For MSW and social work students
Practice for MSW students, from first client meetings to process recordings
SeatTime is a text-only practice simulator for social work and counseling students. You type what you would say to a fictional client, such as a kinship caregiver or a new arrival at a resettlement center, then read AI-generated feedback on your words. It's for extra reps before and during field placement, not for your field instructor's assignments 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
- Opening a first meeting and explaining what is private and what isn't.
- Asking about strengths without brushing past a real difficulty.
- Staying with a caregiver who fears that asking for help will look like failing.
- Talking about a parent's request to know what their teen said.
- Writing up a conversation after it ends, in a process recording or a progress note.
Before and during field placement
First meetings, interviewing questions, and the interview to get a placement in the first place.
Guides
Documentation and process recordings
Reading about note formats and process recordings, plus one conversation about what goes in the notes.
Guides
Choosing how to practice
Also see Counseling Student Practice: 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 my field hours or my placement?
No. It's optional practice with fictional clients, outside your program. It doesn't count toward field hours, a learning agreement or any licensing requirement, and it doesn't replace your field instructor, your field seminar or practice with classmates.
Source: CSWE, 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EP 3.3). Field education is named the signature pedagogy for social work.
Source: Marywood University, MSW Field Education Manual (2025–2026). Student and field instructor write a learning agreement together early in the placement to plan assignments and clarify expectations; field instructors provide individual supervision each week.
Can I practice with my placement clients or cases?
No. Every client in SeatTime is fictional. Don't type real-client names, notes or details, even with names changed. Bring real cases to your field instructor.
Source: Marywood University, MSW Field Education Manual (2025–2026). Student and field instructor write a learning agreement together early in the placement to plan assignments and clarify expectations; field instructors provide individual supervision each week.
Is this for social work students or counseling students?
Both. This page groups fictional scenarios set in a home visit, a resettlement center, a school-based family program and a community clinic. Your program and field instructor decide what placement work looks like for you.
Which of these scenarios are free?
The free try-it practice needs no account or card and is one scenario. From this page it opens with a fictional social work home-visit conversation, and you can switch to a counseling client on the practice screen. 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 opens with a fictional social work home-visit conversation from this page (you can switch to another client).
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.