case study of career counselling

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The Career Counseling Casebook, 2nd Edition (2013) published by the National Career Development Association, was written to help career counselors, counseling students, and counselor educators bridge the gap between theory and practice. Edited by Spencer G. Niles, Jane Goodman, and Mark Pope, the book strives to assist in building skills to address the National Career Development Association's Career Counseling Competencies. The book clearly demonstrates that career counseling is not always a systematic procedure of testing and telling and fully embraces how to assist clients with career development concerns taking into consideration society's shift to globalization, diversification, use of technology, and fluctuating economic conditions.

The book’s different cases, over 40 included, are organized by lifespan development stage from the first case with a nine year old boy to the last case with a retired couple. It offers two complex cases per stage and includes a broad range of client diversity. This allows readers to make a quick search for the cases relevant to their practice and decide whether the case can help their use of career development interventions with clients. I found it to be useful that the book is spiral bound, making it easy to read the cases and work with them.

Every case engages the reader to increase their knowledge and application of the following:

career development theory,

individual/group counseling skills,

assessment,

career information and resources,

labor market trends,

multicultural knowledge and skills,

ethical issues, and

technology.

The book sparks discussion and reflection on how readers can improve their career development skills to assist the client's career growth. The book offers a rich array of perspectives from which to learn about career counseling from established career counselors through the use of 97 case respondents.

The cases involve individuals, couples, and families as well as co-occurring mental health disorders in addition to career development concerns. The cases encourage forming connections between theory and practice, developing appropriate strategies for the large range of career development issues that clients bring to counseling, creating best-practices based approaches to working with career issues with clients, building skills in case conceptualization, and developing critical thinking skills. Additionally, the authors give the reader examples of ways that the cases can be used with counseling students and counselors to engage them in developing the skills and knowledge necessary to competently work with career development concerns.

Each case is analyzed by at least two case respondents who cite to establish best-practice, empirically-based suggestions. The case respondents were not required to conform to a specific theory and as such career counselors, counseling students, and counselor educators can understand how each career counseling expert would fluidly handle each case. Further, case respondents were not tied to a specific writing format for responses, which offers the reader freshness in how each case is analyzed. Just as with the cases themselves, the selected case respondents represent many stages of the lifespan, diversity, and a full range of work settings. However, there are case responses that are quite robust and specific in their career counseling interventions while others offered a much more generalized overview when working with a case.

Throughout the book, the case responders discuss ethical considerations and concerns. For graduate students learning the foundations of career development, the book provides an especially helpful resource to learn how to begin to integrate career development processes in counseling thoroughly, theoretically, and ethically. The career counselor will find the book an up-to-date resource on current career development trends as it is based in best practices and empirical evidence. Finally, counselor educators will love the case studies and the suggestions for integrating the case studies into their career counseling class to bring their class to life.

Additional books could supplement this resource. First, A Counselor's Guide to Career Assessment Instruments , 6th Edition would help the reader to more fully understand the assessments recommended by the case responders and to consider other assessments not mentioned. Second, Inspiring Career Practitioners to Connect Theory and Practice could be a helpful adjunct as the DVD contains video footage of leading career development theorists such as John Holland, Donald Super, John Krumboltz, Nancy Schlossberg, and Sunny Hansen talking about putting their theories into practice. Third, The Internet: A Tool for Career Planning , 3rd Edition provides career counselors with resources to help persons engage in effective career planning on-line. Fourth, Experiential Activities for Teaching Career Counseling Classes and for Facilitating Career Groups , 3rd Edition provides career counselors, students, and counselor educators with activities to assist individuals and groups with their career development. All of these resources build and join with The Career Counseling Casebook 2nd Edition.

The Career Counseling Casebook 2nd Edition will make a great addition to a career counselor’s and counselor educator's bookshelf. The variety of cases presented can serve a wide array of audiences and includes methods suitable for many different teaching and learning styles to promote career development interventions within many counseling practice settings. Students will benefit from the vast array of career development intervention ideas presented in the book.

This book is available in the NCDA Career Resource Store .

Printer-Friendly Version

Brian Pillsbury    on Monday 06/02/2014 at 08:43 AM

Thanks for reviewing this, Dr. Burns. Do you know how much of this edition is different from the first edition?

Melanie Reinersman    on Monday 06/02/2014 at 04:20 PM

This book offers 41 new cases. If you will be at our conference in Long Beach, you are welcome to view it in the Resource Store (located in the Exhibit Hall). Melanie Reinersman, Publications Development Director

Brian Pillsbury    on Monday 06/02/2014 at 04:37 PM

Yay! New cases! I own the previous edition. I'll likely buy this one, too.

Sandy Hocker    on Saturday 06/28/2014 at 11:20 PM

This book sounds very intriguing as it highlights case studies of a diverse cross-section of our population. As a current CDF in training, I will be making this purchase as an dimension of better understanding of career counseling and client diversity.

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Career Theory and Practice Learning Through Case Studies

• Jane L. Swanson - Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA
• Nadya A. Fouad - University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, USA
• Description

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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Supplements

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Password-protected Instructor Resources include the following: 

• Editable, chapter-specific Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides  offer you complete flexibility in easily creating a multimedia presentation for your course.
• Test banks  provide a diverse range of pre-written options as well as the opportunity to edit any question and/or insert your own personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and understanding.
• Class activities  offer lively and stimulating ideas for practical application of the concepts. Activities include case information to complete “tasks” and can apply to individual or group projects, in and out of class.

“The use of a client throughout the textbook sets Career Theory and Practice apart from other books. It fosters in-depth exploration into the application of theories and concepts of career counseling. It also hits on critical student learning, including understanding the current trends in work and its intersection with multiple populations. It educates students how to approach clients in a culturally responsive manner to maximize client outcomes.”

“ The use of the case examples throughout Career Theory and Practice helps to bring the content to life. The order of the chapters is much better than other texts and the material is much more succinct than other texts. The summaries at the end of each chapter also provide a study guide for students.”

“ Career Theory and Practice provides a good framework to make the theoretical context practical. I like how this text makes career counseling ‘real’ for the readers.”

“ Career Theory and Practice by Jane L. Swanson and Nadya A. Fouad has great practical, real-world application through the use of case-studies…Excellent resource.”

“ Career Theory and Practice is straightforward, readable, and quite handy. Highly recommended for work with adults that are entering the world of work for the first time, or for adults that are going through transitions.”

It was very approachable for students and easy to understand. I loved the integration of multiple case studies and the long-term case study across the book.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:  

• Two new chapters on career construction theory and the psychology of working expose students to timely theories.
• New case studies allow students to apply theories to diverse clients in a variety of settings and discuss client issues.
• A thorough discussion of ethics emphasizes the importance of ethical guidelines, encouraging students to incorporate ethical decision-making into their practice.
• Increased coverage of school counseling expands a discussion of career interventions in K-12 schools, higher education settings, and community practices, providing critical information for students involved in school counseling programs.
• Updated references, literature, research, and statistics reflect the latest findings in the field.   

KEY FEATURES:  

• Comprehensive coverage of important theories of career choice and development is supported through one primary case study that is discussed throughout the book. This primary case is accompanied by additional supportive cases in each chapter.
• A blend of theory, practical examples, and specific cases  helps readers apply a wide range of career development theories to counseling clients.
• The  authors draw on their extensive experiences  as practitioners, researchers, and teachers to provide a realistic overview of the field of career counseling and development.
• Approaches to  integrating work and mental health  are proposed.
• Counselor Cognitions  guide readers in forming hypotheses about clients.
• Personal Reflections features help readers in their own career development.
• Societal issues  that influence career and work decisions, such as the role of the economy and the changing nature of the workforce, are discussed.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1: Career Counseling: An Overview

Chapter 5: The Case of Leslie

For instructors

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Innovating Career Counseling by Promoting Social Justice (Advocacy) and Decent Work for All: Helping People Make Social Contributions and Heal Themselves

Jacobus gideon (kobus) maree.

Department of Educational Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Gauteng South Africa

This chapter covers the emotional effect of changes in the world of work that have taken place globally over the past few decades on people. The discussion then moves to the need for and importance of career counseling as a means to help people interpret and deal with these changes. Also discussed is the idiosyncratic situation and needs of people in disadvantaged areas, as well as the importance of attending to their career counseling needs. A case study showing how career counseling can be postmodernized in a seriously disadvantaged environment is presented before the chapter is concluded.

Orientation

Since the current socioeconomic disruption is at its worst among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations (such as those in rural regions, informal settlements, and townships), I believe that innovation in career counseling should first and foremost target and be guided by the unique needs of these populations. The impact of occupational changes on disadvantaged people especially is devastating. In many previous publications, over the past two decades in particular, my colleagues and I (Maree, 2018 , 2019a , 2019d ) have elaborated on the horrendous influence of occupational changes on the career-lives of people in general but on disadvantaged people in particular. Workers often experience their work as lacking meaning and alien and subsequently struggle to come to terms with all the changes that enforce numerous work transitions on them (Maree, 2015 ). Deprived of the former safe occupational spaces (Winnicott, 1964 ) work used to provide for them, many workers have lost their jobs, struggle to find employment elsewhere, experience a sense of loss of control over key facets of their career-lives, and, eventually, their sense of meaning, purpose, and hope. In a sense, one can therefore argue that many people’s biggest career counseling need today is no longer “vocational guidance”, “career education”, or even “career counseling” but rather “employability counseling” (Fugate & Kinicki, 2008 ; Guilbert et al., 2016 ). Because career adaptability is a key prerequisite for employability, promoting such adaptability lies at the heart of helping people become employable.

Unemployment poses a far greater challenge in Global South countries, for instance in Africa, than in Global North countries. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO, 2019 , p. 1): “In 2017, extreme working poverty remained widespread, with more than 300 million workers in emerging and developing countries having a per capita household income or consumption of less than US$1.90 (PPP) [1.65 Euro] per day. Overall, progress in reducing working poverty is too slow to keep pace with the growing labor force in developing countries, where the number of people in extreme working poverty is expected to exceed 114 million in 2018, or 40 per cent of all employed people.” In addition (ILO, 2019 , p. 1), “the number of workers in vulnerable forms of employment (own-account workers and contributing family workers) is likely to increase in the years to come”. Seemingly, there is very little chance of global poverty being eradicated, as specified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2019 ). One of my greatest concerns is that resources-related structural inequalities have an extremely adverse emotional influence on people, and the impact is most destructive on young people. We therefore need to focus on disadvantaged people and the promotion of social justice or advocacy in our efforts to innovate and renovate career counseling. Seen from this perspective, the link between career counseling and social justice (advocacy) is clear.

I have witnessed first-hand during many research projects and outplacement workshops the daunting hardships people living in these conditions have to endure. Hearing them express their sense of hopelessness, desperation, marginalization, and pain has touched me deeply. Worryingly, young people are increasingly venting their anger and frustration about their dire work situation. They are aware that most of them will not realize their dream of finding sustainable, decent work, irrespective of how hard they try or their level of training. Consequently, the future looks bleak, with little chance that spiraling unemployment will decline. This also means that crime and lawlessness (often resulting from the inability to find sustainable work) are likely to become even worse in the future.

In their desperate quest for some kind of work, disadvantaged people generally have no one to turn to for career counseling. Even when they do receive vocational guidance, the need to uncover their initial, deep-rooted (often subconscious) “pain” (driving motives) is not attended to. There is insufficient evidence of active self- and career construction (Maree, 2014a , 2014b ; Savickas, 2011a , 2011b ). This matter will be discussed next.

Importance of Attending to the Self- and Career Construction Counseling Needs of Disadvantaged People Especially

Many children leave school without completing Grade 12 and/or achieving adequate marks in Grade 12, and also without having acquired important life skills or acquired some knowledge of business. Naidoo, Pretorius, and Nicholas ( 2017 ) state that career counseling is available to wealthy people in Global South countries such as South Africa but that indigent people simply cannot afford this often expensive service, which is deplorable as lack of such counseling exacerbates the already high unemployment among these people. The situation is made worse by the high level of student non-achievement’ or ‘poor achievement’ in tertiary education (Maree, 2010a , 2019a ). Making career counseling available to the millions of people who currently do not have access to this service can help reduce the high failure rate at tertiary institutions and thus contribute to economic growth and political stability. However, to achieve this aim, more is needed that mere expressions of intention, camaraderie, and empathy.

Below, I explain why eliciting subjective and objective career counseling information career counseling can best serve the needs of disadvantaged people.

Significance of Eliciting Subjective and Objective Career Counseling Information from Disadvantaged People

Previous research on people in disadvantaged contexts confirmed the importance of obtaining subjective, qualitative information on careers in addition to objective career-related information for such people (Maree, 2014a , 2014b , 2014c , 2014d , 2018 ) to help them choose appropriate careers and succeed in them. Not only do they generally display a serious lack of knowledge about careers (Brown, 2002 ), they are especially unsure about their career identities. In interventions in disadvantaged contexts, assessees’ life stories should be elicited and interpreted circumspectly by professionals adequately acquainted with their contexts and skilled in administering career counseling in diverse contexts. Assessees should also be furnished with sufficient information about the world of work, and their scores in tests and at school should be interpreted dynamically. Even in cases where their perceptions appear unrealistic, it should be remembered that people are guided largely by their own perceptions of their skills and by their confidence in achieving success in a given field of study and its associated career.

The storied approach is fully compatible with Global South (such as African) contexts. In fact, this approach has been “practiced” across Africa for millennia. Stevens, Duncan, and Sonn ( 2010 ) contend that “black history … has been passed on through the art of storytelling” (p. 18). Underlying this approach is the social constructionism paradigm, which advocates identity formation rather than personality traits, career adaptability rather than “maturity”, the use of “stories” (narratives) along with “scores” (numbers), forward movement that culminates in action rather than passivity and mere intention, and becoming employable rather than merely looking for a job. Ultimately, the aim of this approach is to help people manage repeated career-related transitions in their work-lives and convert career counseling into an intervention (instead of an “assessment”) that promotes reflexive, dialogical meaning co-construction by career counselors and their clients (Blustein, Palladino Schultheiss, & Flum, 2004 ; Cardoso, Silva, Gonçalves, & Duarte, 2014 ; McIlveen, Ford, & Dun, 2005 ).

A case study showing how career counseling can be postmodernized in a seriously disadvantaged environment is presented below.

Case Study: Life Design-Related Intervention in a Seriously Disadvantaged Context

My experiences at the good work foundation.

Below, I draw on my research-related experiences at the Good Work Foundation (GWF), which is under Kate, GWF’s CEO, and Mo Groch’s inspiring leadership. In a deep rural part of South Africa, the GWF is exemplifying the practical implementation of self- and career construction and life design theory. Of the adult learners, 90 + % recently left school, are unemployed, and could not succeed in enrolling at a tertiary training institution. They lack the skills needed to become employable, and their possibilities of finding sustainable work are gloomy. With the support of key partners, the GWF presents fundamental literacy training and career education to school-aged and adult learners (visit http://www.goodworkfoundation.org for more information). In addition to running learning academies, the GWF offers English, mathematics, digital literacy, and life skills training courses for those learners still at school, while the GWF’s career guidance academies offer digital literacy courses for adult learners.

A bridging year is offered to adult, unemployed school-leavers as a second chance to upskill themselves and enhance their chances of acceptance into fields of study they did not previously qualify for, thus improving their employability, career resilience, and career agility. After having acquired a sound English and digital literacy foundation, adult learners not only attend career academies (located at the digital learning centers) but also start serving the local economy. Specialized modules in wine, coffee, and front-of-house management can be completed or students can further their education by studying at the GWF’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) Academy. Once they have successfully completed their training, they are employed locally, find employment elsewhere, or continue studying either online or at tertiary training institutions.

What about the GWF approach is innovative? First, in a remote corner of Africa, they offer education and training that compares well with the best analogous training globally. Second, Kate and Mo Groch’s realization of the importance of training their students in a way that promotes their career “adaptability” and “the proficiency to find employment” (employability) instead of merely helping them “find employment”. Third, their emphasis on advancing their students’ twin survival [thriving] skills of information communication technology (ICT) literacy and proficiency in English (the language of business globally). This insight and practice are consistent with Ross’ ( 2016 ) view that becoming proficient in (a) English and (in certain instances) also in other foreign languages and in (b) the language of computers will help people communicate (connect, network) better—communication competency can arguably be regarded as the key skill that advances career adaptability and employability in today’s occupational world. Fourth, their awareness of the importance of providing life- and career construction-based counseling for each student and offering training that is on a par with life design-based training anywhere else in the world.

Using the CIP and the MCM , GWF colleagues could offer the latest qualitative (narrative, storied) career counseling to those learners who had completed their bridging year. This was a considerable achievement in a resource-scarce, deep rural region, dotted with informal settlements (informally known as squatter camps).

Life Design-Based Intervention Research at the GWF

During 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, GWF colleagues and I collaborated on three life design-based projects (see Table  7.1 ) aimed at demonstrating how life- and career construction (using the CIP and the MCM ) could assist students to choose fields of study, construct themselves and their careers, and eventually design successful lives and make social contributions (Maree, 2019a , 2019b ).

Table 7.1

The life design intervention plan

The students’ positive feedback and exciting progress indicated the success and validity of the intervention strategy (see Table  7.1 below for details), which is also easily replicable in other rural contexts.

Brief Discussion of the Outcomes of the Intervention (Maree, 2019a , 2019b )

Some of the trends that emerged from analyzing the data obtained through the projects warrant mention.

First, while the participants’ overall career adaptability showed improvement, important differences were noted between the men’s and women’s pretest and post-test scores in the Career Adapt - Abilities Scal e ( CAAS ; Maree, 2012a ). Second, the main finding was that only the women’s Curiosity improved significantly (as opposed to the improvement in the men’s Concern, Control, and Curiosity scores). Third, scrutiny of the women’s narratives (qualitative outcomes) confirmed the lowly status of women in this male-dominated, deep rural region where women are generally still expected to be submissive to men, to raise the children, and occupy themselves with household chores. As a result, the female participants seemed more curious about job opportunities, but their depressing circumstances largely precluded their actually converting opportunities into realities. Some of their comments are given below.

“I can only become happy when I leave this place forever” (Sarah, a 22-year-year woman). “There is no support for my dreams in our township” (Angie, 23 years old). “My greatest area for development is being unable to stand up for myself” (Pearl, 25 years old).

Above all, considering factors such as the cost and time to complete projects, the GWF projects (essentially narrative, qualitative, group-based life design interventions in resource-constrained rural environments) are easily replicable in similar contexts. The innovative nature of the approach is lauded and enthusiastically embraced by all concerned. In addition to the positive research outcomes, the projects have already reduced the likelihood of the students discontinuing their participation, dropping out of the projects, ending up on the streets with a bleak future, and swelling the ranks of the unemployed in the region.

Previously (Maree, 2018 ), I identified some key factors that both individually and collectively promote poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and decent work. First, a keen sense of innovation, goal-setting, planning and implementing rolling plans, flexibility, careful prior planning, willingness to become involved, as well as the capacity to adapt pre-planned schedules, strategies, and interventions as and when needed. Second, accepting the inevitability of change and exhibiting a willingness to embrace a protean change orientation (adapting schedules and making changes when needed). Third, a capacity to renovate old-fashioned ideas and engender new and contextually appropriate ones. Fourth, a sense of actionality (being able and willing to move forward enthusiastically) and the belief that positive developments are about to happen. Fifth, taking the lead and ensuring project sustainability. Sixth, accepting that these kinds of projects almost always occur in uncontrolled conditions (Savickas et al. 2009 ). Seventh, researchers and practitioners should understand and accept that human behavior can best be comprehended and appreciated only in those contexts where such behavior happens (Brown & Brooks, 1996 ). It is therefore essential to abandon predetermined and often biased assumptions about groups of people and how to “help them”. Instead, encouraging personal and collective agency and personal authorship should be prioritized. Lastly, unselfishness and a genuine desire to change the lives of vulnerable and marginalized groups of people are prerequisites for the success of any intervention in disadvantaged contexts.

This chapter covered innovating career counseling to promote social justice (advocacy) and sustainable decent work for all. Sadly, though, despite our best efforts, attempts to implement education, training, and counseling assessment instruments to prepare everyone for a rapidly changing world have been less than successful. In many instances, these efforts may have had unintended adverse effects. For example, it was recently announced that the South Africa education authorities had decided to introduce coding and robotics into schools at Grade 9 level through a subject called “digital learning” to prepare learners for the changed and changing world of work. While this is a laudable idea, only the more affluent schools will be able to afford the state-of-the-art equipment (including computer laboratories) and appoint qualified teachers to teach and train the learners. Most learners in resource-constrained contexts will not have access to this kind of training. Rivett ( 2019 ) points out that large numbers of properly trained teachers will be needed to execute the plan: “Computers have to be available on the school premises together with the relevant IT infrastructure and internet connectivity” (p. 2). Stringent safety measures will also be needed to prevent equipment from disappearing. The chances of successfully introducing these measures across the continent at present are virtually non-existent. Since “the risk of not being able to attain the skill of coding will be a risk of not attaining a job” (p. 2), these developments will in all likelihood serve only to widen the already huge gap between affluent and indigent people. Rivett righty asks the question: “Will the country end up with another subject that creates ‘have and have-nots’?” (p. 2).

On a more positive note: The successful implementation of the career counseling approach advocated in this book in a typical Global South (in this case, African) context is promising and bodes well for the future. I believe that replicating this model across Africa can advance the adaptability and employability of large numbers of impoverished people. Judging by the qualitative feedback of the participants in our own projects, the intervention promoted the welfare of the participants facing extreme hardship and large-scale unemployment. The intervention also reinforced their career resilience and agility, enhanced their career adaptability, promoted their sense of occupational, personal, and self-identity, employability, and improved their chances of finding sustainable decent work (many of them actually succeeded in finding sustainable work 1 ). The approach therefore holds much promise as a conduit for promoting Goal 8 of the UN Agenda (UN, 2016 , p. 1): “Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

In conclusion: The effect of technological advances on the nature of work is felt by many workers across the world currently. Occupational inequality 2 highlight the ever-growing division in the current workplace. The following is just one example: Remote engagement is bound to become the ‘new normal' in work contexts. For various reasons (including the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic), a large and ever-growing number of people are allowed or even compelled to work remotely. Whereas the majority of more privileged workers are allowed and able to stay (and work from) home, the less privileged still have to travel to the workplace and run the risk of contracting the coronavirus.

I can add also that I agree with Bar-On’s ( 2007 ) view that conditions in which people are deprived of the opportunity to blossom can hide and perhaps even destroy their self- and career construction. This sad situation compounds the human tragedy stemming from disadvantage, joblessness, and inequality. He rightly asks how many great leaders we have lost/are losing, such as Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Marx, Freud, and Einstein … people who may have contributed significantly to improving the lives of millions of people. Also, bearing in mind that unemployment is considered a major cause of the Arab Spring, the current situation in Global South countries especially poses a real threat to world peace. I believe that adopting the twofold Mandela response to counter adversity and its associated challenges will boost our individual and collective efforts to achieve sustainable decent work for all, especially those with economic and other kinds of disadvantage. This response to challenges relates to overcoming major challenges while also taking advantage of the multiple opportunities embedded in change (including the opportunity to make social contributions). This response is well aligned with “[t]he 21st-century perspective on career counseling [that] moves from the empiricism of objective vocational guiding and the humanism of subjective career developing to the social constructionism of projective life designing” (Savickas, 2015 , p. 136).

In Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-48648-8_8, I discuss how the CIP can be used to elicit the life stories of people innovatively and qualitatively.

1 Colleagues from the GWF regularly update me on the extent to which participants are succeeding in finding sustainable decent work.

2 See Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-48648-8_7.

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Innovative moments and narrative change in career counselling: a case study

• Published: 17 March 2020
• Volume 20 , pages 635–652, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

• Cláudia Sampaio Corrêa da Silva 1 ,
• Marco Antônio Pereira Teixeira 1 ,
• Paulo Cardoso 2 ,
• Pablo Fernández-Navarro 3 ,
• Miguel M. Gonçalves 3 &
• Maria Eduarda Duarte 4  

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This case study of an undecided university student has two aims: to assess the effect of life design career counselling on autobiographical reasoning and career variables, and to analyse the client’s narrative transformation using the innovative moments coding system. Results show improvement in career development and organization of autobiographical narrative. The client’s narrative evolved from basic to complex levels of elaboration. The spontaneous emergence of re-conceptualization innovative moments differs from previous studies and suggests that counselling length and tasks can facilitate re-conceptualization. Among the implications, the use of narrative change markers to fit counselling tasks to clients’ level of development is discussed.

Moments d'innovation et changement narratif dans l'orientation professionnelle: Une étude de cas. Cette étude de cas d'une étudiante universitaire indécise a été menée avec deux objectifs: évaluer l'effet de l’approche Life Design en orientation sur le raisonnement autobiographique et la carrière, et analyser la transformation narrative du client grâce au Innovative Moments Coding System (système de codage des moments innovants). Les résultats ont montré une amélioration du développement de la carrière et de l'organisation du récit autobiographique. Le récit du client est passé d'un niveau d'élaboration basique à un niveau complexe. L'émergence spontanée de moments innovants de reconceptualisation diffère des études précédentes et suggère que la durée et les tâches de conseil peuvent faciliter la reconceptualisation. Une des implications est l'utilisation de marqueurs de changement narratif pour adapter le conseil au niveau de développement des clients.

Zusammenfasung

Innovative Momente und narrative Veränderungen in der Laufbahnberatung: Eine Fallstudie. Diese Fallstudie eines unentschlossenen Universitätsstudenten verfolgte zwei Ziele: die Wirkung der Life Design-Laufbahnberatung auf autobiographische Überlegungen und Laufbahn-bezogene Variablen zu bewerten und die narrative Transformation des Klienten durch das Innovative Moments Coding System zu analysieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigten eine Verbesserung der Laufbahnentwicklung und der Organisation der autobiographischen Erzählung. Die Erzählung des Klienten entwickelte sich von einer einfachen zu einer komplexen Ebene der Ausarbeitung. Das spontane Auftauchen von innovativen Momenten der Rekonzeptualisierung unterscheidet sich von früheren Studien und legt nahe, dass die Dauer der Beratung und bestimmte Aufgaben die Rekonzeptualisierung ermöglichen können. Unter den Implikationen wird die Verwendung von narrativen Veränderungsmarkern diskutiert, um laufbahnbezogene Aufgaben an den Entwicklungsstand der Klienten anzupassen.

Momentos de innovación y cambio narrativo en orientación profesional: Un estudio de caso. Este estudio de caso de una estudiante universitaria indecisa tiene dos objetivos: evaluar el efecto de la orientación profesional Life Design en el razonamiento autobiográfico y en las variables de carrera, y analizar la transformación narrativa de la cliente por medio del Sistema de Codificación de Momentos de Innovación. Los resultados mostraron mejoras en el desarrollo profesional y en la organización de la narrativa autobiográfica. La narrativa de la cliente evolucinó de un nivel básico a niveles de elaboración complejos. La espontánea emergencia de los momentos de innovación de recoceptualización difiere de los studios previos y sugiere que la duración de la orientación y sus tareas pueden facilitar la reconceptualización. Entre las implicaciones, se debate el uso de los marcadores del cambio narrativo para el ajuste de las tareas de la orientación al nivel de desarrollo del cliente.

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This research was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (CNPq) (Grant Nos. 311726/2014-3, 249445/2013-1, and 471706/2014-0) and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology UIDB/04007/2020.

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Paulo Cardoso

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da Silva, C.S.C., Teixeira, M.A.P., Cardoso, P. et al. Innovative moments and narrative change in career counselling: a case study. Int J Educ Vocat Guidance 20 , 635–652 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-020-09422-7

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Veronica Vargas: Career Counseling

Introduction.

Career counseling, as a broad sphere of theoretical and practical frameworks aimed at helping clients make the right professional choices at different stages of their life span, deals with a variety of specific cases. In order to develop an effective intervention plan and solve the client’s problem, a counselor needs to assess a client, his or her worldview, family background, and personal preferences and abilities through qualified communication and appropriate application of theories. In this paper, a case study of Veronica Vargas will be analyzed with the help of such elements as genogram construction, worldview interpretation, theory application, client conceptualization, intervention discussion, and description of cultural issues.

Client’s Genogram

As illustrated in Figure 1, Veronica’s genogram includes her father and mother’s branches, leading to their three children, including Veronica, Annie, and Lewis.

As the genogram shows, the main influences on Veronica’s career choice in the Vargas family have her parents, George and Sarah. As it follows from the interview with the client, her relationship with the mother is more trusting than the one with her father. It indicates that Veronica is more likely to follow the lead Sarah and engage in a serious healthcare-related professional field. However, George’s strict attitude toward life choices determined by his first profession as a military man in combination with the cultural particularities of Latino family imposes psychological constraints on his daughter’s career choice. Also, since Veronica is the oldest daughter in the family, she bears the burden of responsibility due to her dominating position among the Vargas’ children.

Client’s Worldview Description

As it follows from the case study description, Veronica perceives herself as an achiever whose successful and hard-working educational experience contributes to future professional advancement. Since her high school years, the client has volunteered to help in a pediatric department of a local hospital and developed a fondness for this kind of occupation. From the perspective of the developmental career theory, Veronica is at the exploratory stage of career search, where she narrows the choices of her future occupation but does not make a final decision (Zunker, 2016). Overall, the choice of career is crucial for the client and determines her relationships with others.

According to the trait and factor theory, the educational achievements in the field of nursing and the overall inclination of the client to work with people allow for identifying her strengths and weaknesses (Zunker, 2016). The diverse cultural background of her parents, where the father’s family is originally from Guatemala, and the mother comes from a Jewish family, determines the framework of Veronica’s attitudes to career options.

The collision of values and role expectations between the two cultures causes the conflict in Veronica’s choice between the desired profession and the required one. George’s vision of the particular role of the oldest daughter in the family and the encouragement for Veronica to spend more time with friends and boyfriends instead of working and studying signalize that the father expects his daughter to perform a family role rather than professional.

At the same time, the family is important to the client due to the cultural values of family relations in the Latino communities. Veronica is intimidated by the need to visit a counselor because the challenges in career choice do not seem to be important enough to seek assistance outside the family. However, her self-esteem is high enough to pursue her dream occupation. The difficulty of the overall situation lies in the collision of family values and the consideration of the future professional role.

Necessary Additional Information

In the course of initial interviewing, some more information concerning educational achievements would be required to analyze the level of skills development. A more descriptive interpretation of the situation with career choice presented by the client in private communication will help in a more accurate assessment of her worldview. The counselor would require the client’s description of her perception of the medical field as the profession.

Also, it would be important to clarify Veronica’s vision of influential factors determining the shift in her major. When conceptualizing the case, one should refer to the specific learning experiences acquired in the professional setting. Since the client has a history of volunteering in a pediatric department, her feedback about the merits and demerits of the identified setting will be useful for further work. It will help to perceive a more detailed vision of the problem under discussion and will facilitate the development of the intervention plan for the client. A sufficient amount of collected information will benefit the process of counseling and contribute to the integration of appropriate interventions.

Krumboltz’s Learning Theory

Basic constructs and concepts.

The social learning theory, which is referred to as the learning theory of career counseling (LTCC), deals with an understanding of the diverse types of influences through social interactions as the main triggers of career choice. This theory was initially proposed and developed by Krumboltz, Mitchell, and Gelatt in the mid-1970s and later expanded by Krumboltz and Mitchel (Zunker, 2016). According to this approach, the process of decision-making related to a career vastly depends on the combination of life events and conditions surrounding a person. Thus, the family and genetic inclinations, environmental factors, educational achievements, and skills development all constitute a foundation for the ultimate choice of occupation.

The authors of the theoretical approach justify four basic factors influencing career development. The first one addresses genetic endowments and deals with the inherited individual characteristics or professional inclinations running in the family. The second factor involves environmental conditions and events, such as natural resources, disasters, or living conditions that are beyond the client’s influence but have a significant impact on the choice of a profession (Zunker, 2016).

Learning experiences comprise the third factor of influence and include instrumental and “associative learning experiences” (Zunker, 2016, p. 34). On the one hand, instrumental learning implies making conclusions about particular actions and their consequences by means of social interaction or personal experience. On the other hand, associative learning experiences are created upon “negative and positive reactions to pairs of previously neutral situations” (Zunker, 2016, p. 34).

Finally, task approach skills constitute the fourth influential factor and embody several skills, including problem-solving, decision-making, cognitive and emotional responses, which help identify the potential to pursuing a particular career path (Zunker, 2016). The theory aims at simplifying the process of career counseling and underlines the individual particularities of each client, depending on which the influential factor will vary.

Concepts not Applicable to the Client

Considering the individual character of the influences a particular person might experience, not all of the above-mentioned concepts might be applicable to the case of Veronica Vargas. Indeed, including the description of the situation in the case study, there are no specific conditions in the environment in which the client lives that might affect her desire to shift from nursing to medicine. Therefore, the factor of environmental conditions is not relevant to the case due to the absence of the extraordinary environmental influences that impose career-related behaviors.

Case Conceptualization

The choice of the theory is determined by the complexity of the influences it embodies that are relevant to the case. The career-related concerns of the client are based on her genetic and cultural background, as well as her learning experiences and skills. According to Zunker (2016), Krumboltz’s learning theory is designed as a theoretical framework for developing career decision-making skills that will be useful for a client not only during the counseling sessions but also throughout his or her life span. Moreover, the application of LTCC will ensure thorough addressing of all the influential elements and help resolve the issue of the change of professional education from nursing to pediatric oncology. The theory is not limited to a single perspective and allows for a broader interpretation of the problem under the influence of various factors observed in the case.

According to the chosen social learning model, Veronica’s genetic endowment entails her willingness to help others like her mother, who works as a social worker. Inherited intellectual abilities and altruistic devotion to important jobs contribute to the client’s desire to pursue the medical field that would imply more important responsibilities and more special professional skills than nursing. Overall, the genetic factor plays a significant role in influencing Veronica’s career-related decision-making process. Associative and instrumental learning experiences are derived from the immediate social environment, including the family, of the client, and are considered the most influential factor in Veronica’s case.

Firstly, instrumental learning experiences are formed under the influence of observed attitudes on the importance of pediatric oncology as a profession. This factor is impacted by Veronica’s self-observation generalization because she has had a successful experience of working in the pediatric department and has acknowledged her satisfaction with such kind of occupation. Also, since Veronica’s boyfriend studies at the medical educational facility, the desire to shift might be dictated by the motivation to fit the social environment.

However, the reactions of Veronica’s father to the daughter’s engagement in medicine both during her high school years and the first year in college impose negative reactions to the profession as inappropriate. The same collision of reactions is observed when analyzing the associative learning experiences retrieved when comparing nursing and medicine. On the one hand, the socially imposed idea that being a doctor is more reputable than being a nurse serves as a motivation to shift to medicine.

However, George’s claims concerning the cost of additional schooling and the inappropriateness of the medical profession for his oldest daughter create a negative reaction to pediatrics as an occupation for Veronica. Finally, the task approach skills that the client has developed during her volunteering and studying at college might impact her decision to engage in the pediatric field.

Counseling Interventions

In order to identify the influence of the analyzed factors on the client, the counselor might apply several assessing and therapeutic interventions to help Veronica differentiate between the important and non-important contributors to her decision-making and ultimately resolve the issue. It is noteworthy that the overall communication with the client would be maintained according to the framework of motivational interviewing, which has shown significant positive results in resolving the client’s career-related issues (Klonek, Wunderlich, Spurk, & Kauffeld, 2016).

The first intervention that would be applicable to the case is Myers Briggs Type Indicator that might help Veronica verify her personality fit in the pediatric department (Yang, Richard, & Durkin, 2016). The instrument entitled My Vocational Situation (VMS) might be used as a means of identification of the causes of a problem. One of the three elements of VMS, called Emotional and Personal Barriers, will benefit the resolution of issues with the influence of the father’s disapproval and determine other potential difficulties in decision-making (Zunker, 2016).

Also, the California Test of Personality might be used to identify the character of relationships in the family and their influence on career choice (Zunker, 2016). As Fouad, Kim, Ghosh, Chang, and Figueiredo (2016) claim, the role of the family is crucial in career choice, especially for students who primarily depend on their parents’ support. Similarly, Whiston and Cinamon (2015) emphasize that the work-family interface might be a cause of distress and must be accurately considered by career counselors.

Finally, the Work Values Inventory would be used to measure “altruism, aesthetics, creativity, intellectual stimulation, independence, prestige, management, economic returns” and other elements of professional life (Zunker, 2016, p. 178). The combination of the chosen interventions is expected to provide positive results in the counseling process.

Influential Factors in Work with the Client

The specific features of work with Veronica might be influenced by her age, gender, and mixed cultural background of her family. Since the client is a first-year college student, her age particularities should be considered in the construction of communication and interventions. The client should be treated as a responsible adult but with the application of encouraging techniques. Since the client is a female, it is important to direct the counseling measures at the identification of the client’s perception of women’s roles in the family and society to maintain consistent therapeutic procedures. Also, the Vargas family is of a mixed cultural origin, where the mother is Jewish, and the father is Latino. Therefore, it is necessary to study the particularities of career perception by these two cultural groups so that the interventions fit Veronica’s worldview.

Counselor’s Cultural Values and Biases Affecting the Client

It is commonly accepted in the counseling field that the work of a professional with a multicultural population should be carried out within cultural sensitivity competency (Dillon et al., 2016). Failure to meet the expectations of multicultural counseling competence might lead to therapy failure. Thus, the biases in work with Veronica might occur on the basis of interpersonal communication due to the differences in nationality since Veronica comes from a Latino family. To avoid that, a counselor needs to investigate the particularities of the Latino culture. Also, since the client had been very reluctant to start counseling sessions and did not perceive such meetings as dignifying activity, it might be difficult to encourage Veronica to engage in the interventions.

To sum up, the case of Veronica Vargas is complicated due to the presence of multiple influential factors determining her career-related concerns when deciding to shift from nursing to pediatric oncology. The counseling interventions should be applied according to Krumboltz’s Learning Theory, which best fits the situation where the client is engaged in an educational setting and is challenged by the family members’ opinions. To succeed in therapeutic procedures, a counselor should preserve multicultural competency and consider all influential factors to minimize biases and contribute to the problem resolution.

Dillon, F. R., Odera, L., Fons-Scheyd, A., Sheu, H. B., Ebersole, R. C., & Spanierman, L. B. (2016). A dyadic study of multicultural counseling competence. Journal of Counseling Psychology,63 (1), 57-66.

Fouad, N. A., Kim, S., Ghosh, A., Chang, W., & Figueiredo, C. (2016). Family influence on career decision making: Validation in India and the United States. Journal of Career Assessment, 24 (1), 197-212.

Klonek, F. E., Wunderlich, E., Spurk, D., & Kauffeld, S. (2016). Career counseling meets motivational interviewing: A sequential analysis of dynamic counselor-client interactions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 94, 28-38.

Whiston, S. C., & Cinamon, R. G. (2015). The work-family interface: Integrating research and career counseling practice. The Career Development Quarterly, 63, 44-56.

Yang, C., Richard, G., & Durkin, M. (2016). The association between Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and psychiatry as the specialty choice. International Journal of Medical Education, 7, 48–51.

Zunker, V. G. (2016). Career counseling: A holistic approach (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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