2012

Picture a classroom filled with graduate students pursuing their dreams of becoming clinical mental health counselors, school counselors, and counselor educators. Their discussion centers on crisis counseling following a tragedy. The students have completed the reading assignments and have a cognitive understanding of them. To engage them affectively, to have them vicariously experience the subject matter, the instructor needs to bring the material to life. Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of teaching (Hamilton & Weiss, 2007) and is a vital and central condition of the “human experience” (Davidhizar, 2003), capturing the listener’s interest and attention. Storytelling has the ability to bring course content alive, transporting the learner into the experience of the storyteller. The authors present a look at the use of storytelling as a powerful and valuable tool in counselor education.