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 co-
workers
• 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 Self-
Affirmation

• Provide counseling-based career assistance

• Provide support to their clients
• Attend to their clients’ life structure issues
• Empower clients to clarify their self-concepts
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.