In discussing the complex aspects of innovational change in counselor education programs, this paper advances two major arguments: (1) that the communication skills possessed by counselors determine the eventual success or failure of the counseling relationship, and (2) that interdisciplinary approaches to innovational change for counselor education programs are becoming more and more necessary. The change advocated in the paper is for counselor education programs to adopt courses emphasizing communication theory and skill attainment for students. System theory, collective behavior theory, innovational change theory, and rhetorical theory are discussed to demonstrate the need for this innovation and how it might be realized within the social system of counselor education programs. (Author/RL)