Crisis Counseling Courses in Counselor Preparation

Crisis counseling is critical when natural and man-made crises occur. Crises are also inevitable in clinical settings. Trauma induced by crisis is the primary concern for victims and counselors (Jones & Cureton, 2014; Knezevic & Olson, 2014). However, the literature indicates that counselor preparation falls short on crisis counseling training (Allen et al., 2002; Minton & Pease-Carter, 2011; Morris & Minton, 2012). In this study, the course descriptions of 654 CACREP- accredited counseling programs were examined to determine the number of programs that required crisis counseling courses. Among the 654 CACREP- accredited counseling programs examined, 192 (29.4%) required students to take a stand-alone crisis counseling course. Our findings reflect current practice and support a call for enhancing crisis counseling training in counselor preparation programs.