One of the dominant strengths of the Minnesota State University, Mankato, Department of Counseling and Student Personnel is its state-of-the-art skills development laboratory. First installed in 1993 and renovated for digital recording in 2006, the skills lab provides students with the opportunity to learn the specific communication skills necessary to engage effectively with clientele. Few laboratories exist in the nation that allow the microanalysis and monitoring of student counseling skill development with such detail.
CSP students are required to take no less than two semesters of laboratory skill development courses prior to field placement in their practicum and internship sites. Students participate in one-to-one counseling sessions which are recorded, reviewed, and critiqued among peers and faculty in the skills classes. The focus of skills development is on encouraging and guiding each student to grow toward the "self-as-instrument" paradigm of counseling, the concept that each individual's helping capacity is ultimately a combination of both acquired skill and personal strength.
