An applied social scientist can use his/her training as a self-development

or personal development counselor. As an applied social scientist

practitioner, he/she can be able to help resolve a range of serious problems
in people’s lives. They engage in counseling or professional guidance of
the individual through the use of psychological methods like collection of
case history data, personal interview, and interests and aptitude tests. Self-
development through counseling can be done by guidance counselors or
life coaches, career counselors, hypnotherapists, and personal growth
counselors.

There are different types of self-development or personal development

counseling that an applied social scientist can pursue. These include the
following:

1. Life Coaches for Personal Development

Life coaching is a profession that addresses specific personal projects,
business successes, general conditions, and transitions in a person’s
personal life, relationships, or profession. A life coach examines the
present condition of the client, discovers what obstacles or challenges a
client faces, and chooses a course of action to make the client’s life be
what he/she wants it to be.

2. Career Counseling for Personal Development

One of the most common forms or personal development counseling is
career counseling. It is needed by people who are entering the job
market, looking for career changes, and those who want to advance
within their present careers. Career counselors look into the client’s
personal strengths and weaknesses in the job market, his or her goals,
and his/her options in life.

3. Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a form of complementary therapy that uses the power
of positive suggestion to bring about subconscious change to one’s
thoughts, feelings, and behavior. A hypnotherapist aims to alter one’s
state of consciousness to relax the conscious part of the mind while
simultaneously stimulating and focusing the subconscious part. This
heightened state of awareness, reached using skilled relaxation
techniques, allows the hypnotherapist to make appropriate suggestions.