Counselor Clinical Training With Client‐Actors

Abstract

This article explores how beginning graduate counseling students can gain valuable in vivo counseling experience by working with actors who are trained to serve as clients.

The Client Role in a Pre-Practicum Counseling Skills Course

“…Although the efficacy of this self-disclosure in creating a valuable learning experience for the CIT in the role of the counselor has been explored (Kasdorf & Gustafson, 1978), there has been no research on the experiences of CITs in the client role beyond noting their discomfort regarding the sharing of personal information and noting the ethical dilemmas that can arise with this self-disclosure (Levitov et al, 1999;Rabinowitz, 1997;Weis, 1986). It is not known whether this experience is incidental to counselor education, or if it has a developmental impact on the counselor in training who is enacting the client role.…”

“…Experiential activities during the pre-practicum course, often taking the form of roleplaying, are viewed as essential to effective counselor training and are related to the development of self-efficacy and comfort in the counselor role (Levitov, Fall, & Jennings, 1999). The roleplaying experiential activity allows the CIT to practice basic skills in a non-clinical setting.…”

“…There is some variation in the structure of role-playing activities in regard to the non-clinical client population with which CITs practice, but often this population is made up of the CITs themselves (Levitov et al, 1999). This type of structure typically follows the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) role-play method (Kagan, Schauble, Resnikoff, Danish, & Krathwohl, 1969), wherein one CIT enacts the counselor role and another enacts the client role while additional CITs or the instructor observe the counseling interaction.…”

“…There is a limited amount of research on pre-practicum (Levitov et al, 1999;Woodside, Oberman, Cole, & Carruth, 2007) and less on the experience of CITs enacting the client role in role-playing exercises. There is no research at all on what impact the sharing of "real life" experiences while enacting the client role has on the learning experience for CITs.…”

“…Modern innovations have focused on enhancing the role-playing experience through the use of client actors (Levitov et al, 1999) and the addition of screenwriting techniques (Shepard, 2002).…”