Practicum students' anxiety as they envision seeing "real" clients can impede their self-efficacy and in-session functioning. To explore how anticipatory stress and coping theory might help better support them, we used CQR-M to code students' (n = 42) immediate thoughts and reactions to three challenging client situations before and after practicum. Students' responses reflected key tenets of the theory, pointing to pre-practicum approaches that may lessen students' anticipatory stress and enhance their well-being.