Problem: Social-emotional learning has become a critical topic in education (Hoffman, 2017). A population within schools that possesses a unique set of social-emotional needs is one that has been identified as gifted and talented. Gifted and talented students may experience a range of social-emotional needs such as exclusion, isolation, stress, anxiety, depression, and perfectionism (Blaas, 2014). Within the school setting, the professional school counselor is charged with ensuring these social-emotional needs are being met. A challenge schools are facing today is the amount and complexity of services that they are being asked to provide solutions for (Sears, 1999). Specifically, the role of the school counselor has become so ambiguous that gifted and talented students' social-emotional needs are often ignored due to the myth that since they are gifted they will be fine on their own (Greene, 2005). Minimal research exists regarding the perception of the counselors' abilities to meet the social-emotional needs of gifted and talented students. Procedures: This multi-case study (Creswell, 2013) investigated the lived experiences (van Manen, 1997) of six secondary school counselors in one Midwest state. The grand-tour question (Spradley, 1979) of this study was, what are the experiences of secondary school counselors serving gifted and talented students in their school districts? Research sub-questions inquired about counselor preparation, services provided to gifted and talented students, professional development in gifted education, social-emotional learning with gifted students, and relationships with gifted and talented students. Data were collected through administering an electronic survey to enlist future participants, virtual and/or face-to-face interviews (Seidman, 2013), and document review (Bowen, 2009) of counseling programs. Data were coded in a mapping process (Anfara, et al., 2002) through three iterations from which resulted in themes and sub-themes (Creswell, 2013). The verification of data was completed through verbatim transcripts, document analysis (Bowen, 2009), reflexive journaling (Koch, 2006), and field notes (Creswell, 2013). The conceptual framework that data were analyzed from was American School Counselors Association Standards and Competencies (ASCA, 2019). Findings: Four themes each containing two sub-themes surfaced when investigating the lived experiences (van Manen, 1997) of school counselors' perceptions of meeting the social-emotional needs of gifted and talented students. The major themes included 1.) strong skillsets but limited availability of counselors, 2.) quality time with students is effective while quantity of time is inadequate, 3.) ambiguity exists in the roles of school counselors, 4). lack of professional development presents challenges to counselors, 5). personal and academic relationships with students differ. Conclusions: Professional school counselors are charged with a diversity of tasks that often conflict with each other. Counselors are tasked with building strong connections with students, providing a continuum of services, responding to social-emotional crises, develop students into future-ready problem-solvers, and also are responsible for other duties as assigned, that may have little to do with the job description of a counselor. Moreover, a lack of professional development, time, and overall focus on gifted and talented students creates challenges for counselors to meet the social-emotional needs of this unique student population. Recommendations: For counselors to be more effective at meeting the social-emotional needs of gifted and talented students they first must increase their collaboration with building administrators and the gifted and talented teachers within their buildings to build knowledge. Further, counselors need to seek and participate in high-quality professional development focused on the specific social-emotional and academic needs of gifted and talented students. Enhanced communication with building principals and administrators will ensure the roles being assigned to counselors focus on the development of students and not tasks that are unrelated or conflict with the role of the school counselor. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]