Experiential Groups: Narratives of Latino Master’s Level Students in Counseling Psychology during the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Experiential group training builds group counseling skills among counselors-in-training. The current study examines Latino master’s students’ perceptions of experiential group training that started in person but shifted to a virtual platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 Latino graduate counseling psychology students. Our findings included five main themes: Professional development, group leader modeling, personal growth, pandemic’s impact on experiential group and impact of culture on experiential group. Themes shed new insight for the use prior research findings on experiential group training and shed new insight the use of this training modality with Latinos and utilizing a virtual platform. Findings highlight multicultural competence among experiential group facilitators.