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4 TPC Digest Chad M. Yates, Alexia DeLeon, Marisa C. Rapp Exploring Experiential Learning Through an Abstinence Assignment Within an Addictions Counseling Course C ounselors-in-training may struggle in working with addictions populations. These challenges include students’ unfamiliarity with the process of addiction or addicted populations, few opportunities to infuse addiction-related materials into the general curriculum, and no uniform national curriculum standards for addiction-related education. This is concerning as addiction remains a consistent concern for the general population. Approximately 21.5 million Americans meet criteria for a substance use disorder, reinforcing the need for competent professional counselors to work with this population. It is imperative that counselor education programs continue to address training to ensure counselors-in- training are prepared to meet the needs of persons with addiction. A common tool utilized in addictions training to foster empathy for persons with addictions is the abstinence assignment. The abstinence assignment asks students to abstain from a substance or behavior for a set period and journal about the experience. This learning approach has been explored within a pharmaceutical education program, and it allowed students to successfully meet all four of the course’s learning objectives, which included: describing feelings and experiences related to the process of withdrawal from habituating or addicting substances or activities; exploring the importance of abstinence in the maintenance of recovery and discussing the implications of relapse to the recovery process; discussing the importance of support systems in recovery; and describing the process of addiction and recovery. The aim of the current study was to understand the pedagogy behind the abstinence assignment and to explore the experience of students completing it. It was hoped that the project would reveal if the abstinence assignment could foster empathetic experiences for persons with addictions and if the assignment could enhance understanding of withdrawal, craving, and relapse. The authors utilized qualitative analysis to explore the experience of 17 counseling students completing the abstinence assignment. The emergent themes of (1) concrete experiences, (2) dealing with craving, (3) student’s self-reflection of learning, and (4) empathetic understanding and challenging attitudes are presented and discussed, along with implications for counselor educators and suggestions for future research. It is the authors’ belief that the abstinence assignment helps students prepare for working effectively with persons with addictions in a way that surpasses traditional didactic content. Speculatively, this may be why the abstinence assignment has been seen as a hallmark of addictions training. Another investigation of abstinence assignments found that 69% of participants felt the abstinence assignment had a positive effect, and 44% of participants agreed that they better understood the process of addiction recovery as a result of the assignment. This study aimed to build upon these findings to explore if the abstinence assignment was found valuable by students and if it provided a valuable learning experience about the phenomenological experiences of persons with addictions, an understanding of the symptoms of addictions, and an understanding of preliminary treatment approaches to use with clients. The researchers found key themes within the study that supported the assignment meeting the above learning goals. Based on these findings, the authors encourage the infusion of this assignment within counselor education. Chad M. Yates is an assistant professor at Idaho State University. Alexia DeLeon is an assistant professor at Lewis & Clark. Marisa C. Rapp is a doctoral student at Idaho State University. Correspondence can be addressed to Chad Yates, 921 South 8th Ave, Stop 8120, Pocatello, ID 83209-8120, yatechad@isu.edu.