Teaching Ethical AI Use in Counselor Education

By Michael Kiener, PhD, CRC

Counseling professionals are experiencing a high level of ambivalence regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education and beyond. The ambivalence has many dimensions and includes concerns about the reliability of AI outputs, how it will transform the profession, its impact on critical thinking, and balancing its ethical considerations. Because of this ambivalence, faculty often don’t know where to start when it comes to incorporating AI into their teaching. A first step in resolving this ambivalence is exploring how other counselor educators are using AI. 

For educators, two additional factors exist: The technology is already infused in case management systems, and students can use it to cheat and bypass essential skill development. The challenge becomes how to uncover and adjust to ambivalence and effectively teach ethical AI use. Moreover, if educators are experiencing this ambivalence, students are likely also struggling to understand how this technology can support and potentially hinder their development. 

Integrating AI Into Foundational Course Development

Fortunately, ACA has developed recommendations for counselors, clients, faculty and students to guide their thinking and action. For educators, the goal becomes to translate those guidelines into curriculum. Potentially, a helpful way to frame teaching effective and ethical AI use is using clinical courses as a model. Counseling programs have numerous standards that demonstrate how students are performing foundational counseling skills; thus, a similar approach of integrating AI into courses as a process to develop skills and study could be beneficial. For example, students can use large language models to practice active listening skills, and faculty can create fictional clients for students to mock role play entire sessions. In addition, students can share their conversation threads with faculty and students for feedback. 

However, when programs implement overly restrictive AI policies, they are possibly denying students critical opportunities to use AI to support their learning in a developmental and supportive framework. Additionally, just as we expect students to uphold ethical standards in their work with clients, we should also expect them to apply those same principles when using AI in their academic and professional activities.  

When educators teach counseling skills and scaffold the learning of counseling theory with skill development, and clinical placements with supervision, students can benefit from a structured approach where they can demonstrate their skills in a supportive learning environment. Similarly, the teaching of AI can begin in foundational and ethics courses, and AI agents can simulate clients for students to practice their skills. 

Advance Use of AI in Higher-Level Counseling Courses

In higher-level courses, students might develop their own AI agents, tailoring them to target advanced counseling skills or to help prepare for certification and licensure exams. Throughout this process, faculty can also model appropriate use of AI in their teaching and discuss with students how they make informed decisions on when or when not to use it.  

To put these ideas into action, consider the following strategies:

• Spend time exploring AI and recognize individual ambivalence. 
• Use ACA’s recommendations as a starting point to begin a dialogue with colleagues and students. 
• Start small — pick one class and try to incorporate AI with non-graded assignments. Using non-graded assignments avoids the pressure of having to master new technology while also striving to learn content. Use the AI outputs as an additional opportunity to talk about bias, hallucinations and checking sources.  
• In collaboration with students, develop guidelines to determine when and how AI should be used. 
• In higher level courses, ask students to create their own AI agents to provide immediate, personalized feedback, thus increasing ownership of their learning.

Embracing AI in counselor education is not about replacing ethical judgment but about equipping students with the tools to perform effectively in a rapidly evolving profession. By acknowledging our ambivalence, fostering open dialogue and skillfully integrating AI into the curriculum, we can help students become both competent counselors and responsible technology users. Ultimately, the goal is not just to teach about AI but to model and cultivate ethical thinking that will benefit students and their clients.

Note: Opinions expressed and statements made in this blog do not necessarily represent the policies or opinions of ACA and its editors.