The role of the professional school counselor has evolved significantly over the last 100 years. Unfortunately, this evolution has also resulted in role ambiguity, role conflict, accumulation of noncounseling duties, and increased caseload averages. Lack of acknowledgement for the ASCA National Model (2012) coupled with the absence of proper supervision for school counselors puts them at a particularly high-risk for burnout. Consequences of burnout are known to impact counselor physical and emotional well-being. Also concerning, is the impact on quality of student services, potential for legal and ethical violations, and higher attrition rates for the profession. With the demands of the school counselor role not expected to change overnight, and student enrollment in the U.S. predicted to climb (NCES, 2017), questions arise about how school counselors effectively meet the demands of their role while maintaining their own wellness. Since existing research is primarily quantitative focusing on mental health counselors, a phenomenological approach specific to school counselors offers the opportunity to understand this topic further while giving contextual meaning to data gathered by quantitative methods. To gain insight into the lived experience of professional school counselor stress, burnout, and self-care, twelve professional school counselors from five states engaged in semi-structured interviews, completed FFWEL (2014) assessments and shared reflections of their results. Findings are presented in six overarching themes that pose significance for the profession, counselor education, and K--12 educational institutions.