Dr.

Mireille Elias

Chapter 7 Career Counseling

I. Definition of Career Counseling

II. Career Counseling Intervention
1. Individual Counseling
2. Group Counseling
3. Career Education
III. Career Counselor skills
- Listening
- Empathy and Patience
- Understanding the body-Language
- Openness to growth
- Respect confidentiality and professional boundaries
- A non-judgmental approach
- Flexibility
IV. Career Counseling Settings
1- Schools
2- Colleges and Universities
3- Organizations
4- Private Practice.
V. Career Counseling Clients
1) Work-Bound Youth
2) Adults in Transition
3) Clients with Disabilities
4) Ethnically and Culturally Diverse Clients
 Dr. Mireille Elias

Chapter 7 Career Counseling

I. Definition of Career Counseling

Career counseling refers to an ongoing set of activities and conversations between a
counselor and a client designed to help the client, decide which career to pursue,
complete a job search, or build a sense of satisfaction and achievement at work. Thus,
career counselors work with a wide variety of clients facing different career challenges.
The specific form career counseling takes varies depending on the goals established by
counselor and client.

Counseling for career choice is focused on helping people decide which career to pursue.
Often, clients seeking this type of counseling are either beginning a career or considering
a career change. These clients may be undecided for a variety of reasons, including a lack
of information, too many or too few attractive options, conflict with others concerning
these options, or a general difficulty making decisions. Throughout the course of
counseling, clients are encouraged to gain a better understanding of how their
personalities, interests, values, and skills might be more congruent with certain types of
occupations than with others

II. Career Counseling Intervention

1. Individual Counseling: Individual career counseling involves a professional
counselor working in a one-to-one relationship with a single client. The objectives of
individual counseling may focus on helping clients increase their self-knowledge,
decision-making skills, or knowledge of occupational opportunities and the world of
work. Often his involves the administration and interpretation of psychological tests and
the use of reference sources to obtain detailed occupational information.

2. Group Counseling: Group counseling differs from individual counseling in one

important respect; group members learn from each other in addition to learning from their
interactions with the counselor. This can be particularly valuable to individuals who are
early in their career exploration and lack career-related experience and information.

Group career counseling takes a variety of forms. Career development groups include
most of the components found in individual career counseling, and they have similar
objectives. Group participants typically take tests and participate in a group discussion of
their test results. In addition, they may be assigned to complete a computer-based
activity, prepare a resume, complete a homework assignment, or interview a potential
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employer or a person employed in a career of interest. Clients complete these activities

outside the group and discuss their experiences during a group meeting.

3. Career Education: Career education refers to an organized program of instruction

designed to increase vocational self-knowledge, provide occupational information, teach
effective decision-making skills, and improve the individual’s ability to deal with life
transitions. Ideally, children will be introduced to career education during their early
years and have continued exposure to career education as they progress through the
educational system. Critical considerations in the design of career education for children
are the learner’s developmental stage, knowledge of the types of activities that are
appropriate for learners at each developmental stage, and an understanding of the
intended outcomes.

III. Career Counselor skills

- Listening: In counseling, active listening and communication are critical for
establishing trust with clients. This is because clients need to know they’re heard and
understood by a counselor who’s genuinely listening and sensitive to their feelings and
fears.
A counselor must be able to assess what’s being said, why it’s being said, and how it’s
being said. This approach helps a counselor to comprehend exactly what the client is
sharing with them. Active listening also means hearing “between the lines” and assessing
what isn’t being said at all, as sometimes what the client avoids saying speaks loudest of
all.
- Empathy and Patience: A Counselor has to practice empathy and patience towards
his/her clients. He/she has to make sure they understand the background of their clients
and reason with their actions, to understand why they did what. The client needs to feel
that his/her problems and issues are recognized and understood by someone empathetic
but impartial. It is only possible if the counselor is patient enough to hear out whatever
the client has to say without sounding judgmental or biased.

- Understanding the body-Language: Sometimes, the client won’t be willing to divulge

many details and might be hesitating to open up. At times like this, the counselor should
identify his/her discomfort by understanding his/her body language. However, the
counselor has to make sure that he/she is not making any prejudices about his/her client’s
situations just by assuming their body language. Observing the body language should just
help the counselor to ascertain what the client is thinking and if possible, give a leeway to
the conversation.
 Dr. Mireille Elias

- Openness to growth: counselor should learn to accept that they’re always capable of
learning more about their field. A commitment to professional and personal growth can
be found through continuing education. Psychological and therapeutic advances happen
rapidly, and modern counselors need to know the latest changes in therapy to use with
their clients. Studying advanced degrees and online courses can keep counselors aware of
new methods being employed in therapy.

- Respect confidentiality and professional boundaries: A Counselor has to protect the

interest of the client, no matter what. There are chances that a client might divulge his/her
details to the clients with a vote of confidence in the counselor that he/she will not
divulge the details to anyone. A counselor should make sure that they uphold this
expectation of the client to the fullest and do not misuse the client’s personal information
in any malign way. The Counselor should also be up to date with the ethical and legal
responsibilities they have towards their clients. A counselor is expected to behave in a
disciplined manner and should maintain professional boundaries with the clients.

- A non-judgmental approach: A counselor's job isn't to pass judgment or give advice

on a client's actions or feelings; instead through talking therapy they aim to help clients
see things clearly, from a different, more optimistic viewpoint. To do this client's must
feel free to express their thoughts and feelings without judgment, criticism or rejection.
As a counselor he needs to contain and manage his own reactions in a supportive and
professional manner.

- Flexibility: Flexibility in counseling is defined as the ability to adapt and change the
way that he responds to meet the clients' needs. He should not stay rigid and stick to a
predetermined treatment path when his clients require a different approach. Being
flexible is one of the most important attributes of a professional counselor.

IV. Career Counseling Settings

Career counseling services are available in a variety of alternative settings in
contemporary society. This section describes career counseling in schools, colleges and
universities, businesses, nonprofit and professional organizations, and private practice
settings.

1- Schools: Career counseling in schools begins in the elementary school years and
continues through high school graduation. The purpose, particularly in the elementary
and middle school years, is to inform students about career-related issues and to spark the
career development process. Successful activities are consistent with the students’
vocational maturity (i.e., their stage in the career development process). Most elementary
 Dr. Mireille Elias

school students have not yet begun to think realistically about career issues; career
education initiates the transition from career fantasies (i.e., being a ballerina or baseball
player) to realistic career planning. Much of the early career-related instruction appears in
examples in assigned reading materials (e.g., readers and social studies books). As
students’ progress through the elementary grades, career education activities become
more common. Many of these take the form of special assignments or modules
introduced by the teacher. Other career education activities include career days and
speakers who talk about career-related topic.

During high school, students begin to plan for their entry into the workforce or to attend a
college or university. It is only at this age that most students begin to be able to relate
career issues to their personal situation. The goals are to sensitize students to the
vocational significance of their personal values, interests, and skills and to provide
information about the demands and benefits of alternative career options.

2- Colleges and Universities: For most students, the entry into college demarks the
beginning of their ability to act upon career choices. Although many have given
considerable thought to their career plans, their ability to explore their ideas in a
meaningful way has been constrained by their age, dependence on their family, and
limited work experience and high school curricular offerings. Thus, many enter higher
education with an understanding of the importance of career choice and with feelings of
anxiety regarding their relative lack of progress.

Most college students engage in a period of exploration during which they try out various
courses, part-time jobs, and volunteer activities to learn more about themselves and their
career options. Often, they recognize need for increased personal understanding of their
interests, values, and aptitudes. Older adults returning to college after an absence from
school often face additional issues such as work-family conflicts, stress, and age
discrimination.

3- Organizations: Among the earliest organizations to provide career counseling

services were the corporations that emerged with the industrial revolution.

Corporations began to offer a wider range of services in the late 1980s, and many now
offer a program of career counseling services. government agencies such as the military,
rehabilitation agencies, and correctional facilities also provide career counseling services.

Many organizations employ staff members (often in their human resources department)
to provide career services. Specialists employed as independent contractors may
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supplement the routine services by providing specialized services such as psychological

assessment and work evaluations.

4- Private Practice: Until recently there was little opportunity for career counselors to
work exclusively in private practices. Free career counseling is available to most
individuals through schools, colleges and universities, Organizations.

However, expansion of the range of career services offered by corporations in the late
1980s increased the opportunities for psychologists in private practice to specialize in
career counseling. Organizations often and that contracting with private practitioners is
cost-effective because career services can be purchased in an as-needed basis.

The career counseling services most frequently provided by private practitioners are
those specialized or time-intensive services that are not cost-effective to provide in house.
These include individual counseling, psychological assessment, and assistance with
career decision making and coaching, and career management.

V. Career Counseling Clients

This section briefly reviews some of the critical issues that psychologists and counselors
consider when providing career counseling services to selected groups of clients.

1) Work-Bound Youth: Psychologists and counselors counseling work-bound youth

formulate an approach for career counseling based on their evaluation of the client’s
vocational maturity and proficiency in these domains. The choices made by these
youngsters are the initial steps in their career, so career counselors help them make
decisions that will maintain their future options rather than foreclose future possibilities.

2)Adults in Transition: he cohort of adults making career transitions is varied because

any passage that causes a change in status (e.g., marriage, birth of a child, death of a
loved one, termination from employment, and decision to retire) can trigger a career
transition. Transitions such as school-to-work and a change in job title and
responsibilities can be anticipated. This permits the development of a strategic plan that
allows some control over the timing, pace, and details of the transition.

Nevertheless, anticipated transitions require some changes in behavior and relationships,

and they involve both losses and gains.

Unanticipated transitions catch people by surprise. They can result from events (e.g.,
downsizing and health issues) or planned events that fail to occur. Unanticipated
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transitions allow little or no time to develop plans or minimizing negative consequences,

and they often cause a sense of personal crisis.

3) Clients with Disabilities: Disabilities can be classified as physical, psychiatric, or

cognitive in nature. Physical disabilities limit people’s ability to perform the full range of
typical motor functions. They can result from congenital conditions, physical injuries, or
progressive conditions such as diabetes.

Psychiatric disabilities affect the person’s ability to reason and to deal successfully with
typical life events. Cognitive disabilities affect the individual’s problem-solving and
decision-making abilities. Contrary to stereotypes, people’s ability to perform many
occupations is unaffected by these disabilities.

Psychologists and counselors working with individuals having a disability evaluate both
the nature of the disability and the individual’s adjustment to the disability. Adjustment
takes time, and people also differ in their ability to accept changes in their status. Clients
who have not yet made a realistic adjustment to their present status typically require
different counseling services than those who have adjusted to their status and are
committed to making the best of their life.

Regardless of these differences, however, psychologists and counselors avoid making the
disability the focus of their attention. Psychologists and counselors help clients
understand their rights under the law, identify the accommodations that will allow them
to perform desired occupations successfully, and help them practice constructive ways to
communicate this information to employers and prospective employers.

4) Ethnically and Culturally Diverse Clients: Differences attributable to cultural and

social experiences are universal. For example, collectivist cultures endorse values and
behaviors that differ from those preferred by individualist cultures.

Psychologists and counselors avoid stereotyping, but they recognize that members of
social, gender, and ethnic groups are likely to have had common experiences and to share
similar views of the world.

Psychologists and counselors attempt to understand and respect the influence of their
client’s cultural heritage.