ABSTRACT
Teaching an introductory counseling or “helping” skills course is one of the most exciting and daunting tasks required of counselor educators. It is exciting because teaching and learning counseling skills is foundational to the counseling profession and because, for many students, the helping skills course is a first opportunity to directly practice their new counseling skills. It is daunting because counselor educators must balance substantial course content with experiential activities, skill acquisition, interpersonal observation, feedback, and supervision. These tasks become all the more challenging because counselor educators are usually teaching a diverse, entry-level, counseling student cohort; this cohort arrives at their helping skills course with very different skill sets and lived experiences. Facilitating self-awareness and intentionality within this diverse group requires competence, patience, and compassion.
