This article explores the concept of felt sense in beginning counselors as it relates to focusing, therapeutic presence, congruence, embodied self‐awareness, and mindfulness. To provide an understanding of how counselors experience and use felt‐sense information, the authors offer a conceptual framework for the process of felt‐sense awareness. In addition, a comprehensive conceptual framework is applied to strategies for teaching beginning counselors to use felt information.

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of felt sense among six graduate counseling students. Each participant engaged in two semi-structured interviews and completed a journal of felt sense experiences. A hermeneutic phenomenological method was used to analyze interview transcripts and journals. Findings, as well as implications for counselor education, supervision, and counseling practice, are discussed.