Learning and learner environments are enmeshed with a vast range of emotion, yet schools are set up for teachers to focus primarily on curriculum delivery, often relegating emotional terrain  to the

counsellor down the hall. We explore teacher engagement with emotion (both their own and that of learners) through the lens of Transformative Inquiry (TI), a dialogic, reflexive, relational and

mindful approach to learning to teach. Building on data of TI mentoring sessions between pre-service teachers and their instructors, we consider the edge of counselling, a place where the

worlds of teaching and therapeutic involvement overlap. Our perspective as educators is enhanced through the inclusion of a transpersonal psychologist during the data analysis. We discuss how: emotions are often inadequately understood, acknowledged, and discussed within a professional teaching practice; practicing careful discernment supports the negotiation of emotional terrain,

shared and courageous vulnerability facilitates emotional engagement; mindful intention supports navigation of the edge of counselling; and emotions can act as beneficial catalysts towards

transformation.