Creative Pedagogy in Counselor Education: The Use of Play Strategies

Counselor educators are responsible for training counselors-in-training (CITs) to work with a diverse array of clients. Various approaches are available to help CITs develop empathy and support their future clients, though many have focused primarily on didactic learning with less emphasis on experiential methods. Experiential learning, however, can significantly enhance CITs' empathy and connection to the material. Integrating creative play-based pedagogical activities into counseling classes allows counselor educators to foster greater empathy, material engagement, and self-reflection in CITs. This manuscript proposes three creative play-based classroom activities for counselor educators to implement and discusses their implications.