Therapy role play: how to practise counselling skills before you meet a real client

Therapy role play means practising a counselling (counseling, in US spelling) session with someone playing the client, so you can try out skills such as asking open questions and reflecting back what you heard before you meet a real client. If you have no practice partner free tonight, you can run the role play with an AI client instead: pick a client, run a session of about 20 minutes, and read a rated transcript afterwards. There is a free plan, and it needs no card. This page explains what the research says, what you practise, the mistakes most beginners make, how to run a role play with a partner, and how a Practicium session works.

What the research says about role play

Role play is a standard part of training in the helping professions, and there is some research on how well it works. Three studies are summarised here, each with what it found and what limits it.

• Role play and peer counselling, compared by trainees

  202 clinical psychology trainees practised empathy and active listening in two ways: role play, and peer counselling, where one student recounts a personal experience and the other acts as the therapist. The trainees rated peer counselling as more useful, both for self-awareness and personal growth and for learning the skills. The authors report that any first reluctance to share something personal was outweighed by what the students gained.

  What limits it: It measured what trainees thought was useful, in a questionnaire after the course. It did not measure their skill.

  Ruiz Rodríguez and colleagues (2018), "Peer counselling versus role-playing: Two training methods of therapeutic skills in clinical psychology", Psicothema

• Role play with a classmate, compared with trained actors

  A systematic review of nine studies with medical students (one randomised trial and eight quasi-experimental studies) found that role play between classmates was perceived to be as useful as practising with simulated patients, with comparable scores in the clinical examination afterwards. Most students preferred it to lectures.

  What limits it: It is about doctors learning to talk with patients, not about counselling. The authors say the studies were few and varied a lot, and that further study is needed.

  Stevanny and Syakurah (2022), "The use of peer role-play in doctor-patient communication skills training for medical students: A systematic review", International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education

• Role play with an AI patient

  Researchers built simulated patients from a language model for cognitive behaviour therapy training, and tested them with 13 mental health trainees and 20 experts. The trainees reported more skill and confidence from this practice than from textbooks, videos or role play with non-patients.

  What limits it: It is a small study of a different system from Practicium, and it reports what trainees perceived, not a measured change in skill.

  "PATIENT-Ψ: Using Large Language Models to Simulate Patients for Training Mental Health Professionals", EMNLP 2024

Taken together: practising with a person works, a classmate can stand in for a trained actor, and talking about something real may teach more than acting. The research on AI clients is early. That is why this page treats an AI client as an addition to practice with people.

What you practise in a therapy role play

A role play is useful because it lets you practise one reply at a time, and see what the client does with it. Practicium rates five skills. Each is shown here with two replies to the same moment: one that closes the client down, and one that gives them room.

• Opening and contracting

  In the first few minutes, say how long you have, what the session is for and what stays confidential. The client then knows what they can rely on.

  Instead of

  “So, what's the problem?”

  Try

  “We have about 20 minutes today. What you say here stays between us, with a few limits I'll explain. Where would you like to start?”

• Open questions

  An open question cannot be answered with yes or no, so the client chooses where to go. Ask one question at a time.

  Instead of

  “Are you sleeping badly? Is it because of work?”

  Try

  “What are the nights like at the moment?”

• Reflection and summarising

  Say back what you heard in your own words: first the content, then the feeling behind it. A summary gathers several things the client has said, so the session can move on.

  Instead of

  “I understand.”

  Try

  “It sounds like you've been carrying this on your own for a while.”

• Holding back advice

  Do not suggest solutions, reassure too soon or teach. Stay with what the client is telling you.

  Instead of

  “Have you tried going to bed earlier?”

  Try

  “Awake at four with all of that going round. That sounds exhausting.”

• Boundaries

  Keep to your role and to what you agreed at the start, also when the client asks you to bend it. Say no warmly and firmly.

  The client asks: “Could you just text my partner and say I turned up?”

  Instead of

  “I suppose I could, just this once.”

  Try

  “I can't do that. What you say here stays here. What would it mean to you for her to know you came?”

Reflective listening: three levels

K-State's counselling service describes reflective listening at three levels, and says that it takes a fair amount of skill and practice (K-State Counseling Services, "Reflective Listening"). Here are the three levels on one client line. The replies are our examples.

The same source names three places where listening breaks down:

• The speaker does not say what is meant.
• The listener does not hear correctly.
• The listener gives a different interpretation to what the words mean.

And it gives five steps to listening carefully:

1. Focus on feeling words.
2. Ask what the context of the message is.
3. Observe body language.
4. Build empathy by asking yourself: "If I were having that experience, what would I be feeling?"
5. Validate the person's thoughts and feelings.

The third step needs a person in front of you. A typed session with an AI client has no body language, so that part can only be practised with a partner.

Open and closed questions

The Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors describes two main types of question in counselling (Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors, "Counselling Microskills: Questioning"). Open questions cannot be answered in a few words: they encourage the client to speak, and typically begin with what, why, how or could. Closed questions can be answered with as little as yes or no. They typically begin with is, are or do, and they help to focus the client or to get a specific piece of information.

According to the same article, the word a question starts with shapes the answer:

How

Talk about feelings and process

What

Facts and information

When

The timing of the problem, and what came before and after it

Where

The environment and the situation

Why

Reasons. Use it with care: it can make a client feel they have to justify themselves

It also warns against asking too many questions. That tells the client that the counsellor is in control, and can leave the client feeling that the counsellor has all the answers.

Mistakes beginners make in a role play

Most of them come from wanting to help quickly. The built-in clients are written to react to each one the way a person would, so you can see the effect in the next line of the session.

• Giving advice too early

  Sleep tips, exercise, "have you tried…". The client hears that you have stopped listening. On Practicium, Daniel agrees politely and closes down.

• Reassuring too fast

  "I'm sure you'll do great" ends the subject before the client has said what frightens them. Emily agrees brightly and withdraws.

• Reaching for a platitude

  "Time heals" tells a grieving client that you cannot stay with the loss. Marta goes cold.

• Asking closed questions in a row

  The session turns into an interview. The client says "yeah" and waits for the next question.

• Asking two questions at once

  The client answers the easier one, and the other is lost.

• Bending the frame to be liked

  Taking sides, running over time, answering personal questions. Tom tests all three, and he is charming while he does it.

Six therapy role play scenarios

These are the six built-in clients, from beginner to advanced. Each one comes with a reason, and each one has a way of avoiding it. You can use them as briefs for a role play with a partner too.

• Daniel, 34

  Beginner

  Low mood and poor sleep, referred by his GP

  Cooperative but vague. He calls it a rough patch and answers "yeah, I guess".

  What it tests: Open questions and reflection that make room for more. Advice closes him down.

• Emily, 19

  Beginner

  Exam anxiety in her first year at university

  Talks fast, jokes, apologises and says she is fine.

  What it tests: Slowing the session down and noticing what she skips, without reassuring her too quickly.

• Marta, 52

  Intermediate

  Grief after losing her partner last spring

  Composed, gives one-line answers and moves to practical subjects.

  What it tests: Staying with sadness without filling it or fixing it.

• Tom, 27

  Intermediate

  Relationship conflict, sent by his partner

  Half wants help, half wants to prove it is pointless. Asks you personal questions and asks you to take sides.

  What it tests: Keeping the frame, warmly and firmly, while staying curious about what he wants.

• Elena, 41

  Advanced

  Panic attacks, now avoids driving

  Asks for guarantees, imagines the worst and wants techniques straight away.

  What it tests: Contracting clearly and reflecting the fear, without promising an outcome.

• Jakob, 63

  Advanced

  Recently retired and lost without the work

  Deflects with dry humour, says feelings are not his department and mocks counselling clichés.

  What it tests: Being direct, and naming what is happening between you when a joke arrives just as things get real.

On a paid plan you can also write clients of your own.

How to run a role play with a partner

You do not need an app for a role play. If you have a classmate free, this is a way to set one up so that both of you learn from it.

1. 1

   Agree the roles

   A common format on counselling courses is a group of three: one counsellor, one client and one observer. With two people, record the session or take notes straight after it.

2. 2

   Brief the client

   The person playing the client needs a reason for coming, a way of talking, and one thing they will not say unless they are given room. A client who tells everything in the first minute gives the counsellor nothing to practise.

3. 3

   Set the time

   Ten to twenty minutes is enough. Start a timer, and let the counsellor open the session and close it.

4. 4

   Observe the words

   The observer writes down what the counsellor said, word for word, at two or three moments: a reply that opened the client up, and a reply that closed them down.

5. 5

   Debrief in order

   The counsellor speaks first: what they tried and where they got stuck. Then the client says how it felt to be on the other side. The observer reads out the moments last.

6. 6

   Swap and repeat

   Change roles, so that everyone has played the counsellor. Playing the client teaches as well: you feel what a closed question does.

A partner or an AI client

They are good for different things, and the AI client is for the evenings when nobody is free. In the study cited on this page, trainees rated peer counselling, where the client talks about a real experience of their own, as more useful than role play (Ruiz Rodríguez and colleagues (2018), "Peer counselling versus role-playing: Two training methods of therapeutic skills in clinical psychology", Psicothema). So practise with people when you can.

How a practice session works on Practicium

1. 1

   Choose a client

   There are six built-in clients, each with a reason for coming.

   • Daniel
   • Emily
   • Marta
   • Tom
   • Elena
   • Jakob

   What each client tests

2. 2

   Run the session

   You type your replies. The client stays in character and remembers what you said. A session runs for about 20 minutes: you are checked in on at 20 and the session wraps up at 25.

3. 3

   Read your rating

   Each skill is scored and each point is tied to a moment in the transcript, so you can see what to do differently next time. The supervisor, Pebble, gives the notes.

4. 4

   Stuck? Ask for a hint

   You can ask your supervisor for a hint, three per session. A hint will not write the reply for you.

What it is, and what it is not

Practicium is practice for people learning to counsel: psychology students, counselling trainees, lecturers and supervisors. It is not therapy, it is not a service for people seeking help, and it does not give advice to the public.

Common questions