Introduction to the Counseling Profession

1. Introduction to the Counseling Profession Chapter 14 Career Counseling

2. Chapter Topics

3. Foundations “According to the Bureau for Labor Statistics (2012), 86% of men and 67% of women in the United States work more than 40 hours per week.” • Placement Services 1890-1919: American industrialization; WWI Veterans return and find themselves displaced; Frank Parsons and the Vocations Bureau in Boston; The National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) (now the National Career Development Association) (NCDA) was founded in 1913. • Educational Guidance 1920-1939: Increase in student population and shift in the job market away from industrialization. • Training for Career Counselor 1940-1959: WWII veterans and GI Bill of Rights.

4. Foundations “Once thought of as being a separate domain from personal development, there has been a shift in the career counseling profession that recognizes that an individual’s career and personal concerns need to be viewed in a more holistic manner.” • Organizational Development 1960-1979: The Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement. • Career Counselors in Private Practice 1980-1989: Shift from industrialization to information technology. • Technology and Diversity 1990 to Present: Americans with Disabilities Act.

5. Foundations • Career Counseling Theories • Frank Parsons: Trait-and-Factor • Frank Parsons developed his approach in response to the poverty many new immigrants were experiencing during the early 1900’s. • The foundation of Parson’s approach is that individuals are drawn to prospective careers due to their personality and variables that influenced their upbringing. • Parson’s approach consisted of three steps. These three steps included self-exploration including one’s aptitudes, abilities, interests and limitations; having information about the current job market, and seeing what jobs make a good fit with that individual’s strengths and weakness as well as the job market influences.

6. Foundations • Career Counseling Theories • John Holland • Holland’s work differed from his predecessors in that the focus of his theory has been on why career choice occurs and the outcomes of that choice, rather than on how or why personality orientations develop. • Holland’s theory is based on six key ideas: • Most people are one of six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. • People of the same personality tend to "flock together." • People of the same personality type working together in a job create a work environment that fits their type.

7. Foundations • Career Counseling Theories • John Holland • There are six basic types of work environments: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. • People who choose to work in an environment similar to their personality type are more likely to be successful and satisfied. • How one acts and feels at work depends to a large extent on that individual’s workplace environment .

8. Foundations • Career Counseling Theories • John Krumbultz: Social Learning Theory • Examines cognitive behavioral approaches and outcomes for career counseling. • Foundation rests on the importance of learning the theories that people learn through experiential experiences and observations. • Krumboltz identified four main factors that influence career development. • One’s genetics and special abilities • Environment • Learning Experience • Task Approach Skills

9. Foundations • Career Counseling Theories • Lent, Brown, and Hackett: Social Cognitive Career Theory • Derives from Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory. • Examines the interaction between the clients’ environment and his or her belief system. • One’s self-efficacy affects one’s self-concept, which in turn, affects one’s career expectations and goals. • One’s self-concept and self-efficacy also influences one’s ability to overcome any perceived or real barriers. • SCCT also recognizes how a persons’ cultural background influence career choices and goals.

10. Foundations • Developmental Theories • Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad and Herma (1951) were theorists who were part of the paradigm shift in career counseling that began to explore the developmental process as it relates to career choice. • Ginzberg et al.(1951) observed that people go through phases in their career decision making at different developmental stages of their life. • Fantasy Stage • Tentative Stage • Realistic Stage

11. Foundations • Developmental Theories • Donald Super • Super’s theory is built on the foundation of Ginzberg and his associates. • One of Supers’ (1990) major contributions to career counseling is how a person’s developing self concept is affected by her/his life experiences. • Super’s developmental theory includes five stages. • Growth • Exploration • Establishment • Maintenance • Disengagement

12. Foundations • Developmental Theories • Linda Gottfedson • A developmental approach that examines the influences of socialization and cultural expectations. • Children develop ideas about which career paths are acceptable to follow based on their early socialization. • Zone of acceptable alternatives • Four stages • Orientation to size and power • Orientation to sex roles • Orientation to social valuation • Orientation to the internal and unique self

13. Foundations • Diversity • Americans with Disabilities Act • Was implemented to protect the civil rights of individuals with disabilities. • Provides individuals with disabilities equal opportunity to employment. • In order to practice competently, career counselors are required to be knowledgeable in the areas of policies, laws, and regulations as these relate to the ADA and career development.

14. Counseling, Prevention, and Intervention • Decision Making • Olson, McWhirter, and Horan (1989) discuss four components in the decision making process for career counseling. The four components include: • Conceptualization of the problem as one of choice. • Enlargement of the response repertoire. • Identification of discriminative stimuli. • Response selection. • Cultural competency is key when exploring the decision-making process with clients struggling with career concerns.

15. Counseling, Prevention, and Intervention “Consultation is ‘a process in which a human service professional assists a consultee with a work-related (or caretaking-related) problem with a client system, with the goal of helping both the consultee and the client system in some specified way.’” • Consulting in Career Counseling • Career counselors utilize their expertise to provide consultation in public, private, educational and organizational settings. • The consultation process is a voluntary, nonjudgmental process in which the career counselor is providing indirect assistance by helping the consultees directly intervene with their clients. • There are three population models of consultation: Mental health, behavioral, and organizational.

16. Diversity and Advocacy “Many of the early counseling theories were initially developed from a white male perspective . As career counseling clientele continues to diversify, it is an ethical mandate and professional requirement that career counselors are knowledgeable about a clients’ worldview and cultural norms and whether they fit with the career counselors’ theoretical biases.” • Career counselors should be able to choose a career theory and apply it to the client providing best practices to meet the needs of clients regardless of their diverse backgrounds. • It is just as important to carefully select an intervention that meets the needs of the client, regardless of the personal preference as a career counselor. • Career counselors need to have an awareness of workplace issues as it relates to various cultural groups.

17. Assessment “Career counselors rely on the use of assessments in order to meet the needs of their clients.’’ • Career counselors do not direct clients as to what specific career they should work towards. It is a process of utilizing the counseling relationship that has been developed, along with various assessments that come together to provide the client with insight related to career decisions. At that point in counseling, clients are then able to make a determination as to what would work best in terms of their career path. • It is important to empower clients to make decisions that seem best for them and they will require help evaluating this information.

18. Assessment • Interests • Research suggests that clients relate directly to interests. There are two ways to assess client interests: Qualitatively and Quantitatively. • Qualitative • Career Genograms • Review client’s previous job history and what they enjoyed about the position. • Quantitative • Strong Interest Inventory • Self-Directed Search • Kuder Occupational Interest Inventory

19. Assessment • Aptitudes • Working with clients to identify their strengths, provides them with a connection to potential careers. • Differential Aptitude Test • General Aptitude Test Battery • Values • Values clarification is an important part of the career counseling assessment process. • Values Inventory

20. Research and Evaluation “While many career counselors are aware of the immediate outcomes of counseling, such as the choice of a college major or a reduction of job stress, in general practice, there is very little formal follow-up.” • It is good practice for counselors to end every counseling relationship with an evaluation of the process. • There is also a need in career counseling for more formal evaluations of the relative effectiveness of various interventions. • Another area of competence key to career counseling is research methodology. • There continues to be a disconnect in career counseling research versus career counseling practice.

21. Diagnosis “While many individuals think that career counseling is mainly about taking assessments and figuring out how they can guide the client’s career aspirations, there are many contextual influences that affect client outcomes.” • Much of the pathology clients present can be a direct result of working in an unhealthy working environment. • It is important to do a thorough client history to examine whether the client’s presenting concerns are related to their working environment or long standing mental health issues. • Career counselors working with these at-risk populations need to be well versed and develop expertise in helping to empower these clients to confront social barriers such as prejudice in the work place.

22. Program Promotion, Management, and Implementation “Career counselors provide services in a variety of different settings. In order to meet the needs of these different settings successfully, career counselors need skills in understanding how to manage people and systems, and in allocating resources.” • Pasmore (2011) captured the five top skills needed to engage in strong leadership, these include, “inspiring commitment, strategic planning, leading people, and resourcefulness, and employee development.” • Regardless of the setting, career counselors managing career development programs in organizations will need to work on building relationships, organizing collaborative efforts, and team building. • Once goals have been met using strategic planning, organizations use a variety of different program evaluation methods to measure whether these goals have been met.

23. Information Resources “Career counselors often serve as gatekeepers to their clients by providing a variety of career related resources.” • It would behoove the beginning counselor to begin building a resource library that he/she can draw from in supporting her/his clients with career development concerns. • Counselors can support their clients by encouraging experiential learning (e.g., shadowing, talking to employees in the position they want to obtain, networking). • Occupational Handbook • O*NET