Counselor education literature suggests that part of counselor training is personal growth and that counselor education should be dealing with personal issues that may hinder the effectiveness of counselor trainees in a clinical setting. An ongoing discussion of effective interventions has presented a variety of suggestions for intervention by counselor education programs toward this end. One approach has been to mandate personal counseling by trainees. A qualitative study of 13 graduates of the Masters degree counselor training program at a major university was undertaken to find out if the policy of requiring counseling during the program was effective. Evidence is presented to show that the policy was not strictly nor universally enforced. However, most of those who attended counseling found it to be an important part of their development as professional counselors and were able to define personal counseling's contributions. Most of those who had not been required to attend counseling thought that the requirement should exist. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/MKA)