E SSENTIAL E LEMENTS OF
C AREER C OUNSELING
Ria E. Baker, Ph.D., LPC-S

C AREER COUNSELING DEFINED
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A process in which a counselor works collaboratively to help clients/students clarify, specify, implement, and adjust to work-related decisions.
CC addresses the interaction of work with other life roles.

W HAT IS CAREER COUNSELING ?
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Frank Parsons (1909) – Father of career guidance and counseling profession.
George Merrill – pioneer and forerunner of career guidance (acad./tech/voc. training)
“Parsonian approach”:
1. Develop a clear understanding of yourself, aptitudes, abilities, interests, resources, limitations, and other qualities.
2. Develop knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success, advantages and disadvantages, compensation, opportunities, and prospects in different lines of work.
3. use “true reasoning” on the relations of these two groups of facts.

C AREER C OUNSELING
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Career counselors (CC) incorporate a variety of interventions into their work with clients with self-information.
CC supplement the traditional approaches to career interventions with counseling-based strategies that actively engage clients in the career counseling process.
CC collaborate with clients to construct career interventions that address each client’s concerns and context.

H ISTORY OF CAREER COUNSELING
Contextual influences
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Late 1800s: Social reform interacting with the rise of the industrial revolution
Early 1900: Cognizance of individual differences
1920s: The classification of military personnel and issues of national defense
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Rising concern about people with disabilities and mental illness
1930s: Economic exigencies and needs to match persons with available employment opportunities during the Great Depression.

H ISTORY CONT .
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1940/50s: National defense
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1960s: Democratization of education, civil rights, women’s rights, and occupational opportunities in the
Great Society programs
1970s: Concerns for equity and special needs populations in a climate of economic austerity
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1980/90s: Transformation from an industrial to an information-based global economy and from military to economic competition among nations.

H ISTORY
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First counseling related professional association in U.S.: National Vocational Guidance
Association.
Now: National Career Development Association
(NCDA) - 1913

W ORKERS IN THE U.S.
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Tenuous employment security
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Anxiety about the prospect of being laid off
Commitment to more hours of work
Work longer hours, take less vacation
Average working U.S. citizen works approx. 200 hours more per year than in 1970s
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Many people are deciding that it makes more sense to work to live (rather than living to work).

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Career counselors have at their disposal standardized assessments that can be used to tell people which occupation they should choose.
Work role decisions can be made in isolation from other life roles.
CC does not address personal issues.
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CC do not need extensive counseling expertise to do their work competently.
CC does not address the client’s context and culture.
CC is required only when a career decision must be made.
CC ends when a career decision is made.

C AREER C OUNSELING
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A complex activity that encompasses a full range of clients’ life experiences – human development issues.
Multicultural competence important – knowledge, skills, awareness
Understanding how race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, family constellations, geography… influence client’s world view, career options.

C ULTURALLY ENCAPSULATED APPROACHES (W RENN ,
1962)
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Standardized assessment in CC lack cultural equivalence, appropriate norm groups, and linguistic equivalence (Fouad, 1993).
Persons of diverse racial/ethnic groups guided into narrow range of occupational options (Aubrey, 1977)
CC attempted to fit clients to a particular career counseling approach, rather than providing services that fit the client’s context.
Ignore those who approach decisions from a collectivistic orientation or intuitive style

CC NEEDS TO :
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Engage in ongoing activities that foster multicultural awareness, knowledge, and sensitivity.
Cultural immersion experiences are also vital to fostering multicultural sensitivity.
Career choice and adjustments are continual process
(Super, 1990).

C AREER COUNSELING COMPETENCIES
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Career development theory
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Individual and group counseling skills
Individual/group assessment
Information/resources
Program promotion, management, implementation
Coaching, consultation, performance improvement
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Diverse populations
Supervision
Ethical/legal issues
Research/evaluation
Technology

T HE ROLE OF NCDA
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Administers and interprets formal and informal assessments to help client clarify and specify relevant self-characteristics
Encourages experience-based exploratory activities
Uses career planning systems and occupational information systems to help individuals better understand the world of work
Provides opportunities for improving decision-making skills
Assists in developing of individualized career plans
Teaches job-search strategies, interview skills, resume development
Helps to resolve potential personal conflicts on the job, through practice in developing relevant interpersonal skills
Assists in understanding the integration of work and other life roles
Provides support for persons experiencing job stress, job loss, and/or career transition (www.ncda.org)