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Career Counseling Strategies and
Techniques for the 21st Century
Chapter 8
Career Development
Interventions
• Career development interventions provide
the historical foundation for the counseling
profession (Dorn).
• The counseling field emerged from three
distinct movements (Herr & Cramer):
– vocational/career guidance
– psychological measurement
– personality development
Career Interventions, continued
• We know relatively little about the career
counseling process (Niles & Anderson).
• Career counselors rarely study how career
counseling actually works.
What Do We Know?
• There is a positive relationship between
counselor confidence in establishing a
therapeutic relationship and client
confidence in coping with career transitions.
• Career counseling clients devote
considerable attention to noncareer
concerns in sessions.
What We Know
• Career counselors tend to give information
and set limits more frequently during career
counseling than during general counseling.
• Career counseling participants identify
aspects of self-exploration, support, and
educating as the most important and helpful
career counseling interventions.
What We Know
• There seems to be a close relationship
between the processes of psychotherapy and
career counseling.
• Developing an effective working alliance is
critical to positive outcomes in career
counseling.
Expanding the Limited View of
Career Counseling
• Students often conclude that career
counseling is a sequence of interventions
that resembles the following:
– Step 1: Client presents for career counseling.
– Step 2: Counselor gathers client information
and administers a test battery.
– Step 3: Counselor interprets tests and identifies
a few appropriate occupational options for the
client.
Characteristics of This Approach
• Counselor is in charge of the process.
• Counselor is directive and authoritative.
• Clients are passive recipients of a
predetermined test battery.
• Career counseling becomes something that
is done to clients rather than something the
counselor and client participate in
collaboratively.
Career Counseling and Mental
Health Counseling (Niles & Pate)
• Given the relationship between work and
mental health, it is perplexing that there has
been an artificial distinction between career
counseling and mental health counseling.
• Career counseling and personal counseling
are often referred to as if they were
completely separate entities.
• In fact, there are few things more personal
than a career choice.
Career Counseling in the 21st
Century (CACREP)
• Career counseling is both a counseling
specialty and
• a core element of the general practice of
counseling.
Crites’ View
• The need for career counseling is greater
than the need for psychotherapy.
• Career counseling
–
–
–
–
can be therapeutic.
should follow psychotherapy.
is more effective than psychotherapy.
is more difficult than psychotherapy.
Definition of Career Counseling
(Brown and Brooks)
• Career counseling is an interpersonal
process designed to assist individuals with
career development problems.
Designing Career Counseling
Strategies for the 21st Century
• Career counselors must respond to
–
–
–
–
global unemployment
corporate downsizing
jobless economy
global competition of small companies via
information highway
– workerless factories
Designing Career Counseling Strategies for
the 21st Century, continued
– redefinition of social contract between
employers and employees
– increase in the number of companies offering
daycare and parental leave
– increase in the number of families with dual
incomes
– increase in the number of people working from
home
Requirements of Today’s
Workplace
• Using computer technology
• Engaging in lifelong learning
• Interacting effectively with diverse coworkers
• Tolerating ambiguity in job security
• Being vigilant about maintaining a high
level of self and occupational awareness to
maintain marketability
Characteristics of Career Development
Interventions That Foster SelfAffirmation
•
•
•
•
Provide counseling-based career assistance
Provide support to their clients
Attend to their clients’ life structure issues
Empower clients to clarify their selfconcepts and construct their own lives
• Exhibit understanding that every counseling
relationship is cross-cultural
Classifying Forms of Client
Resistance
•
•
•
•
Response quantity resistance
Response content resistance
Response style resistance
Logistic management resistance
Types of Support
• Emotional support
• Informational support
• Assessment support
Skills for Working with Resistant
Clients
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Using presuppositions
Using embedded questions and directives
Correcting transformational errors
Labeling and reframing
Recognizing and dealing with resistance
Identifying irrational beliefs
Identifying distorted thinking
Using reflective judgment stages
Focusing on excuses
Savickas’ Career Style
Assessment
• Identify life themes (early experiences, role
models, books, movies, etc.).
• Turn life themes into career goals.
Types of Clients Who Benefit
from Subjective Interventions
• Indecisive clients
• “Difficult cases” or clients who have
received but not profited from counseling
• Mid-career changers
• Culturally diverse clients
Strengths of Subjective
Assessments
• Help clients understand themselves at a deep level
• Help clients consider the relevance of their life
experiences to their career development
• Help clients attach a sense of purpose to their
activities
• Are inexpensive to use
• Actively engage clients in the counseling process
• Results are clearly connected to client responses
Strengths of Objective
Assessments
• Allow client to make comparisons with
others
• Are outcome-oriented
• Do not require as much counselor time as
subjective assessments
• Provide a useful starting point for
subsequent consideration of career options
A Framework for Career
Counseling
• Getting started
• Helping clients deal with change
• Helping clients engage in self-assessment
activities
• Helping clients learn more about the world
of work
• Helping clients expand or narrow choices
• Helping clients make plans
Phases of the Career Counseling Process
(Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston)
•
•
•
•
Opening phase
Phase of information-gathering
Working phase
Final phase
Phases of the Career Counseling
Process (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey)
• Beginning or Initial Phase
– establish effective relationship
– begin to gather information about the client
– define preliminary goals for counseling
• Middle or Working Phase
– explore concerns and goals in depth
– develop and implement a specific plan of action
Phases of the Career Counseling Process (Niles &
Harris-Bowlsbey), continued
• Ending or Termination Phase
– Connect the work done in the beginning and
middle phases by assessing client’s current
status
– Relate current status to client’s goals for
counseling
Premature Closure in Career
Counseling (Brown & Brooks)
• Clients believe they have achieved their
goal.
• The career counseling experience does not
meet the client’s expectations.
• Clients fear what might be uncovered in
career counseling.
• Clients lack commitment to counseling.
Questions to Ask About
Termination
• Did I
– review the content of what happened in
counseling?
– review the process of what happened in
counseling?
– reemphasize the client’s strengths that were
evident in counseling?
– evaluate what went well and what went poorly?
Questions to Ask About
Termination, continued
• Did I
– explore things unsaid in counseling?
– discuss feelings related to the ending of the
counseling relationship?
– provide clear and direct structure for the client’s
next steps?
Career Counseling Groups
• Group counseling offers a mode of service
delivery that can be used instead of, or in
addition to, individual counseling.
• Hansen and Cramer describe group
counseling as an intervention for 5-15
members, with 5-8 members viewed as
optimal.
Career Counseling Groups,
continued
• Structured career counseling groups address
a specific issue that is a common concern.
• Structured career counseling groups
typically meet for 3-7 sessions.
• Less structured career counseling groups
focus on the intrapersonal and interpersonal
concerns that clients have about career
development.
Career Counseling Groups,
continued
• Less structured career counseling groups
tend to be more affective-oriented than
structured groups.
• Less structured groups meet over a longer
period of time than structured groups.
Stages in Group Career
Counseling (Pyle)
•
•
•
•
Opening stage
Investigation stage
Working stage
Decision/Operational stage
Why Use Career Groups?
(Kivlighan)
• Members learn new information about
themselves and others.
• Members receive social and emotional
support from other group members.
• Members learn from peers who are in
similar situations.
• Members can share resources and ideas.
Criteria for Successful Groups
• Members
–
–
–
–
–
–
are in open communication with each other.
share a common goal.
set norms that direct and guide their activities.
develop a set of roles to play within the group.
develop a network of interpersonal attraction.
work toward satisfaction of individual needs.