For counseling students
Practice for counseling students, from skills course to internship
SeatTime is a text-only practice simulator for counseling students. You type what you would say to a fictional client, then read AI-generated feedback on your words. It's for extra reps between class role-plays and during practicum, not for your program's assigned work, your supervised hours or a real client.
Text-only practice with fictional clients, for adult learners (graduate students and early-career practitioners). Feedback is AI-generated and can be wrong. It's optional practice outside your program and doesn't count toward any program, placement, or licensing requirement.
Moments you can rehearse
- Putting a feeling into your own words instead of a label from a list.
- Staying with a silence, or a client's tears, without rushing to fill it.
- Saying what is private and what isn't in plain language.
- Answering when a client says this isn't helping, or asks you for advice.
- Trying a technique from your theories course in a conversation that answers back.
Basic listening skills for your skills course
Short reps on questions, paraphrase, reflection and summary.
Guides
- Reflection of Feeling: 30 Examples for Counseling Students (Weak vs Strong)
- Open-Ended Questions in Counseling: 40 Examples
- Summarizing in Counseling: Spoken Summary Examples
- Paraphrasing vs. Reflecting in Counseling: What Is the Difference?
- How to Practice Counseling Skills Alone or With a Triad
- 12 Counseling Role-Play Scenarios for Students
Before and during your first practicum
The first minutes of a session, a long silence, a client who cries, and the supervision that follows.
Guides
Preparing for supervision and case presentations
Reading your own session and talking it through are skills too. These are reading, not practice conversations.
Guides
Harder conversations for internship
Pushback, one-word answers, a client who didn't choose to be there, and a client who asks you what to do.
Guides
Choosing how to practice
- AI role-play for counseling students: what are your options?
- Triad role-play or AI text practice: which fits today's rep?
- Recorded mock sessions or AI text practice: what do you want to revisit?
- Rehearse your next response after a fictional misunderstanding
- Practice the opening when a fictional client says, "I have to be here"
Also see MSW Student Practice: Field Placement Scenarios and Guides, MFT Trainee Practice: Couples and Family Scenarios, all trainee guides, how SeatTime works and pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Where an answer describes training context, it cites a public page read on October 23, 2026. The linked program documents and professional standards provide context, not requirements for your program. SeatTime has no affiliation with the organizations cited. Check your own program for what applies to you.
Does SeatTime count toward practicum or internship hours?
No. It's optional practice with fictional clients, outside your program. It doesn't count toward any program, placement, supervised-hours or licensing requirement, and it isn't a substitute for your site, your supervisor or practice with classmates.
Source: East Carolina University, Counseling Practicum Manual (rev. 2025). Practicum is described as a chance to explore the counseling role and develop skills in one-to-one helping relationships; students are supervised weekly by site and faculty supervisors, with recordings and/or live supervision of their interactions with clients.
What can I rehearse before my first practicum client?
The first few minutes of a session, a long silence, a client's tears, and closing when time is short. You type what you would say to a fictional client and read AI-generated feedback on your words, and you can repeat a rep with different wording. Bring what you notice to your supervisor.
Source: Dallas Baptist University, COUN 5318 Basic Counseling Skills (syllabus). The course is described as the experiential foundation for later practicum and internship, and its skills table lists open-ended questions, reflection of content, reflection of feelings, summary reflections and confrontation.
Is this a replacement for class role-plays, triads or supervision?
No. Class role-plays and triads give you a real person's reaction to your voice and presence, and supervision is where your real sessions are discussed. SeatTime is extra solo reps at your own pace, with no partner to schedule.
Source: East Texas A&M University, CMHC Practicum and Internship Handbook. Practicum is the initial field experience under close supervision; internship follows as the advanced stage and approximates a full-time counseling position; recordings and case presentations drive individual and group supervision.
Which of these scenarios are free?
The free try-it practice needs no account or card and is one general counseling scenario. A free account adds three reusable scenarios with feedback. The rest of the library is part of the paid plan, which renews monthly until you cancel and has daily usage limits; the pricing page has the current terms.
Can the feedback be wrong?
Yes. It's generated by AI and describes the words you typed; it can't hear your voice or see your face. Treat it as something to question, try again in another rep and take to your instructor or supervisor. Use fictional details only.
Try a fictional-client text conversation
SeatTime is a text-only practice simulator: you type to a fictional AI client, then read AI-generated feedback on what you did. No account or card needed for the free exercise, which is one general scenario.
Start the free text practiceUse fictional details only. Your supervisor's guidance comes first.
Choosing practice for a course or cohort? See program pricing and group access for counseling, MSW and MFT trainees.