Teaching Helping Skills Courses: Creative Activities to Reduce Anxiety

ABSTRACT

Helping skills courses play a vital role in counseling curriculum, but also tend to bring excessive anxiety for students, to the point of impeding their ability to successfully implement skills. This article describes specific creative and experiential activities, aimed at reducing anxiety in a helping skills course for counselors-in-training.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• counseling skills
• counselor education
• creativity
• creativity in counseling
• experiential
• experiential activities
• mindfulness

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley M. Tolleson

Ashley M. Tolleson is a doctoral student in Counselor Education and Practice in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ramona Grad

Ramona Grad is a doctoral student in Counselor Education and Practice in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Faith Zabek

Faith Zabek is a doctoral candidate in School Psychology in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Melissa Zeligman

Melissa Zeligman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Services at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.