As GenAI incorporates higher education, counselor training programs face a hidden challenge. While AI helps with writing, conceptualization, reflection and formatting, using it for core tasks, this technology may introduce an over-reliance, shaping learning, competency, and clinical confidence. If students offload too much of their critical and executive thinking to an LLM, they may struggle to build authentic clinical confidence.
In this session I explore how graduate counseling students navigate the use of GenAI, specifically examining how these tools impact their learning process, internal confidence, and ability to develop a unique, authentic clinical voice. Concurrently, I examine faculty perspectives to understand how the integration of AI impacts the evaluation of counselor-in-training development and professional confidence.
I will introduce and explore two critical concepts:
- Algorithmic Mimicry: The risk that students adopt standardized, "average" AI voices at the expense of their own unique, human clinical style.
- Pedagogical Homogenization: The "trickle-down" effect that occurs when faculty use AI to build course content, accidentally creating a standardized learning environment that glosses over the diverse cultural and diagnostic nuances required in real-world practice.
Finally, I will discuss how to shift academic assessments away from written assignments that AI can easily polish, moving instead toward multimodal forms of assessments that highlight creativity and reflection. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies to ensure that our students build a robust, human-centered professional identity capable of navigating a high-tech world without losing genuine relational presence.
