculum helps students understand, manage, and reduce perfectionistic thinking while building confidence, resilience, and healthy responses to mistakes. These engaging, hands-on counseling lessons will support students as they learn flexible thinking, realistic goal-setting, calming strategies, and self-compassion. Your students will love the interactive games, art-based activities, role plays, and practical tools woven throughout each session. Every lesson provides opportunities for students to immediately practice new skills in fun and meaningful ways.
Lessons cover perfectionism triggers, cognitive flexibility, realistic expectations, mistake tolerance, positive self-talk, self-compassion, bouncing back after setbacks, receiving feedback, and more. This curriculum is ideal for students in grades 3–5 who struggle with perfectionism, high self-pressure, frustration with mistakes, or all-or-nothing thinking.
What's Included:
- Pre/post screening tool
- Caregiver consent form
- Counselor passes
- 12 highly detailed, fully scripted lesson plans that are easy to use (each lesson includes measurable objectives, a scripted outline, warm-ups, mini-lessons, full group activities, debrief questions, individual practice tasks, and ASCA-aligned standards)
- Interactive games, role-play scenarios, art activities, and hands-on tools to help students build real, transferable skills
- Visual aids and anchor charts to support student learning
- Family letters for each session to explain what students learned and how caregivers can reinforce skills at home
- Teacher summary notes for each session
- Student journal pages for between-session practice
- Group completion certificates (counselor, social worker, psychologist, and blank options)
- Color and black/white printing options
Skills Students Will Learn:
- How perfectionism develops and what it feels like
- How to notice and challenge rigid or self-critical thoughts
- How to use flexible thinking strategies
- How to set realistic, achievable goals and expectations for themselves
- How to practice self-kindness and supportive self-talk
- How to calm their body during stressful or high-pressure moments
- How to respond to mistakes with resilience
- How to bounce back after setbacks
- How to accept feedback without shutting down
- How to apply coping strategies at school, at home, and in peer situations
This curriculum is designed for school counselors, social workers, psychologists, and small group instructors looking for a structured, research-supported, ready-to-use program for students who struggle with perfectionism or difficulty handling mistakes.
Please note: This is a digitally downloadable counseling curriculum. No physical materials will be mailed.