A study on the Master students’ development experience of counseling competencies through counseling practice classes

Objectives This study is a qualitative study to explore the experience of developing counseling competencies in counseling practice classes conducted in the classroom of master counseling students. Methods The participants were 10 enrolled and graduates who had taken counseling practice classes within the master's curriculum, and the counseling practice class is a class where students can experience counseling practice in the form of counseling skills practice and mock counseling within the class. The interview was conducted via Zoom, and two researchers participated in pairs. The collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological research method. Results As a result of the data analysis, 3 theme groups, 6 topics, and 24 compositions were derived. The 3 theme groups appeared as ‘desperate for practice classes’, ‘the practice course of overcoming fear and cyclical experience’, and ‘qualitative maturity as counseling experts’. The 6 topics are in the following: ‘want to fill in insufficient counseling skills’, ‘want to have counseling expertise’, ‘practice classes that are anxious and afraid that insufficient counseling capabilities will be revealed’, ‘community learning process that deepens through repetitive cyclical experiences’, ‘qualitative change in counseling techniques through embodiment’ and ‘internal growth of counseling attitudes’. In particular, through feedback and interactions that occurred in the practice class process, the participants experienced repetitive and cyclical counseling practice with colleagues, deepened their insight into their inner selves, and learned and embodied counseling techniques, and applied them back to counseling, and they experienced learning and improved counseling expertise. Conclusions This study is significant in that it sheds light on the experience of developing specific professional counseling competencies and providing basic data in the process aspect of improving the quality of counseling practice classes by revealing the in-depth reality that counseling majors actually experience in counseling practice classes.