Abstract
Counselor education programs provide counselors-in-training (CITs) with courses focused on counseling skill development to increase the CITs’ interpersonal counseling abilities and increase multicultural awareness. The research study presents findings from the author’s exploration of online students’ experiences in an experiential community immersion assignment. For analysis, the data was divided into three timeframes: (a) pre-experience, (b) active-experience, and (c) post-experience. In the pre-experience timeframe two themes emerged: (a) overwhelming nervousness and (b) judgmental thoughts. In the active-experience timeframe two themes emerged: (a) welcoming environment and (b) normalization of the minority population. During the post-experience reflections three common themes emerged: (a) similarities between groups, (b) motivation to create relationships, and (c) increased empathy. The study concluded the participants reported an overall increase in multicultural awareness through their community immersion experiences.
Highlights
The number of counselor education programs that use online teaching methods is continually increasing (Cicco, 2013; Oswald, Huber, Wilson, & Embree, 2015)
The goal of this study was to understand the experiences of online CITs as they went into their local communities to determine if counseling skill development and multicultural awareness increased
The results reveal the CITs’ perspectives of their experiences during the experiential community immersion assignment
Summary
The number of counselor education programs that use online teaching methods is continually increasing (Cicco, 2013; Oswald, Huber, Wilson, & Embree, 2015). In graduate level counselor education programs such as school counseling, clinical mental health counseling, and rehabilitation counseling, students take courses that assist in the development of basic counseling skills. The topics covered in a basic counseling skills course are interpersonal in nature. These topics typically include body language awareness, building rapport, establishing trust, diversity issues, and creating a warm, empathic environment. Even though teaching interpersonal skills in an online environment is challenging, it is imperative that CITs are able to receive ample preparation for their future profession (Cicco, 2013; Yang & Chou, 2008). It is important that students build awareness of the diversity of clients they will see in their future employment within schools and community agency settings
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