The Virtual Clinical Training Center: New Frontiers in Telemental Health Training

Telebehavioral health has become an essential competency for counselors, yet counselor education programs often have limited structures for supervised telehealth clinical training. This article describes the Virtual Clinical Training Center (VCTC), a three-tiered model developed within an online counselor education program to prepare counselors in training and doctoral supervisors in training while expanding access to counseling in medically underserved communities. Tier I offers synchronous skills-based live labs and examination review, Tier II provides peer role-play practice, and Tier III places fieldwork students with community partners to deliver supervised telebehavioral counseling. We describe the application and training process, tiered supervision, partnership procedures, and technology and security considerations, and we summarize program evaluation data indicating that most participants perceived the live labs as helpful. Lessons learned, alignment with CACREP standards, and implications for counselor education, supervision, and future research are discussed.