Faced with doing research, students are often hesitant. Most graduate students have never conducted extensive research, having few qualifications or little technical skills. This article focuses on helping students acquire research interests, understanding and skills by using an experiential research group model. The purpose of this article is to show how a research group model can complement the teaching and training of graduate students in counsellor education. We provide an example of how we developed a qualitative research project to examine the proposed research group model. The group model provided students with practical experience within a structured setting using five specific research topics. Perspectives of students and faculty on research groups as a positive addition to traditional teaching are provided. (Contains 1 figure.)