Counselling for Career Construction

Counselling for Career Construction

Connecting life themes to construct life portraits: Turning pain into hope

J. G. MareeUniversity of Pretoria, South Africa

A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-94-6209-270-9 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-271-6 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6209-272-3 (e-book)

Published by: Sense Publishers,P.O. Box 21858,3001 AW Rotterdam,The Netherlandshttps://www.sensepublishers.com/

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All photographs taken by Anton Maree.

All Rights Reserved © 2013 Sense Publishers.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Participants and caretakers gave oral and written consent for photographs to be taken and displayed in this book.

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DEDICATION

“The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do”

(Anonymous).

Dedicated to Mark Savickas, my personal role model and career counselling’s most eminent scholar.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword xiP. J. Hartung

1. Turning Hurt into Hope: Rationale for the Book 11.1 Introduction 11.2 How I Developed an Interest in the Topic of This Book 11.3 Why I Believe it is Worth Conducting Research on the

Topic and Reporting on such Research 31.4 ‘Best Practice’ in Career Counselling Theory and Praxis: Perspectival

Comments and a Call for Research 41.5 Meta-Reflection (Repeated Reflection on Reflections) 61.6 Overview 7

2. Need for a New Approach to Career Counselling 92.1 Introduction 92.2 The Importance of Equipping Clients better to Negotiate

Career Transitions 92.3 Broad Functions of Personality and Career Counselling Theories 102.4 Investigating the Continued Value and Power of 20th Century

Career Theory and Practice for 21st Century Career Counselling Practice 11

2.5 Value of Present-Day Career Counselling Theories: Focusing on the Bigger Picture 11

2.6 Reflecting and Reflexivity as Integral Aspects of 21st Century Career Counselling 13

2.7 Summary 14

3. The Effect of Changes in the World of Work on Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks for Career Counselling (Maree & Morgan, 2012) 153.1 Introduction 153.2 Impact of Global Workplace Change on Lifestyles 163.3 Predominant Waves in Psychology, Career Counselling,

and the Economy Since 1882 (Maree, 2010a, 2010b) 173.3.1 Influence of Economic Waves on Work-Related and

Career-Related Matters 173.3.2 Perspective 173.3.3 Interplay Between the Psychology, Career Counselling

and Economy Waves Over the Past 120 Years 203.3.4 Connection Between Helping Models in the Career

Counselling and Economic Waves (Molitor, 1999; 2000; Savickas, 2006a; 2006b; 2007b) 20

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3.3.5 Attributes or Traits Emphasized During Each of the Four Economic Waves and Concurrent Helping Models in Career Counselling (Savickas, 2006a, 2006b, 2007b; Maree & Morgan, 2012) 21

3.4 Epistemological Approaches that have Underpinned and Guided the Practice of Career Counselling over the Past 120 Years 243.4.1 Traditional (Positivist) Approach to Career Counselling 243.4.2 Postmodern (Qualitative, Narrative or Storied) Approach

to Career Counselling 243.4.3 Perspective 25

3.5 Addressing Career Counselling Needs Across the Diversity Spectrum 253.5.1 Indigenization 263.5.2 Managing Diversity in Career Counselling 26

3.6 Summary 27

4. Career Construction Principles and Practices 294.1 Introduction 294.2 Contemporary Personality Theories’ Effect on Career Counselling Theories 294.3 Existential-Phenomenological Theory as a Cornerstone of Meta-Reflection 29

4.3.1 The Meaning of Existential-phenomenological Theory for Human Functioning, Development and Choice Making (Self-Construction) 30

4.3.2 Interconnectedness Between Existential-Phenomenological Theory and the Storied Approach 31

4.4 Systems Theory 334.5 Social Constructionism Theory 334.6 Narrative Counselling 344.7 Career Construction Theory 364.8 Self-Construction 374.9 Career Counselling 404.10 Life Designing 404.11 Life Redesigning 414.12 Career Adaptability 434.13 Role of Counsellors in Achieving Meta-Reflection 434.14 Facilitating (Guided) Self-Advising 444.15 Self-Reflection 454.16 Exploiting Reflection and Meta-Reflection to Facilitate Movement 464.17 Summary 47

5. Salient Features of Career Construction Counselling 495.1 Introduction 495.2 Goals of Career Counselling 495.3 Creating a Holding Environment 505.4 Narratibility 525.5 Autobiographicity 52

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5.6 Intentionality 535.7 Body Language: The Body Never Lies; it Merely Speaks the Mind

(Savickas, 2009a; 2009b; Shapiro, 2006) 545.8 Listening Carefully to what Clients Say 545.9 Clients Listening to Themselves 545.10 Obtaining Authentic Self-Insight 555.11 Using Metaphors to Wrap up the Career Construction Interview 565.12 General Hints for Career Counsellors Unfamiliar with

Postmodern Careers Work 565.13 Summary 57

6. Three Early Recollections Technique 616.1 Introduction 616.2 Use of Earliest Recollections: Brief Theoretical Background

(Maree, 2012a, 2012b) 616.3 Using Earliest Recollections to Identify Clients’ Major Life Themes 626.4 Importance of Earliest Recollections in Career Counselling 626.5 Analyzing Early Recollections 656.6 Demonstrating How to Analyze a First Early Recollection 666.7 Summary 67

From Theory to Practice7. Using the CIP and its Narrative Supplement in Career Counselling 71

7.1 Introduction 717.2 Aims of the CIP 717.3 Techniques for Eliciting Clients’ Career Stories 727.4 CIP Properties 72

7.4.1 Part 1 727.4.2 Part 2 727.4.3 Part 3 727.4.4 Part 4 737.4.5 The CIP as a Unit 737.4.6 Importance of the Second Last Question, Part 4 73

7.5 Inductive Data Analysis Strategy 767.5.1 Explaining the Concept of Qualitative Data Analysis to Clients 767.5.2 Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods to

Facilitate Career Counselling 767.6 Using Triangulation and Crystallization to Facilitate

Quality Assurance 777.7 Summary 79

8. Practical Implementation of Career Construction as Shown through Case Studies 818.1 Introduction 818.2 Savickas’ Eight-Step Strategy for Crafting a Life Portrait 81

8.2.1 The Eight-Step Strategy 81

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8.2.2 Crafting a Life Portrait 828.2.3 Developing a Vision and Mission Statement 83

8.3 Case Study 1 848.3.1 Participant and Context 848.3.2 Mode of Inquiry 848.3.3 Ethics 848.3.4 Career Story (‘Results’) 84

8.4 Case Study 2: From Basing the Choice of a Career on the Advice of Others to Guided Self-advising 908.4.1 Participant and Context 908.4.2 Data Gathering 90

8.4.2.1 Quantitative Techniques: Psychometric Instruments 908.4.2.2 Qualitative Techniques 90

8.4.3 Process 908.4.4 Data Analysis and Interpretation 918.4.5 Career Story (‘Results’) 92

8.4.5.1 Maude’s responses to selected questions in Part 2 of the CIP 928.4.5.2 Maude’s responses to selected questions in Part 4 of the CIP 928.4.5.3 Responses to the questions in the CCI 938.4.5.4 Maude’s reflections on her reflections 97

8.4.6 Discussion 998.4.7 Sequel 99

8.5 Case Study 3: The Importance of Noting Clients’ Hobbies 1008.6 Case Study 4: ‘Stuck in a Rut’: Using Facilitating Movement 1048.7 Case Study 5: Restoring a Sense of Self 1058.8 Case Study 6: Connecting the Dots to ‘Confirm’ a Career Choice 107

8.8.1 Interest Profile 1088.8.2 Career Story Narratives 109

8.9 Summary 110

9. Closing Chapter 1139.1 Introduction 1139.2 Is it Sufficient to Use only the CCI in Career Counselling? 1139.3 Some Limitations and Caveats of the Approach 1139.4 Recommendations 1149.5 Advice to Others Using this Approach 1149.6 Role of Counsellors in Facilitating Career Construction by Clients 1159.7 Conclusion 115

Epilogue: J. D. Jansen 119Notes 121References 123Index 131

FOREWORD

CAREER COUNSELLING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Paul J. HartungDepartment of Family and Community Medicine

Northeast Ohio Medical UniversityRootstown, OH 44272

U.S.A.

The complexities of 21st century life require new ways of helping people navigate the world of work and careers. Longstanding emphases on fitting people to occupations and readying people for stable careers that dominated 20th century vocational guidance and career education practices, today give way to helping people use work to make their lives more meaningful and matter to others. A contemporary perspective on career as a project realized through self-reflective life design now augments well-established views on career as comprising objective person-occupation matches or subjective cycles of managing self in work and other psychosocial roles over the lifespan.

The career as project perspective recognizes that in an unstable world people must create stability within themselves. Career counselling in the 21st century therefore increasingly helps people to know and narrate their life stories so that they may effectively design their lives. When people understand and can tell their own life stories with clarity and conviction, they become authors who actively shape themselves and their life-careers rather than actors who passively perform in work roles, often playing parts scripted for them by someone else.

Harnessing the power of story in human life and responding to the need for innovative, inclusive and context-rich career development principles and intervention practices, Counselling for Career Construction masterfully combines history, best practices, contemporary models and methods, case studies and a distinctive approach to advance career counselling in the digital age. Author Professor Kobus Maree explains and demonstrates how self-reflection and reflexive self-construction – both central processes of career construction counselling – assist people across the diverse spectrum of human life and experience to use work as a vehicle for self-making and self-healing.

As Professor Maree explains at the outset, the reflexivity involved in counselling people for career construction helps to infuse work and career with the very private meanings that derive from individuals’ experienced problems, preoccupations, and pains. He well notes early on that it is “reflection under the attentive eyes of skilled career counsellors [that] has the power to heal psychic wounding and scarring” (p. 10).

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Accordingly, the central goal of career counselling thus shifts from choosing an occupation or charting a career path to championing a meaningful work life that matters to the person and to society. In short, the goal moves from what occupation to pick, to how to use work with purpose. In telling their life stories, people shape their identities in the form of self-defining autobiographical narratives. These narratives hold and carry them through times of uncertainty and instability. Professor Maree explains this process as he elaborates on how career construction counselling fosters narratability to tell one’s story coherently, adaptability to cope with changes in self and situation, and intentionality to design a meaningful life-career.

Comprehensive and captivating, this book both signals and amplifies a fundamental shift toward social construction to understand careers and the use of narrative methods to promote career intervention. In so doing, it recognizes and respects people as holistic, diverse and self-organizing individuals. Throughout the volume, readers will discover rich, scholarly analyses of established traditions as well as emerging themes in the career development field. Human stories told along the way engage the reader fully in these analyses. By describing and demonstrating how people may use work to actively master what they passively suffer, Counselling for Career Construction sends a resounding call to construct and shape life with poise and purpose.

PAUL J. HARTUNGRootstown, Ohio, U.S.A.

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the following people for their contributions to the book.

Prof. Mark Savickas, for sharing his invaluable insights and for changing the course of career counselling forever. You are so right, Mark – magic does happen when we move.

Prof. Jonathan Jansen, for being a role model for me and many others; for giving and educating selflessly; and for his kind words about me and my book.

Prof. Paul Hartung, for his incisive input at a critical stage, for helping give the book its final shape, and for writing the foreword.

Prof. Annamaria Di Fabio, for her constructive inputs.Prof. Chris Briddick, for his helpful comments.Prof. Linda Theron, for offering fresh input from a South African perspective.Mr Tim Steward, for his editing of the text.All the clients and participants who participated graciously and allowed me to

share their stories with others.My mother, whose own story never fails to inspire and encourage me.My son, for patiently encouraging and supporting me, often in the smallest hours

of the morning.

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PEER REVIEW

This book has been independently peer-reviewed by national and international academics who are experts in the field. The reviews included the entire text that appears in the published book and peer reviews were exceptionally positive.

The scholars who provided reviews of the book were:

a. Prof. J. D. Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

b. Prof. P. J. Hartung, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, United States of America.

c. Prof. A. Di Fabio, Department of Counselling Psychology, the University of Florence, Florence, Italy.

d. Prof. W. C. Briddick, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, United States of America.

e. Prof. L. C. Theron, the School of Education Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, South Africa.

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ENDORSEMENTS

Prof. J. D. Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, University of the Free State, South Africa

This book is many things. It is a compendium of classical and modern thinking in counselling that will serve generations of professional counsellors with a reference book to consult in practice. It is a critical survey and synthesis of knowledge on the subject covering a range of theories and methods that will guide Master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral scholars for purposes of teaching and the design and the execution of counselling research. It is a treasure trove of innovative thinking in counselling that provides a launching pad for the next generation of research in this exciting field. It is a teaching resource for those who train young researchers and professionals in the field of counselling.

Prof. P. J. Hartung, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University Harnessing the power of story in human life and responding to the need for innovative, inclusive and context-rich career development principles and intervention practices, Counselling for Career Construction masterfully combines history, best practices, contemporary models and methods, case studies and a distinctive approach to advance career counselling in the digital age.

Prof. W. C. Briddick, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota:“The highest compliment to either paradigm or theory is when someone kindly

and carefully nudges either toward further definition and utility. Kobus Maree has accomplished the aforementioned both thoroughly and brilliantly.”

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CHAPTER 1

TURNING HURT INTO HOPE: RATIONALE FOR THE BOOK

1.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I discuss how I developed an interest in career counselling and why I believe the topic warrants research. I support a shift in career counselling towards a contemporary, contextualized approach that will be of value to every person irrespective of colour, creed, financial situation or geographic location. Our primary aim as career counsellors should be to find the best ways to be useful (the term used by Mark Savickas (2005; 2011a) and also in this book) to our clients and not to align ourselves with any particular theoretical approach. I refer frequently to the growing realization among career counselling theorists and practitioners that so-called ‘objective’ (psychometric) tests often fail to assess career counselling-related variables adequately (such as subjective or phenomenological experiences). The term ‘meta-reflection’, which is used to signify the unobtrusive help counsellors give to clients as they repeatedly reflect in, on and for action, is introduced. The chapter ends with an overview of the chapters that follow.

1.2 HOW I DEVELOPED AN INTEREST IN THE TOPIC OF THIS BOOK

I have always been interested in the impact of poverty on people and the hardship caused by it. Growing up as a member of a poor family in an impoverished, rural environment, and seeing the suffering of others and the loss of so much talent, I took a particular interest in poor, disadvantaged people. I was always regarded as an ‘outsider’ – one of the reasons being that I grew up as the child of an English-speaking (Catholic) mother of Lebanese origin and an Afrikaans (Protestant) father in an exclusively Afrikaans milieu at the height of apartheid. A particular early recollection stands out: one Christmas day, when I was seven years old, my family and I visited neighbours on a farm in the distant Northern Cape. After lunch on that extremely hot afternoon, walking in the veld, I passed by a shack. I heard a faint noise coming from inside it. Upon inspection, it turned out that two very young children were hiding inside the scorching zinc structure. The older of the two petrified youngsters said: “Mommy is in jail and Daddy died long ago. The woman we live with is drunk today.” I was appalled by this human tragedy and the ‘hopelessness’ of the children’s situation. The neighbour’s reaction, when I related this story to him, still rings in my ears today: “This is a huge problem. There are so many of these kids; there is so little one can do.” Yes, we fed both of them, but

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our impact on their plight was negligible. My life was shaped by this incident, and, subsequently, I did all I could to find ways to buy clothing and food for the poorest of the poor.

The older I got, the more I was intrigued by the way in which human beings often deal with their own pain, sorrow, sadness and loss by doing something for others (“turn lemons into lemonade”). Consider the following examples:

a. A mother goes hungry and wears old clothes so she can save money to send her child to university.

b. A wealthy father’s daughter is attacked and dies in a deserted part of the country because of no cell phone reception there. His response is to erect a cell phone tower in the region so other travellers will not suffer the same fate.

c. A woman loses two young children to cancer and subsequently devotes her life to working in hospices and finding funding for the building of more hospices for cancer sufferers.

In other words, I have been inspired by the following principle: many people, after having suffered a tragic loss, reach out to others (try to make a difference in the lives of others who have suffered a similar loss) to deal with their own loss. This principle (healing oneself by helping others) is neither new nor startling. Freud (1961; 1963) is generally acknowledged as the first person to refer to the principle of turning passive acceptance of a given situation into active mastery of that situation. However, it was Mark Savickas (2011b) who coined the expression “actively master what you have passively suffered”, stating that every client’s story starts with pain. This inspired me to find ways of not only identifying clients’ initial pain but also to empower them to use their pain to help others and, in the process, heal themselves and make social contributions.

The following three remarks capture the essence of what is being said here. Firstly, Marsh (1933, p. 404) contends that “[b]y the crowd they have been broken, by the crowd they shall be healed”. In other words, pain (which provides the starting point and life plot of every career and life career story) is socially constructed and dealing with it will of necessity imply reflexive construction, deconstruction, co-construction (collaboration between a client and a counsellor) and reconstruction (Savickas, 2011b). Secondly, Rosenberg (1992), after having studied traumatized populations in Latin American and Eastern European countries, declared that “[n]ations, like individuals, need to face up to and understand traumatic past events before they can put them aside and move on to normal life”. What she was saying is that it is essential for counsellors to enable clients (and, at a macro-level, nations) to narrate their autobiographies, build on these life stories and “actively master what they have passively suffered” (Savickas, 2011b). Thirdly, Herman (1992, p. 207), referring to possible ways in which healing from painful experiences can be facilitated, maintains that “While there is no way to compensate for an atrocity, there is a way to transcend [and transform] it, by making it a gift to others. The trauma is redeemed only when it becomes the source of a survivor mission”. Herman (1992)

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maintained that people who display a survivor mission make a conscious attempt to use their painful experiences to help people who face similar challenges, and, in doing so, manage to convert their own, private hurt into triumph.

Whereas the reality of trauma, pain and hurt can never be ignored or made up for, adversity can be turned into triumph, defeat into victory and loss into gain by contributing socially to alleviating the hurt and pain of others; by enabling those that have suffered to persist and never to accept defeat. Commonalities of these four authors: firstly, every life story is defined by the pain suffered by its author. Secondly, for survival, it is essential to turn this pain into a social contribution, a gift to others who have suffered a similar fate. Thirdly, healing is brought about by narrating or telling the story to empathetic career counsellors as well as other valued audiences in the client’s life such as parents, partners and friends. Lastly, repeated reflection under the attentive eyes of skilled career counsellors has the power to heal psychic wounding and scarring.

1.3 WHY I BELIEVE IT IS WORTH CONDUCTING RESEARCH ON THE TOPIC AND REPORTING ON SUCH RESEARCH

Realizing that millions of people have never been given the opportunity to construct themselves (realize their potential – Maslow, 1987), to design even remotely successful lives and to make social contributions, I cannot but agree with the following sentiment expressed by Bar-On (2007): “It will suffice to say that [conditions in which people are deprived of an opportunity to blossom] hide, if not bury, many gifted individuals, compounding the human tragedy that they evoke. It is interesting to ponder, for example, how many gifted individuals were buried, both figuratively and literally, among the six million Jews killed during the Second World War. Have we lost another Abraham, Jesus, Nostradamus, Spinoza, Mahler, Kafka, Pissarro, Marx, Freud or Einstein who may have significantly contributed to human existence and mankind?” (Bar-On, 2007, p. 137). Clearly, a career counselling strategy is needed for all people across the diversity continuum. All clients deserve career counselling irrespective of gender, socioeconomic situation, sexual preference, age or creed, including the most disadvantaged. The focus on career counselling internationally accordingly needs to be adapted to meet the requirements of all people.

Taking my cue from Winslade (2011), I believe that career counselling today should enable career counsellors to answer the following career counselling questions: how will postmodern career counselling be useful to a) a gifted 17-year-old learner from a private school in Sydney who wishes to study medicine, b) an average 18-year old girl in Grade 12 in a public school in Gaborone who wishes to become a teacher, c) a 15-year-old boy from Soshanguve who sells newspapers to support his seven siblings, d) a young child soldier who suffered brain damage in the war in Darfur, e) a glue-sniffing street child in Mumbai, f) a penniless mother of eight in Nigeria, g) an inmate with AIDS serving a lengthy prison sentence in Lagos,

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h) a homeless vagrant with no education in Sao Paulo, i) a beggar roaming the streets of Istanbul, or j) an alcoholic roaming the streets of New York?

An Approach is Needed that Will be of Value to Every Person Irrespective of Colour, Creed, Financial Situation or Geographic Location.

The proposed shift in career counselling (discussed later on; see Chapters 2 and 3) towards a contemporary, contextualized approach is built on respect and is aimed at exploiting change and its effects. Such an approach compels clients and counsellors to re-author clients’ stories in a way that facilitates movement from pain-filled to triumph-filled themes and, ultimately, making social contributions. This will facilitate the making of social contributions, which lies at the heart of what I am advocating. This approach ties in with a multi-method approach comprising quantitative and qualitative, objective and subjective methods of career counselling assessment, data gathering and counselling (Hartung, 2011; Maree & Molepo, 2007; Maree, 2010a, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c). Emphasis is placed on identifying deep-seated strengths and motives in clients and on using innovative techniques to empower clients to a) reflect on their career and life stories, and b) reflect on these reflections to initiate appropriate action because magic is bound to occur when clients begin to move (self-construction, self-realization or development will occur when people make an active attempt to let it happen) (Savickas, 2011b). The mere desire or motivation to do something means little as does merely promising or ‘taking’ a decision to work harder, to do job analysis, or to ‘do better’ (Krieshok, Black & Mckay 2009; Watkins, 1984). Storied career counselling consequently stresses the vital merger between clients’ intention and action (Polkinghorne, 1990, 1992). The value of movement (action) as the ultimate aim of career counselling is generally acknowledged:

“[G]et your patient, any way you wish, any way you can, to do something” (Erickson, in Zeig, 1980, p. 143).

Cochran (1997), Rogers (1942) and Young and Valach (1996; 2004) emphasize its role in making plans, setting goals and predicting consequences, which enable people to make sense of themselves and the social world in which they live. These authors describe action in terms of three steps: constructing a meaningful perspective in which possibilities become available; devising a life design to enable clients to achieve these possibilities; and, eventually, accomplishing these possibilities through action.

1.4 ‘BEST PRACTICE’ IN CAREER COUNSELLING THEORY AND PRAXIS: PERSPECTIVAL COMMENTS AND A CALL FOR RESEARCH

I concur with Hartung (2010) when he says there is a growing realization among career counselling theorists and practitioners that so-called ‘objective’ (psychometric) tests often fail to assess all career counselling (including personality- and values-related) variables adequately (such as subjective or phenomenological experiences).

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Hartung (2010, 2011), Nauta (2010) and Savickas et al. (2009) have shown that people do change over time often resulting in disappointment in the initial career-related choices of young adults and others later on in their lives (Borchard, 1995).

Over the past 25 years or longer, the value of qualitative approaches to career counselling has received increasing recognition as has the consequent development and application of narrative intervention theories and the accompanying strategies and assessment instruments in career counselling. However, some academics, theoreticians and practitioners do not see any need for a paradigm shift in career counselling. This view has been expressed at numerous conferences on postmodern-related topics and in anonymous feedback I have received on manuscripts dealing with qualitative approaches to career counselling submitted to scholarly journals. A handful of academics even totally reject the use of postmodern approaches to career counselling.

These academics argue that there are problems associated with the use of postmodern approaches to career counselling and use the following arguments to substantiate their point of view.

a. The assumption that a changed approach to career counselling is needed in the 21st century has not been proved. In other words, there is insufficient empirical justification for using qualitative approaches to career counselling.

b. Likewise, there is insufficient evidence (research data) to suggest that career theory and practice require a paradigm shift in the 21st century or to suggest that career counselling interventions require (as one anonymous reviewer put it) “the narrative approach to be effective in the 21st century”.

c. There are no data to suggest that narrative approaches facilitate ‘better’ counselling outcomes or results than non-narrative approaches.

d. It is not necessary for career counsellors to rethink their approaches when dealing with clients who present for career counselling in the 21st century.

I respect these practitioners’ endorsement of a quantitative approach to career counselling and their rejection of a qualitative or combined approach. I also understand the view expressed by some colleagues that adopting a qualitative approach implies the abandonment of a quantitative approach, even though I disagree. Based on their acceptance of logical positivist approaches to career counselling, they insist on more research-based evidence for the use of qualitative approaches, arguing that insufficient research evidence exists to support the use of the narrative approach to career counselling. In terms of their logical positivist conceptual framework, they are right. Moving beyond an approach that has served them well over time, that they feel comfortable with and that has brought them success (success defined from their perspective) does not appeal or make sense to them.

I believe it is not helpful to weigh up one approach against another or to adopt an either/or approach (i.e., using one approach to the exclusion of the other). Rather, I believe that we should endeavour to use the best elements in both approaches to career counselling. After all, our primary allegiance in career counselling should never be to any particular theoretical approach. Our aim should be to find the

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best ways to be useful to our clients. Phares’ warning about personality theories also applies to career theories:

A rigid and blind adherence to a theory can reduce one’s effectiveness as a clinician … When a better [theory] comes along, one must have the willingness and capacity to adopt it. Ultimate allegiance should be, not to a theory, but to the very best ways of describing clients and intervening on their behalf (Phares, 1992, p. 64).

McIlveen (P. McIlveen, personal communication, October 16, 2012) neatly encapsulates what has been said thus far:

Dan McAdams’ integrative theory of personality is the contemporary framework for understanding career. It draws together dispositional traits, social-cognitive adaptations, and life stories, all given in the rich contexts of human existence. This theory progresses the understanding of an individual from the general (e.g., measured traits seen in the “average” person) through to the specific (i.e., the life stories that only an individual can live). Savickas’ career construction theory aligns with McAdams’ theory. From the perspective of the career construction theory, a person’s career can be understood as traits, abilities, skills objectively known through to the unique personal stories subjectively known. Thus, staying true to McAdams and Savickas’ theory requires the career development practitioner to consider objective, quantitative psychometric measures that represent a person’s traits, abilities, and skills, in combination with the rich subjectivity of stories qualitatively told and heard. This combination of quantitative and qualitative career assessment and counselling honours the vision foretold by Donald Super.

The power of early childhood experiences and memories should be factored into any career counselling approach or strategy and the effectiveness of these interventions, strategies, techniques and instruments in career counselling settings should be demonstrated (Di Fabio, 2012; Di Fabio & Maree, 2011; Hartung, 2011; Maree, 2012a, 2012b; Savickas, 2011a, 2011b, 2012; Subich, 2011). In addition, researchers and practitioners should not only theorize about what works in career counselling but also conduct research and report on the value and limits of narrative career counselling in one-on-one (private) practice settings as well as in (small or large) group-based contexts (Di Fabio & Maree, 2011; Niles, 2003; Savickas, 20011b, 2011c; Skovholt, Morgan & Negron-Cunningham, 1989) and, especially, in non-traditional contexts).

1.5 META-REFLECTION (REPEATED REFLECTION ON REFLECTIONS)

In line with the perspective supported in this book, clients should be regarded as the sole experts on themselves and enabled to narrate and authorize their own stories – counsellors should adopt a ‘not-knowing’ position aimed primarily at facilitating self- and career construction on the part of clients by encouraging them to elicit and eventually recount their career and life stories (Anderson & Goolishian, 1992; Joffe,

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7

1999). Such encouragement should better equip clients to negotiate career transitions by choosing careers, designing successful lives and making meaningful social contributions. Savickas et al. (2009) believe that the personal life story provides the script for each individual’s life and should be drawn on in times of change to enable clients to manage repeated shifts from occupation to occupation. Career counsellors’ primary task is to create safe spaces where reflexivity is encouraged; to enable reflection and repeated reflection on clients` reflections. Clients are thus helped to navigate career-related transitions and rise above the weaknesses experienced in the past and the present as well as the projected weaknesses in the future (Chen, 2007; Savickas et al., 2009). These weaknesses can undermine clients’ chances of making a proper living, their chances of establishing satisfactory social networks and becoming self-directed and self-determined (Blustein, 2010), and their chances of designing successful lives and making valuable social contributions (Savickas et al. , 2009).

Polkinghorne and Savickas both highlight the importance of ongoing reflection during career counselling. ‘Meta-reflection’ is accordingly used in this book to refer to reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action and reflection-for-action (Farrell, 2004; Killion & Todnew, 1991; Kuenzli, 2006; Schon, 1987). All meta-cognitive activity, namely planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-regulation and decision making (Flavell, 1979), is included in the term. The term is used to signify the unobtrusive help given by counsellors to clients as they (the clients) reflect in, but, more particularly, on and for action. Clients are guided to reflect on their lives by narrating their career and life stories during the initial, elicitation phase. For me, the success of career counselling depends largely on the degree to which career counsellors can guide clients to reflect authentically on their own as well as on the counsellors’ reflections during the second or authorization (Savickas, 2011b) phase of career counselling. Its aim is to help clients to ‘move’ (third phase) and culminates in choosing not only a career but, more importantly, designing a life.

Lastly: Many career counsellors still pay lip service to the idea of allowing clients to make their own career choice-related decisions. This is not useful and, in my opinion, contributes to high failure rates at training institutions and frustration in clients’ working lives. The emphasis on enabling clients to author their own stories and draw on their own reflections should be understood from this perspective. I believe this notion, which is hardly new, is the essence of career construction theory.

1.6 OVERVIEW

In this book, I try to bring together career counselling history, best practices as well as contemporary models and methods. In reflecting on the past, present, and future of career counselling, I tell the story of the postmodern, narrative or career construction approach and the model and methods used to advance careers in the 21st century. The meta-reflection concept I propose is based on career construction principles and practices and is aimed at providing a personal and thoughtful examination of repeated reflection in career counselling.

CHAPTER 1

8

Overall, I try to craft a text that is not just specifically instructive but also more generally so. The theory section includes much that is hands-on and practical. Hopefully, the inclusion of narratives in the practice section will clinch the turning of theory into practice and the narratives will illustrate the complexity and contextuality of partnering with clients toward (re-)designed lives. I explicitly call for research (e.g., exploring the indigenisation of developed-country models and the potential applicability of life stories, life portraits to the construction of meaningful/resilient retirement) and comment about the temporality of career counselling theories/models, thereby ‘seeding’ for research-oriented readers.

The life design counselling model (the first-ever coordinated counselling theory), has liberated us from the shackles imposed on us by an overly positivist approach. Ultimately, therefore, my aim is to demonstrate how Mark Savickas’ counselling for career construction approach can be used by clients to connect life themes in order to construct life portraits under the guidance of counsellors. In Chapter 1, I examine the rationale for the book and deal with the question of how to promote ‘best practice’ in career counselling theory and practice. In Chapter 2, I elaborate on the need for a new approach to career counselling and discuss the importance of reflecting and reflexivity as integral aspects of 21st century career counselling. This is followed in Chapter 3 by a discussion of the impact of changes in the world of work globally on theoretical and conceptual frameworks for career counselling in the 21st century. An overview is given of the major events in psychology, career counselling and the economy over the past 120 years (Maree, 2010a, 2010b), and the differences and similarities between positivist and postmodern approaches to career counselling are explained. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the diverse counselling needs of clients. Chapter 4 covers career construction principles and practices as a framework for generating meta-reflection. I explain the theoretical underpinnings of career construction and related concepts, including existential-phenomenological theory. Chapter 5 deals with essential features of career construction. Basic aspects of narrative counselling, such as narratability, creating a holding environment, autobiographicity and the value of metaphors in career counselling are covered. The theory and basic constituents of the three early recollections technique are examined in Chapter 6. In Chapter 7, I explain how the Career Interest Profile (CIP) (Maree, 2006; 2008; 2010c; 2012d) can be used as an auxiliary instrument in conjunction with the Career Construction Interview (CCI) (Savickas, 2011b; 2013) to elicit the dynamics that regulate clients’ choices (i.e., elicit major life themes or motifs). I then indicate how qualitative and quantitative approaches and techniques can be combined and how the resultant data can best be analyzed to advance the career counselling process. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of rigour in career counselling. Chapter 8 presents six case studies that demonstrate the value and power of the approach advocated in the book. Chapter 9, the final chapter, discusses some limitations of the approach, gives a number of recommendations and offers advice to those intending to use the approach. A glossary of key terms is also provided.

9

CHAPTER 2

NEED FOR A NEW APPROACH TO CAREER COUNSELLING

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Given the dramatic changes in the world of work and careers, a more up-to-date approach is needed to enable career counsellors and their clients to respond adequately to new developments in careers, career choice and career execution. In this chapter, I elaborate on the importance of equipping clients to negotiate career transitions and then discuss the broad functions of personality and career counselling theories. I contend that 20th century approaches to career counselling no longer adequately serve the needs of 21st century people. However, I acknowledge that these approaches do have continued (if diminished) value and power for 21st century career counselling practice. I also explain the value of present-day career counselling theories in enabling clients to focus on the ‘bigger picture’ in their career and life stories. I conclude by discussing the importance of reflecting and reflexivity as integral aspects of 21st century career counselling

2.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF EQUIPPING CLIENTS BETTER TO NEGOTIATE CAREER TRANSITIONS

Much has been written about global change (Maree, 2012a) and its impact on career counsellors’ ability to help people choose careers (‘construct themselves’) and also their inability to help clients embrace, celebrate and manage multiple changes satisfactorily, thereby promoting greater work and life satisfaction. Dryden and Vos (1994) maintain that the world is changing four times faster than the situation in schools reflect and Savickas (2006a) warns against equipping clients for a world that no longer exists. “In times of change, the learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” In addition, theoretical counselling approaches as the basis for career counselling practice have been applied in various contexts over many decades, often with little regard for the contexts in which the career counselling takes place.

The arrival of the fourth economic wave and the accompanying changes in the 21st century global economy have changed the workplace and prompted changes in the theory and practice of career counselling across the world as well. Given the dramatic changes in the world of work and careers, I believe a more up-to-date approach (or paradigm shift) is needed to enable career counsellors and their clients to respond adequately to new developments in respect of careers, career choice and

CHAPTER 2

10

career execution. Issues requiring attention include the development of decision-making capacity, indecision, lack of realism, actually doing something about one’s situation, finding personal meaning in one’s work, designing a successful life and making social contributions (Crites, 1969; Savickas, 2010a).

Savickas (2011a, p. 6) contends that “the applied science of vocational psychology and the profession of career counselling have been asking new questions during the first decade of the 21st century. The questions arise from the demise of jobs. In response to the recurring transitions that they will face as they move from project to project, individuals cannot maintain their employment, so they must maintain their employability.”

2.3 BROAD FUNCTIONS OF PERSONALITY AND CAREER COUNSELLING THEORIES

Personality and career counselling theories have two broad functions. Firstly, they are used to explain how people make career choices and to understand the differences in people’s career choices. Secondly, they help us facilitate the career choice making of people. Savickas (2011b) argues that we have not had career counselling theories as such in the past. Instead, we have had theories of career choice and development. Looking at the situation in career counselling through this lens, Savickas et al. (2009) assert that 20th century approaches to career counselling no longer adequately serve the needs of 21st century people. Savickas (2011b, 2011c) has consistently maintained that the advent of high modernity and (particularly) of postmodernity has led to necessary changes in the practice and theory of career counselling. Dramatic changes in the social organization of work over the past decades have demanded changed responses from career counselling theoreticians and practitioners.

A rethink of the generally (and often uncritically) accepted 20th century career and vocational theories and strategies is inevitable. The nature of career counsellors’ inquiry into ‘best practice’ in career counselling also warrants reconsideration. Polkinghorne (1992) contends that therapists rarely find research (results) relevant because career counselling practice changes constantly and is bound by context. This is a worrying contention as the general belief is that research nearly always impacts positively on practice. Research must show that counselling strategies are effective in practice before boards of psychology will approve them for use with clients. At the same time, it is generally agreed that assessment instruments lose their validity over time. What was valid 40 years ago may no longer be today. Personally, I believe that new research on all assessment instruments should be published at least at ten-year intervals as a requirement for these instruments to remain on boards of psychology’s lists of approved tests.

Contrary to the widely held view that practice follows theory, Savickas (2006a; 2006b; 2010a) maintains that theory follows practice: “Career development specialists have long preferred to move from practice to theory rather than from theory to practice. They base their interventions on methods and materials that have evolved

NEED FOR A NEW APPROACH TO CAREER COUNSELLING

11

over time through the pragmatics of practice ... Each model for helping students and clients choose, enter, and succeed in an educational or vocational role must be used flexibly; view them as invitations and possibilities not recipes. This is what I mean by going from practice to theory. Meet the client, determine what she or he wants, and then apply a general model to provide that service” (Savickas, 2010a, pp. xi–xii).

This all gives rise to the question: how much value does 20th century career theory and practice still have for 21st century career counselling?

2.4 INVESTIGATING THE CONTINUED VALUE AND POWER OF 20TH CENTURY CAREER THEORY AND PRACTICE FOR 21ST CENTURY

CAREER COUNSELLING PRACTICE

Savickas (2009c) and Savickas et al. (2009) have repeatedly stressed the usefulness of 20th century career counselling theory and practice and have maintained that the essentially quantitative or positivist (test-and-tell or person(ality)-environment fit) approach to career counselling is not inherently ‘bad’ or ‘deficient’. However, the approach was often not appropriately implemented as clients were frequently objectified through the use of scores on aptitude, interest and personality tests to find the ‘best’ fit between them and ‘suitable’ careers. By neglecting the critical subjective facet of career counselling, clients were often disadvantaged.

Cochran (1997) used appropriate narrative strategies and techniques to enable clients to play meaningful roles in their own life stories. He argued that the narrative approach to career counselling enabled career counsellors and clients to deal with personal meanings and the ‘private logic’ (Hester, 2004) as well as ‘guiding fictions’ (Adler, 1972) “in general and hidden reasons for occupational interest in particular” (Savickas, 2009d, p. 188) during the process of career counselling. While acknowledged in the ‘traditional’, objective approach to career counselling practice, the subjective facet received inadequate attention.

2.5 VALUE OF PRESENT-DAY CAREER COUNSELLING THEORIES: FOCUSING ON THE BIGGER PICTURE

Present-day career counselling theories hold that work can help people discover their identities, construct holding environments for themselves and for others and deal with pain in their lives (achieve self-completion). This is done by discovering personal and social meaning in their lives and healing themselves through social contributions (Savickas, 2002; 2005). Savickas (2006a; 2006b; 2007a) has shown how different theories can be merged by blending narrative and psychodynamic approaches with differential and developmental approaches to create an all-embracing theory (i.e., career construction theory; see Chapters 4, 5 and 6) that enables counsellors to respond to and deal with change and the impact of change. The CCI (Savickas, 2005) (see Chapter 4), which is based on career construction theory, is supported by the philosophy underpinning the narrative paradigm.

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12

The narrative approach can create a safe space that yields vital information for promoting career counselling in clients (Maree, Ebersöhn & Molepo, 2006). Career counsellors who work from a postmodern (an umbrella term for qualitative, narrative or storied perspectives) perspective are as interested in interpreting the subjective aspects of career counselling (i.e., eliciting clients’ career and life stories) as they are in interpreting clients’ ‘objective’ test results. Clients’ measured and quantified interests, abilities and personality traits are regarded as an expression of their career and life patterns and central life themes. Counsellors regard clients’ careers as stories and encourage them to reflect repeatedly on their lives and narrate their careers as stories. As co-authors, counsellors encourage clients’ reflections in order to facilitate the discovery and recognition of motifs and tensions in their story lines and to elicit the skills they need to write successive chapters of their life stories. Christensen and Johnston (2003) made it clear that clients use stories to portray what is happening in their lives and in the world of work. This, however, does not mean that the narratives necessarily construct real events1 or that clients write their life stories on their own. Clients’ idiosyncratic versions of events are narrated with the help of others, and their accounts of what happened will not always be 100% accurate – nor should they be. These versions often indicate what clients need to know about themselves including finding comfort and a sense of security and permanence, seeking consolation and information and finding advice from within when things change, when a crossroads emerges or when plans ‘go wrong’ (Young, Valach & Collin, 1996). This means that a well of prior knowledge is at the disposal of clients whenever a new crossroads is encountered, to help them deal with every new transition.

What has been said so far underlines the need for counsellors to reflect on their theoretical and practical insights repeatedly.

NEED FOR A NEW APPROACH TO CAREER COUNSELLING

13

Two photographs demonstrating the notion of a “crossroads”.

2.6 REFLECTING AND REFLEXIVITY AS INTEGRAL ASPECTS OF 21ST CENTURY CAREER COUNSELLING

Kuenzli (2006, p. 27) argues that “[t]he ability to reflect critically on our clinical practice … is a vital element of a healthy professional practice”. According to Finlay and Gough (2003, p. ix), reflection denotes “thinking about’ something after the event” (emphasis added) while reflexivity denotes “a more immediate, dynamic and continuing self-awareness”. Schon (1987), in referring to therapists’ therapeutic conversations, argues for the incorporation in therapeutic intervention of reflexivity (which involves reflection-in-action, i.e., reflection on certain matters during the action or while acting) (Kuenzli, 2006; Schon, 1987) as well as reflection-on-action (retrospective thinking or thinking after the action or event). For these authors, ‘critical self-reflection’ (p. ix) encapsulates both ends of the reflection-reflexivity spectrum. Reflection-for-action (Farrell, 2004; Killion & Todnew, 1991), conversely, is pro-active or pre-emptive and denotes reflection for a particular action. In this regard, Hedges (2010) asserts that it may be helpful to videotape or voice record conversations with clients in order to augment and facilitate reflection by both client and therapist. Transcripts of video- or audiotapes or digital voice recordings present an ideal opportunity for therapists to obtain feedback from clients. Clients can also take them home to listen to themselves and reflect on the intervention.

CHAPTER 2

14

2.7 SUMMARY

Far-reaching changes have impacted the world of work and careers. In this chapter, I have argued in favour of a more up-to-date approach to help career counsellors and their clients respond adequately to these changes. It is our task, as counsellors, to equip our clients to deal with repeated career transitions. To fulfil this task, we need to rethink our current theoretical and conceptual frameworks for interpreting career-related behaviour and for planning our intervention in ever-changing contexts. Twentieth century approaches nevertheless still have value for 21st century career counselling practice. My thesis, however, is that the value of present-day career counselling theories lies primarily in their ability to enable clients to focus on the bigger picture in their lives. The next chapter, Chapter 3, covers the effect of changes in the world of work on theoretical and conceptual frameworks for career counselling.

NOTE

1 This principle applies throughout the book: early recollections, anecdotes or memories may often not be true, but this does not minimize their significance in the life of the client and their importance during the counselling session. Clients generally remember and share the smaller and larger stories they need to share at that given point in time.

15

CHAPTER 3

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK ON THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS FOR CAREER COUNSELLING

(MAREE & MORGAN, 2012)

3.1 INTRODUCTION

A good understanding is needed of the shifts that have taken place in the field of career counselling since its formal inception some 104 years ago with the work of Frank Parsons (1909; 2005) and the founding of the Vocation Bureau in 1908. Such understanding will help us appreciate the need for the changed approach to career counselling advocated by Savickas (2006a) and others (Maree, 2011; Savickas et al., 2009). It goes without saying that the prevailing psychological, political and social culture in which any counselling practice evolves will necessarily influence the advancement of career counselling epistemology (theory of knowledge) and practice. Developments in career counselling can best be understood by analyzing existing career counselling models in the context of the changing global economy, which has resulted in, among other things, numerous changes in the way in which people work. Unparalleled technological advances, the information explosion of the late 20th and early 21st century, and the advent of the information communication technology era have significantly altered the occupational landscape. These advances have also prompted a profound rethink of the theory and practice of career counselling. An appropriate response to these changes is called for. Major changes in the world of work have seen the emergence of new careers requiring different skills. A new generation of career counsellors (theoreticians and practitioners) has also emerged who must keep abreast of developments by constantly revisiting the theory and practice in their field to ensure that they as counsellors remain relevant and useful in the postmodern world (Savickas, 2006a; 2006b; 2008; 2009b).

Readers should read Mark Savickas’ latest book, Career counselling (Savickas, 2011b), for a deeper understanding of the theoretical and practical approach advocated in this book. Career counselling (abbreviation for counselling for career construction) is a fitting culmination to Savickas’ 1993 article (Savickas, 1993), which fundamentally changed global perceptions about career counselling. Savickas has consistently maintained that changes in the social organization of work call for changed responses from career counselling theoreticians and practitioners, and in Career counselling he explains what he means by that.

I next discuss the impact of some global changes in the workplace on people’s lifestyles (Maree & Morgan, 2012).

CHAPTER 3

16

3.2 IMPACT OF GLOBAL WORKPLACE CHANGE ON LIFESTYLES

Schultheiss and Van Esbroeck (2009) argue that far-reaching changes in people’s lifestyle and career planning have brought career counselling theory and practice to a landmark juncture, and they add that the practicalities of the 21st century labour market will continue to determine and shape career counselling in terms of career assessment and feedback to clients. More than ever before, people are changing jobs repeatedly. Few people remain in one job for a lifetime in what has been referred to as the fourth economic wave (Savickas, 2006a; Watts, 2008). Job prospects are far less predictable than two decades ago, and job transitions are more frequent and complex (Savickas et al., 2009). A major challenge is effectively managing the widening gap between what is offered at training institutions and the skills needed to carry out a job successfully. Self-created and self-managed career opportunities are becoming more common thereby making horizontal movement rather than upward mobility the norm (Pretorius & Morgan, 2010; Savickas, 2000, 2007a; Storey, 2000). According to the United States Department of Labour (USDoL, 2010), United States citizens are increasingly changing jobs to the extent that by the age of 38, American workers will on average have had 10 to 14 jobs (Dawson, 2011). These figures obviously do not necessarily apply everywhere in the world, yet frequent migration between jobs has become the norm, and accepting one short-term assignment before moving on to another is becoming the order of the day.

A shift towards short-term contracts instead of life-time employment is occurring. This change was forecast by Handy (1995) and Hughes (1997) who stated that the practice of a small core of permanent, highly skilled and highly paid practitioners, juxtaposed with a large number of temporary workers, would become commonplace by 2000. Likewise, the terms kaleidoscopic (Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005), post-industrial (Gershuny, 1993), ‘boundaryless’ (Arthur, 1994; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) and ‘portfolio’ (Handy, 1995) or ‘protean’ (after the Greek god, Proteus, who could transform himself at will) (Briscoe et al., 2006; Hall, 1996a; 1996b) are often used to describe the 21st century work situation. Protean refers to people’s ability to remain resilient in the face of imminent career challenges or difficulties, for instance, how to deal with the effect of new technologies and new concepts of work (Baruch, 2004; Hall, 1996a, 1996b). Boundaryless denotes a move towards independence of traditional agreements with organizations (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) in terms of physical mobility (people move more regularly between jobs, occupations, corporations and firms) and psychological mobility or “the capacity to move as seen through the mind of the career actor” (Sullivan & Arthur, 2006, p. 21).

Since employers can no longer ‘guarantee’ lifelong employment or promotion within one organization, employees no longer feel obliged to remain loyal to one organization for life. Portfolio or protean careers involve people contracting their skills in multiple contexts and point to a growing preference for self-employment (Fenwick, 2004). Attitudes are increasingly guided by (personal) values and a dependence on oneself instead of depending on employers in the search for success in a career. A protean and

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

17

boundaryless career also means that it is as important to focus on future employability as it is to focus on current employment. The ‘protean career’ thus resembles Savickas’ (2008) conceptualization of career adaptability (Duarte, 2009; 2010).

3.3 PREDOMINANT WAVES IN PSYCHOLOGY, CAREER COUNSELLING, AND THE ECONOMY SINCE 1882 (MAREE, 2010A, 2010B)

I will now elaborate on the main waves that have characterized psychology, career counselling and the economy over the past 120 years in order to demonstrate the interrelatedness of these waves or trends that have emerged over time (vertical perspective) and across disciplines (horizontal perspective).

The crucial influence of economic development on work- and career-related matters is discussed first.

3.3.1 Influence of Economic Waves on Work-Related and Career-Related Matters

As shown in Table 1, the economic situation at any given stage impacts what is happening in the fields of psychology and counselling. The serious lack of skilled workers and the growing number of unskilled, inappropriately skilled and low-skilled workers is well documented. The way in which any economy is structured co-dictates the way in which career counselling is presented. Whereas the typical one-on-one counselling paradigm may work well in first world countries, more evidence is needed that it is a viable model for developing and non-Western contexts in particular. Above all, an approach is needed that is appropriate for the large majority of any given country’s population, especially if that population remains in need of any form of career counselling. Savickas (2006a) says the following: “I keep repeating the vocational guidance model is a superb model for countries that are still organized the way we were from 1900 to 1950. I am not saying any of these models are no good; depends though on which type of economy you are working in.”

A tentative attempt to generalize in terms of time frames and economic development follows. This is, however, not an easy task as one type of time frame may, for instance, apply to Europe and the Western world while a totally different time frame may apply in the case of, for instance, China, India and Russia. Allocating time frames is often highly controversial as historians will, for example, differ regarding the definition of periods such as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A further complicating factor is that these and other time frames often overlap.

3.3.2 Perspective

The world of work has evolved through various discernible phases (Hughes, 1997). Initially, a small, scattered society of hunter-gatherers developed with the main ‘jobs’ being hunting, tool making, food gathering, building shelters and personal care. Most people were general workers rather than specialists (Hughes, 1997).

CHAPTER 3

18

Tabl

e 1.

Hor

izon

tal (

acro

ss d

isci

plin

es) a

nd v

ertic

al (o

ver

the

past

120

yea

rs) o

verv

iew

of w

aves

in p

sych

olog

y, c

ouns

ellin

g an

d ca

reer

co

unse

lling

Wav

ePs

ycho

logy

(O’H

anlo

n, 1

994)

Hel

ping

mod

el in

ca

reer

cou

nsel

ling

(Sav

icka

s, 2

006a

, 20

06b;

200

7b)

Asso

ciat

ed c

aree

r in

terv

entio

n (S

avic

kas,

20

11b)

Econ

omy

(Mol

itor,

1999

; 200

0)

Attr

ibut

e or

trai

t tha

t was

em

phas

ized

(Sav

icka

s, 2

006a

, 200

6b;

2007

b)

Firs

tB

egan

with

Fre

ud. I

ts

epis

tem

olog

ical

bas

is w

as

psyc

hody

nam

ic th

eory

. The

ov

erem

phas

is o

n pa

thol

ogy

skew

ed re

sear

cher

s’ vi

ew o

f hu

man

nat

ure.

The

first

hel

ping

m

odel

from

abo

ut

1850

to a

bout

191

0 w

as re

ferr

ed to

as

Frie

ndly

Vol

unte

ers

(Sav

icka

s, 20

06a;

20

07a;

200

7b).

In

this

era

(agr

icul

tura

l er

a), w

orke

rs g

rew

up

on

farm

s.

Peop

le lo

okin

g fo

r wor

k aw

ay fr

om th

e fa

rms

coul

d re

ceiv

e he

lp fr

om

so-c

alle

d ‘f

riend

ly

visi

tors

.

Dur

ing

the

agri

cultu

ral w

ave

(ca

1850

–191

0), w

orke

rs u

sed

the

land

to

mak

e a

livin

g.

The f

irst w

ave c

ompr

ised

a 19

th ce

ntur

y ro

man

tic

atm

osph

ere (

care

er as

a

voca

tion)

. Cha

ract

er w

as

artic

ulat

ed th

roug

h se

lf-ex

pres

sion

and

indi

vidu

al ef

fort

(cra

ftspe

ople

and

farm

ers w

ere

the ‘

wor

kers

’; fa

mily

trad

ition

s w

ere h

onou

red)

(Sav

icka

s, 19

93).

Peop

le w

ere e

xpec

ted

to

‘be t

he sa

me’

and

to h

ave t

he

sam

e val

ues.

Seco

ndTh

e se

cond

wav

e, w

hich

had

co

gniti

ve-b

ehav

iour

al th

eory

an

d pr

oble

m-fo

cuse

d th

erap

ies

as it

s epi

stem

olog

ical

bas

is,

emer

ged

in th

e 19

50s.

This

wav

e re

pres

ente

d a

mov

e aw

ay fr

om th

e ov

erem

phas

is on

pat

holo

gy a

nd th

e ro

le

of th

e pa

st an

d re

fute

d th

e no

tion

that

clie

nts w

ere

‘sic

k’.

Inste

ad, c

lient

s wer

e vi

ewed

as

esse

ntia

lly h

ealth

y (O

’Han

lon,

19

94).

How

ever

, the

rapi

sts

wer

e sti

ll re

gard

ed a

s the

all-

know

ing

expe

rts.

Voca

tiona

l gui

danc

e pe

r se

occ

urre

d on

ly

whe

n th

e in

dust

rial

er

a re

plac

ed th

e ag

ricul

tura

l era

, an

d pe

ople

star

ted

flock

ing

to c

ities

(S

avic

kas,

2006

a).

Clie

nts a

re se

en a

s ‘a

ctor

s’ w

ho a

re

char

acte

rized

on

the

basi

s of s

core

s the

y ac

hiev

e on

var

ious

at

tribu

tes (

stem

min

g fr

om th

e ‘o

bjec

tivis

t’,

indi

vidu

al d

iffer

ence

s ap

proa

ch).

Clie

nts

shou

ld b

e he

lped

to

mat

ch th

emse

lves

with

oc

cupa

tions

in w

hich

th

ey w

ill fi

nd o

ther

s who

re

sem

ble

them

selv

es.

Dur

ing

the

indu

stri

al w

ave

(ca

1900

–195

0), t

he fo

cus w

as o

n "m

ass f

abric

atio

n of

fabr

icat

ed

good

s" (M

olito

r, 20

00, p

. 324

). ‘J

obs’

(a n

ew c

once

pt) w

ere

crea

ted

(Sav

icka

s, 20

06a)

.

The

seco

nd w

ave

was

ch

arac

teriz

ed b

y em

pire

bu

ilder

s who

org

aniz

ed

craf

tspe

ople

into

com

pani

es

and

built

larg

e ci

ties

(Sav

icka

s, 19

93).

Ther

e w

as o

ften

little

evi

denc

e of

ex

plor

atio

n, d

evel

opm

ent a

nd

(sel

f-)r

efle

ctio

n on

the

part

of

clie

nts.

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

19

Third

Exis

tent

ial-p

heno

men

olog

ical

an

d hu

man

istic

ass

umpt

ions

an

d a

narr

ativ

e, p

ostm

oder

n,

cons

truct

ivis

t app

roac

h un

derp

inne

d th

ird w

ave

appr

oach

es in

psy

chol

ogy

(O’H

anlo

n, 1

994)

. Nar

rativ

e co

unse

lling

is th

e m

ost

visi

ble

of a

ll th

ird w

ave

appr

oach

es w

ith th

e st

orie

d ap

proa

ch th

e gu

idin

g m

etap

hor (

O’H

anlo

n, 1

994)

.

Follo

win

g W

orld

W

ar 2

, with

the

arriv

al o

f int

erna

tiona

l co

rpor

atio

ns

char

acte

rized

by

bur

eauc

ratic

hi

erar

chie

s, vo

catio

nal

guid

ance

per

sonn

el

refo

rmed

them

selv

es

into

care

er

coun

sello

rs w

ho

advi

sed

indi

vidu

als.

Car

eer e

duca

tion

is b

ased

on

the

subj

ectiv

e pe

rspe

ctiv

e po

rtray

ed a

s ind

ivid

ual

deve

lopm

ent.

Clie

nts

are

seen

as a

gent

s and

ar

e di

stin

guis

hed

by th

e de

gree

to w

hich

they

ar

e re

ady

to d

eal w

ith

deve

lopm

enta

l tas

ks th

at

are

cons

iste

nt w

ith th

eir

life

stag

e.

Dur

ing

the

serv

ice

wav

e (c

a 19

40–1

990)

, the

em

phas

is sh

ifted

to

the

empl

oym

ent o

f the

skill

s of t

hird

pa

rty p

rovi

ders

to re

nder

spec

ializ

ed

expe

rtise

.

Logi

cal p

ositi

vism

star

ted

givi

ng w

ay to

subj

ectiv

e pe

rspe

ctiv

es (S

avic

kas,

2003

; 20

05; 2

006a

). M

eani

ng

mak

ing

was

com

ing

to

the

fore

. "W

hat e

xist

s for

in

divi

dual

s is p

urpo

se, n

ot

posi

tions

on

a no

rmal

cur

ve"

(Sav

icka

s, 19

93, p

. 213

).

Four

thTh

e fo

urth

wav

e is

ch

arac

teriz

ed b

y an

em

phas

is

on m

ultic

ultu

ral c

ouns

ellin

g an

d th

eory

(i.e

., a

rene

wed

em

phas

is o

n is

sues

of

dive

rsity

). Th

is a

ppro

ach

repr

esen

ts a

mor

e co

ntex

tual

pe

rspe

ctiv

e. T

his w

ave

also

re

pres

ents

a re

actio

n to

Nor

th

Am

eric

an a

nd E

uroc

entri

c m

odel

s mai

nly

beca

use

they

of

ten

lack

rele

vanc

e fo

r w

omen

and

diff

eren

t cul

tura

l gr

oups

(Ped

erso

n, 1

991)

.

Life

des

igni

ng w

ith

its st

rong

em

phas

is

on e

mpo

wer

ing

pers

ons t

o ‘m

ake

mea

ning

’, w

rite

thei

r ow

n lif

e st

orie

s and

con

stru

ct

thei

r car

eers

and

fu

ture

s, au

gmen

ts

the

conc

epts

of

voc

atio

nal

guid

ance

and

car

eer

coun

selli

ng (t

he

four

th w

ave

in

care

er c

ouns

ellin

g)

(Sav

icka

s et a

l.,

2009

).

Car

eer c

ouns

ellin

g (o

r “c

ouns

ellin

g fo

r car

eer

cons

truct

ion”

(Sav

icka

s, 20

11b,

p. 4

1) a

ssum

es it

s pl

ace

amon

g vo

catio

nal

guid

ance

and

car

eer

educ

atio

n. C

lient

s are

re

gard

ed a

s aut

hors

w

hose

aut

obio

grap

hies

ar

e fu

ndam

enta

lly

impo

rtant

(Sav

icka

s, 20

11b)

. Car

eer

coun

selli

ng is

aim

ed

at e

mpo

wer

ing

clie

nts

to re

flect

on

thei

r life

st

orie

s (au

tobi

ogra

phie

s)

in o

rder

to id

entif

y th

eir

mai

n lif

e th

emes

on

the

basi

s of w

hich

they

can

co

nstru

ct th

eir c

aree

rs.

The

info

rmat

ion

wav

e (1

990-

), fa

cilit

ated

by

com

mun

icat

ion

and

com

pute

r tec

hnol

ogy,

is c

hara

cter

ized

by

ass

ignm

ents,

pro

tean

and

bo

unda

ryle

ss c

aree

rs, p

sych

olog

ical

co

ntra

cts,

dejo

bbin

g an

d el

imin

atio

n of

stan

dard

jobs

cou

pled

with

gr

owin

g un

certa

inty

and

an

incr

ease

d in

tere

st in

con

struc

tivism

(Har

tung

, 20

07; S

avic

kas,

2006

a, 2

007a

, 20

07b)

. Thi

s wav

e re

pres

ents

a m

ove

from

– to

in

dust

ry –

info

rmat

ion

indi

vidu

alis

m –

team

sel

ectro

mec

hani

cal –

ele

ctro

nic

com

petit

ion

– co

oper

atio

n/

colla

bora

tion

natio

nal –

act

ivel

y w

orki

ng in

co

mm

unity

indu

stria

lizat

ion

– di

gita

lizat

ion

urba

niza

tion

– gl

obal

izat

ion

imm

igra

tion

– w

orld

wor

kers

man

agem

ent –

net

wor

king

(S

avic

kas,

2006

a, 2

011b

).

In th

e fou

rth w

ave,

(car

eer)

iden

tity

is fo

regr

ound

ed. T

hese

da

ys, t

he ty

pica

l que

stion

s as

ked

by em

ploy

ers a

re:

have

you

bee

n in

lead

ersh

ip

posit

ions

? Hav

e you

bee

n in

team

s? W

ill y

ou fi

t int

o ou

r tea

m? W

hich

net

wor

ks

do y

ou fo

rm p

art o

f? H

ow

conn

ecte

d ar

e you

? Do

you

have

conn

ectiv

ity sk

ills?

The

re

is a t

ende

ncy

to h

elp

peop

le

mak

e sen

se o

f the

ir liv

es,

whi

ch p

rovi

des t

he ra

tiona

le

for i

dent

ity. T

his t

akes

pla

ce

conc

urre

ntly

with

a sh

ift fr

om

decr

ease

d em

phas

is on

the

conc

ept o

f mat

urity

or c

limbi

ng

the d

evel

opm

enta

l lad

der t

o th

e not

ion

of ad

apta

bilit

y an

d lif

elon

g le

arni

ng; f

rom

the

cons

truct

of p

erso

nalit

y an

d vo

catio

nal p

erso

nalit

y ty

pes t

o id

entit

y (S

avic

kas,

2006

a).

CHAPTER 3

20

During the next phase, work (mostly in the agricultural area) became more diverse, other occupations began to evolve and a need emerged for more special skills and training.

Between 1750 and 1850 (in England, for instance, rapid transition occurred between 1830 and 1850), the Industrial Revolution (preceded by the mining revolution, in the case of South Africa, and by a trade revolution in Europe and elsewhere) promoted the growth of mechanized industries. Mass production became a feature of the world of work and brought about rapid urbanization. Workers were regarded as small components of a big machine who were often unable to see or appreciate the end result of their efforts. Creativity was rarely encouraged – only a few people were inventors. The vast majority of workers were taught how to carry out specialized assignments, and work consequently lost much of its meaning. The occupational pattern was a pyramid comprising unskilled, skilled and management personnel. This pyramid pattern was mirrored by the education pattern of primary education for all, secondary education for a select group of students and higher education for an elite group of students (Hughes, 1997).

During the Information Revolution, the emphasis was on technological development and increases in productivity, resulting in a loss of ‘industrial’ jobs and a concurrent increase in jobs in the service and information industry. Some authors refer to the early 2000s as the period of the information economy (Davis & Meyer, 2000) while others use the phrase interactive technology to capture the essence of this period (Hughes, 1997). Davis and Meyer (2000) argued that the bioeconomy would replace the information economy by 2020.

3.3.3 Interplay Between the Psychology, Career Counselling and Economy Waves Over the Past 120 Years

In the next section, I will briefly discuss the impact of changes in the global economy on helping models in career counselling1 (as shown in Table 1), citing key references by subheading for readers interested in the different topics.

3.3.4 Connection Between Helping Models in the Career Counselling and Economic Waves (Molitor, 1999; 2000; Savickas, 2006a; 2006b; 2007b)

Friendly volunteers (Savickas, 2006a; 2007a; 2007b), the first helping model, emerged during the first economic wave. Whereas the majority of workers stayed on farms and knew what to do (often a logical extension of their parents’ jobs), those who wanted to leave the farms could receive help from a so-called ‘friendly visitor’. Vocational guidance, the second helping model emerged during the second economic wave (industrial era: ca 1900–1950), a myriad of jobs became available and people started flocking to the cities. Frank Parsons’ (1909) model of vocational counselling developed during this wave. This model continues to have a profound impact on career counselling and assessment (Brown, 1984; Williamson, 1972).

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

21

During the third economic wave, the third helping model (career counselling) emerged. Career counsellors advised clients on how to choose an occupation and then develop a career in it by climbing the corporate ladder (Savickas, 2000; 2006b). Holland’s (1997) and Super’s (1957) theories are linked to this economic wave. From the early 1990s to the present day, with the emergence of information and communication technologies (the fourth economic wave or information era), uncertainty among workers about job security has given rise to postmodern career approaches (such as counselling for career construction or career counselling and life designing – the fourth helping model). Savickas (2000, p. 59) maintains that “[c]areer must become more personal and self-directed to flourish in the postmodern information age”.

The character traits (attributes) that guided the career counselling profession during each of the four waves (Table 1) need to be understood in order to understand why career construction emerged so strongly over roughly two decades as a theoretical base for the practice of career counselling. I will briefly discuss this issue below.

3.3.5 Attributes or Traits Emphasized During Each of The Four Economic Waves and Concurrent Helping Models in Career Counselling (Savickas, 2006a, 2006b,

2007b; Maree & Morgan, 2012)

A career was seen as a vocation in the first economic wave (which occurred in the romantic atmosphere of the 19th century). Personal character (including self-sufficiency, humility and frugality) was highly valued, and achievement in one’s career or work depended on the degree of self-expression and individual effort (Savickas, 1993). During the second economic wave, empire builders organized craftspeople into companies and built large cities. A link was evident between the development of the pure sciences and the emphasis on an objective approach (Hergenhahn, 2005) and career counsellors’ development of ‘objective’ assessment instruments (tests) to assess aspects of personality (including interests and values) from an ‘objective’ (positivist) perspective. It was believed that these tests would provide sufficient information to career counsellors and clients to facilitate the process of choosing a career (in which clients would most likely remain for the rest of their days) (Watson et al, 2011). Savickas (1993) and Parsons (1909), for example, contend that whereas scientists objectified the world, career counsellors objectified interests, values and abilities through inventories and tests.

During the third economic wave, subjective perspectives (Savickas, 2003;2005; 2006b) and the notion of meaning-making started replacing logical positivism, which is, in essence, the combination of empiricism and rationalism (Hergenhahn, 2005). A simultaneous shift towards existential and humanistic (third force) psychology took place. It was argued that the emphasis should shift towards an approach and strategy that emphasized human beings’ uniqueness (Hergenhahn, 2005). A move away from objective testing towards focusing on subjectivity and idiographic differences (Lent, 1996) ensued during which the client-centred approach to career counselling gained momentum. The focus was on determining and utilizing the

CHAPTER 3

22

unique way in which people construct their reality in career counselling to ensure moments of (therapeutic) movement (action or progress) (Rogers, 1942; Seligman, 1994) to establish their career identity.

Two photographs demonstrating the notion of “career identity”.

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

23

The fourth economic wave highlights identity rather than personality and vocational personality types. Career counsellors consider it their main task to help clients make sense of their careers and lives thus providing the rationale for identity (Savickas, 2010a). Savickas (2008) maintains that a stable identity is demonstrated by knowing one’s story, having a clear and stable picture of oneself and understanding the world of work. Increased emphasis on identity leads to decreased emphasis on the climbing the developmental and career ladder approach. Career adaptability and lifelong learning exemplified the route from premodernism to modernism to high modernism and eventually postmodernism (Watson & Kuit, 2007). In the postmodern approach to career counselling, the roles of counsellor and client and the essence of assessment are restructured (Savickas, 2011a; Watson & Kuit, 2007; Watson et al., 2011). Increased emphasis is placed on deconstructing ‘old’ career and life stories and moving towards the use of dialogue to reflectively construct, deconstruct, reconstruct, and co-construct preferred career and life stories built on respect. Brott’s (2001) storied approach to career counselling entails co-construction, deconstruction, and construction. She, too, emphasizes the importance of collaboration between counsellor and client during the career counselling process.

A different life story: Three orphans in a deep rural region gathering shrubs to eat during school hours.

CHAPTER 3

24

Epistemological approaches that have underpinned and guided career counselling over the past 120 years are discussed below.

3.4 EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACHES THAT HAVE UNDERPINNED AND GUIDED THE PRACTICE OF CAREER COUNSELLING OVER THE PAST 120 YEARS

Career counselling paradigms tend to change every 50 years or so, inevitably influencing the actual practice of career counselling (Savickas, 2006b). To illustrate this change, this section begins with a brief reference to the traditional approach.

3.4.1 Traditional (Positivist) Approach to Career Counselling

Grounded in modernism (Watson, 2007), the traditional approach to career counselling had an objective (positivist) slant from its inception by Parsons in 1909. It was assumed that measurement of personality traits would provide all the information needed for clients to enter and succeed in careers. It was believed that the value of any approach to career counselling could be ‘proven’ by quantification and measurement alone (Watson, 2004; Watson & Kuit, 2007). The focus on human traits (as part of differential psychology) in assessment for career counselling soon became popular and was stimulated by the need for measurement during World War 2. The underlying assumption was that traits could predict occupational outcomes (which careers clients could or should choose to ‘ensure’ success and a stable and successful work life) (Seligman, 1994; Williamson, 1972). According to Crites: “Because individuals differ in their aptitudes, interests, and personalities and because occupations require varying amounts and kinds of these traits and factors, different individuals choose to enter different occupations” (Crites, 1969, p. 90). Congruence (Holland, (1997) or person(-ality)-environment fit was considered important in assessment (Brown, 1984). Despite some support for this view (Nauta, 2010), it is generally accepted today that many other factors play a role in choosing a career and achieving success in that career (Hirschi & Läge, 2007; Tracy, 2007).

In the next section, I will discuss some of the basic principles underlying the fourth wave approach to career counselling.

3.4.2 Postmodern2 (Qualitative, Narrative or Storied) Approach to Career Counselling

Change, which is often accompanied by intense feelings of insecurity among workers, is an integral part of life and must be embraced, exploited and celebrated. The aims, strategies and envisaged outcomes of career counselling were conceptualized and defined differently in the past and may be conceptualized differently again in the future.

The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in interest in qualitative career counselling assessment strategies and techniques. My proposal is the use of

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

25

these strategies and techniques in conjunction with traditional techniques to get the best of both worlds.

Developed from the naturalistic or interpretive research and praxis paradigm described by Savickas (Savickas, 2005; 2006a; 2007a) and Hartung (2011), postmodernism does not constitute a ‘new’ theory or ‘approach’ or ‘conceptual framework’ in career counselling. It is an assemblage of theories and approaches with similar features (Watson et al., 2011). It developed from the perspective that ‘reality’ is created by entities that differ in terms of personal, historical and cultural contexts (Hergenhahn, 2005). Clients are regarded as infinitely more than (the sum total of their) test scores (Taber et al., 2011), and, furthermore, it is argued that the use of quantitative approaches in relative isolation ignores clients’ distinctiveness (Duffy & Dik, 2009).

Underlying the narrative approach is the view that people are the main actors (McAdams & Olson, 2010) in their career and life stories. Career counselling should elicit and build on clients’ multiple micro and macro-stories during the counselling process (Cochran, 2011; Savickas, 2011b). Sharf (2002) argues that the narrative strategy can be compared to a play or psychodrama where the actors live out their lives. In eliciting the client’s career and life story, client and counsellor can together reach sound career-related decisions for the client by uncovering but also shaping the client’s life plot (Cochran, 2011; Sharf, 2002). Career counsellors strive to facilitate personal agency by viewing clients as active agents in their personal development and by accentuating clients’ emotions and passions (Savickas, 2007a).

3.4.3 Perspective

Depending upon a client’s needs, practitioners may apply different career services: vocational guidance to identify occupational fit, career education to foster vocational development, or career counselling to design a work life (see section 4.9): “Each career intervention – whether it be guidance, education, or counselling – is valuable and effective for its intended purpose” (Savickas, 2011b, p. 8).

A number of contemporary issues and tensions have to be addressed to promote the positive development of career counselling in developing countries in particular (Leach et al., 2003).

3.5 ADDRESSING CAREER COUNSELLING NEEDS ACROSS THE DIVERSITY SPECTRUM

Career counsellors across the world agree on the need for a) a changed approach to dealing with clients’ career counselling needs, and b) career counselling to be accessible to all clients including those in the most disadvantaged contexts where this facility is practically non-existent. We need to bridge the divide caused by minimal assessment in many contexts, the exclusive use of tests in many other contexts and the use of a combined assessment and career counselling strategy in yet other contexts.

CHAPTER 3

26

Career counselling in large parts of the underdeveloped and developing world (and also in parts of the developed world) is still provided predominantly by privileged counsellors who often do not have the necessary know-how to facilitate accountable counselling. In these settings, clients mostly differ culturally from the counsellor, and the clients’ experiences are marginalized and limited (e.g., few impoverished learners have any exposure to contemporary careers). In these cases, the danger exists that career counsellor modes may silence (unvoice; Levitt, 2002) and ‘other’ clients, who are then disempowered instead of empowered. It is essential to establish sufficient rapport between clients and career counsellor, to use open-ended questions and to assess all clients in their mother tongue.

3.5.1 Indigenization

Indigenization is the process in which career counselling is made useful for contexts which differ from the contexts in which they were developed. Many authors favour the inclusion of indigenous practices in career counselling theory and practice. Whereas Malott (2008) supports Levers’ (1997) call for ‘psychological pluralism’, Sinha (in Watson & Stead, 2006) contends that career counsellors should be prepared and able to apply traditional and non-traditional (imported) counselling approaches. The use of African-oriented counselling practices was advocated by Abdi (1975), and Straker (1988, p. 6), who maintained that the “Western notion of a talking cure is alien to many black people”.

3.5.2 Managing Diversity in Career Counselling

Viewed from a horizontal perspective, diversity can refer to differences and similarities between career counsellor and clients and from a vertical perspective to differences and similarities between clients and various counselling approaches and techniques. Career counsellors should therefore strive for closer alignment on horizontal as well as vertical levels with culturally different clients, that is, between counsellor and clients on the one hand and between clients and counselling approaches and techniques on the other to ensure congruence in the career counselling situation. As stated previously, postmodern career counselling also deals with clients’ subjective experiences that have been shaped by their respective situations (Fine et al., 2003). When the career counsellor is regarded as the sole expert whose views should be summarily accepted, the danger exists that clients may be ‘othered’ with their career and life stories remaining unelicited and unnarrated. My call here, too, is for a mediated approach with the mediator-career counsellor aiming to involve himself or herself and the client in a reflective and meta-reflective course of action (Greenberg, 2008). Here, the word ‘meta’ (from the Greek meta, which means beyond or after) also signifies the career counsellor’s ability and willingness to take a step backwards to enable him or her to gain perspective on the client’s situation – a perspective that transcends observations obtained linearly through the use of ‘proven’, positivist assessment instruments.

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK

27

Many challenges accompany implementing North American-based and Eurocentric career counselling theory and praxis in developing country contexts. Therefore, I am calling for research into an approach that will incorporate developing country perspectives and contexts and that will answer the following question: can North American-developed models be adapted and applied in such a way that they will impact positively on career counselling in developing countries? Or should we rather focus on developing indigenous models that are better suited for administering career counselling to clients in such countries? I believe our aim should be to work towards a compromise response, building on what has been researched elsewhere and conducting research locally in order to develop an approach that is more appropriate for local needs. This is referred as globalocalization (P. J. Hartung, personal communication, 23 October 2012). The valuable work done by the international life design research group in studying career adaptability can be regarded as a benchmark for such endeavours.

3.6 SUMMARY

Jansen (2012) stresses the importance of reading virtually everything that has ever been written on any given topic if one wishes to understand and appreciate the topic and plan appropriately for the future. I have, in this chapter, accordingly reviewed the major waves in psychology, career counselling and the economy since 1882. I have also discussed the interplay between the psychology, career counselling and economy waves over the previous 120 years and indicated that the past few decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in interest in qualitative career counselling assessment strategies and techniques. I have proposed the use of these strategies and techniques in conjunction with traditional techniques to derive maximum benefit from both approaches. Lastly, I have emphasized the importance of dealing with career counselling needs across the diversity spectrum and called for research on the application of North American and Eurocentric career counselling theory and praxis in developing country contexts. In the next chapter, I discuss career construction principles and practice.

NOTES

1 For a more complete overview, see Maree, J.G,. & Morgan, B. (2012). Toward a combined qualitative-quantitative approach: Advancing postmodern career counselling theory and practice. Cyprian Journal of Educational Sciences, 311–325.

2 For the purposes of this book, qualitative, narrative or storied approaches are considered corollaries of the encompassing term ‘postmodern’ approach.

29

CHAPTER 4

CAREER CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

4.1 INTRODUCTION

As stated previously, the meta-reflection concept I am advocating is based largely on career construction principles and practices with the emphasis on enabling clients to author their own stories and draw on their own reflections In this chapter, I accordingly explain the theoretical underpinnings of career construction and related concepts. I begin by elaborating on the concepts of existential-phenomenological theory, systems theory and social constructionism. This is followed by a discussion of social career constructionism and self-construction, narrative counselling in general and career construction theory. The focus then shifts to life designing and redesigning, career adaptability and the notion of self-advising. First, however, I will deal briefly with contemporary personality theories’ effect on career counselling theories.

4.2 CONTEMPORARY PERSONALITY THEORIES’ EFFECT ON CAREER COUNSELLING THEORIES

Many authors argue that career counselling is personal counselling and that career counselling theorists have been influenced by contemporary personality and personality-related theories including the following (Maree, 2002; 2009; Phares, 1992; Trull & Phares, 2001): psychodynamic theories (Adler, 1933; Freud, 1963); behaviour theories (Skinner, 1974); social learning theories (Rotter, 1954); existential-phenomenological theory and its corollary client-centered therapy (Rogers, 1959a, 1959b, 1961, 1977) (Table 2).

These theories should be included in any proposed career counselling strategy.

4.3 EXISTENTIAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL THEORY AS A CORNERSTONE OF META-REFLECTION

In this book, I argue in favour of an approach that will facilitate (guided) self-advising by clients in line with the principles embodied in and the guidelines provided by career construction theory in particular. Given its crucial role in meta-reflection, the existential-phenomenological theory on human functioning, development and choice making or self-construction will now be discussed in greater detail.

CHAPTER 4

30

4.3.1 The Meaning of Existential-Phenomenological Theory for Human Functioning, Development and Choice Making (Self-Construction)

The existential-phenomenological view is based on a non-deterministic premise with the emphasis on clients’ inner world and the belief that clients’ perceptions of the world are the main factors influencing their behaviour (Rogers, 1951; 1977). The power of personal choice and agency is paramount in major life decisions (Teixeira & Gomes, 2000). Young and Valach (2004, p. 508) maintain that “in many respects, the notion of agency is central to some approaches to career”. Cochran (1997), arguing from a narrative perspective, also stresses agency and authorship and describes an agent as “one who makes things happen” (p. 3) whereas ‘patients’ allow life to happen to them. Lent, Brown and Hackett (1996) see agency in terms of beliefs about self-efficacy, that is, unless people believe they have the capability to produce the expected or desired outcomes, they have little reason to act on the basis of such outcomes. I, like Phares (1992) and Valle and King (1978), group existential and phenomenological perspectives together because of their shared

Table 2. Major contemporary personality theories

Personality theories

Essential characteristics Impact on career counselling

1. Psychodynamic Emphasizes subconscious motives and past experiences (Freud, 1963) and the interpersonal aspects of behaviour. People’s striving for superiority is foregrounded by some (Adler, 1933)

Accentuates the role of early childhood memories on clients’ decisions and choices

2. Behavioural Attempts to find ways to predict specific individuals’ behaviour (Skinner, 1974). The gathering and use of data, for example through interviews and tests, is emphasized

Aims to ‘objectify’ clients’ personality profiles (using ‘tests’). Focuses on facilitating behavior change and matching clients to occupations

3. Social learning Learning takes place in social contexts (Rotter, 1954). As in the case of behaviour theories, assessment and research are emphasized

Assesses what clients have learned over time and uses these results to predict future behavior. Considers the role of self-efficacy beliefs

4. Existential-phenomenological

Reflects a non-deterministic view and emphasizes persons’ inner world

Emphasizes clients’ freedom to choose, to find ways of turning their pain into hope and social contributions, and the importance of meaning making and mattering

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non-determinism and their links with a psychology of self-advising. For me, the latter implies that people have the capacity to make life-determining decisions, to listen to the advice of others and, eventually, to advise themselves.

In terms of a person-centred point of view, human beings can never be fully measured and understood. The qualitative nature, the being, the origin, the author and the writing of clients’ career and personal stories and the meaningful existence and destiny of individuals are consequently stressed. Advocates of a humanistic approach believe that human beings can transcend environmentally imposed limitations. Career counsellors need to realize the importance of meta-reflecting on their thoughts and actions and take ownership of and accept responsibility for their actions. They are free to choose and are not subject to fate or circumstances beyond their control (Rogers, 1951).

Teixeira and Gomes (2000) and Young and Valach (2004), too, concur that the existential-phenomenological worldview stresses individual experience, individual choice and personal agency. Being masters of their own fate, human beings can “guide, regulate and control [themselves]” (Rogers, 1951, in George and Christiani, 1990, p. 58) and minimize the interference of interpersonal, intrapersonal and adaptation challenges with their self-construction. The esteem and self-actualization parts of Maslow’s (1987) hierarchy, conversely, highlight the relevance of occupations for the satisfaction of needs.

Rogers’ (1951) client-centred approach holds that human beings deserve to be respected and afforded unconditional positive regard, have worth, and can reflect and meta-reflect on their lives to enable them to self-advise and make informed career-related decisions based on these reflections (George & Christiani, 1990). This approach was ahead of its time and impacted significantly on career counselling practice. Its ultimate aim is to enable counsellor and client to determine whether their understanding of the client’s inner world is accurate (Rogers, 1951) so that movement can be facilitated in the client’s life. Rogers (2012) says the following about whether counsellors should attempt to reflect clients’ feelings and personal meanings: “My aim as counsellor and therapist is … . to determine whether my understanding of the client’s inner world is correct − whether I am seeing it as s/he is experiencing it at this moment” (p. 2).

The existential-phenomenological, client-centred view emphasizes not only clients’ uniqueness, distinctiveness and irreplaceability but also their ability and right to meta-reflect on their lives to arrive at a satisfactory understanding of their own inner world and transcend their ‘limitations’ (make sense of what they have suffered by turning their pain into a gift to others; moving from being unvoiced or voiceless to voiced). In a nutshell: irrefutable evidence exists that “people [have the capacity to become] their own agents of change” (Ziller, 2000, p. 265).

4.3.2 Interconnectedness Between Existential-Phenomenological Theory and the Storied Approach

The dynamics of clients’ early lives shape their future lives. Their relationships with other family members provide the critical mass of the subtleties of these dynamics.

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Trauma, pain and unresolved issues – as well as positive experiences – stemming from clients’ early years remain a part of their lives forever. Clients’ lives are shaped constantly by multiple influences as they move through various life contexts and negotiate repeated crossroads along the way (e.g., leaving the womb, leaving the mother’s holding arms, leaving home for school, leaving school to study or work). As a result of communication through language (verbally and non-verbally) and social interaction, clients’ life stories (autobiographies) are continually scripted and lived by the people involved. A store of prior information is at the disposal of clients as they attempt to deal with new transitions, irrespective of the perceived magnitude of the transitions, each time a new crossroads is encountered (Maree, 2010b).

My view is that clients facing transitions are not left to the mercy of ‘fate’, are not powerless and do not make choices in a predetermined manner (Rogers, 1951; Teixeira & Gomes, 2000). Quite the contrary: although conscious and subconscious motives and drives, as well as behaviour acquired in social and less social contexts, continue to influence human behaviour long after the early childhood years, meta-reflection draws from the existential-phenomenological belief that people themselves know themselves better than anybody else and should be enabled to advise themselves. It is assumed that every life story starts with pain or trauma (Savickas, 2011b), which needs to be identified by the client (under the empathetic eye of the career counsellor). A storied approach, embedded in a narrative framework (Brott, 2001), promotes the construction of new realities but simultaneously acknowledges past experiences and is aimed at dealing with a painful and traumatic past and transcending hard times and lack of resources. Reid and West (2011) assert that, by telling their stories and hearing themselves tell these stories (Savickas, 2007b), clients are assisted by counsellors to reflect and meta-reflect on their life stories and, eventually, to construct meaningful careers and lives.

Some people understandably grapple with the contention that every life story starts with pain. While not denying that all people have memories of pain, and that these memories may shape us, they wonder about memories of pleasure/joy, which may also shape us and also benefit others. Their question is: Do these memories not inform first recollections/stories? Hartung (2012) maintains it may be better to say that career construction begins with recollections or stories (preoccupations) that may, indeed, include happy and pleasant memories. ‘Pain’ may be understood too much in its suffering, distress, punitive sense, even, in fact, when people use it more in the sense of ‘no pain no gain’. The most dramatic and easy examples of recollections or stories (preoccupations) that may include happy and pleasant memories seem to come from the highest achieving people: the more you hurt and struggle, the more you have to strive to prove yourself. Happy memories often indicate a preoccupation with achieving happiness. The career story emerges now as an early recollection to remind people of that preoccupation (in times of transition and difficulty). ‘Pain’ does

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not always mean suffering and trauma: it may be used in the sense of ‘troubling’. Savickas (2011, p. 34) contends that “[i]n most instances, the situation in an early recollection is a problem, actually the problem that the person wishes to solve above all others. However, some people report early recollections that may not properly be called problems, and they flinch at the word ‘problem.’ Nevertheless, within their earliest recollection lies a preoccupation. The more painful the gap in a life, the stronger the person’s preoccupation with filling the gap, righting the wrong or straightening the deviation. People’s lives, in many ways, may be viewed as repeated attempts to become more whole as [these people] fill the hole in their hearts, each time repeating a version of the deviation at a higher level of mastery.” Furthermore, solutions to problems/ pains and dealing with preoccupations become functionally autonomous, that is, independent of their origins (in this regard, the interested reader is referred to the following website http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Allport/autonomy.htm).

4.4 SYSTEMS THEORY

Patton and McMahon (1999; 2006a; 2006b) used systems theory as a meta-theoretical, conceptual framework for career theory and as a benchmark for redefining career counselling practice. Systems theory revolves around the notion of the individual system “within which is depicted a range of intrapersonal influences on career development, such as personality, ability, gender, and sexual orientation” (Patton & McMahon, 2006b, p. 154). All systems, whether on a micro-, meso- or macro-level, are interconnected. Individual systems (systems within a number of interconnected, open systems) are “connected with influences that comprise the individual’s social system as well as the broader environmental/societal system” (p. 154).

The notion of career as a story in which each new chapter builds on and is related to each previous and each successive chapter draws on systems theory as well. Phenomena can be understood best from the viewpoint of a hierarchy of systems with its own subsystems and sub-subsystems. A simultaneity exists between micro-, meso- and macro-systems, which all form part of a bigger, comprehensive system (Patton & McMahon, 1999; 2006a; 2006b). Interference at any level will consequently impact all other levels of the hierarchy. Contexts do not remain stable: interference with any aspect of a person’s life story influences the entire person. Just as a pebble that is thrown into a pond sends out multiple ripples, causing small waves, any influence on any aspect of a person’s life has a ripple effect on subsequent chapters of his or her career and life story.

4.5 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM THEORY

Hartung (P. J. Hartung, personal communication, 23 October 2012) argues that whereas constructionism views reality as the product of relationships, constructivism

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views reality as the product of interpretation by the individual. While the former is social or interpersonal, the latter is psychological or intra-individual. For the purposes of this book, both terms will be used and need to be understood from the latter perspective.

Social constructionism theory is grounded in the belief that people construct reality socially through the use of shared and agreed-upon meanings communicated through language, social interaction and relationships (O’Hanlon, 1994). Reality and knowledge are therefore subjective; objective neutrality is impossible (Doan, 1997). Knowledge and meaning are actively constructed through social interaction and relationships within a specific context. Every word people speak, every act they commit, irrespective of its magnitude or (perceived) significance, every thought has social meaning, contributes to the construction of capacity and is constructed in a social context. Doan (1997) argues that whereas maintaining objective neutrality is impossible, perspectives on what constitutes reality and knowledge can only be subjective.

Savickas (2011b; 2011c) maintains that career theory paradigms lose their effectiveness after approximately 50 years. Career theories that were generally accepted until late in the 20th century neither satisfactorily explain the uncertain and fast-changing career structure of today nor address the needs of peripheral workers. Savickas argues that the social constructivism paradigm vis-à-vis the self and career grants access to new core constructs for researching and managing 21st century career lives. Career counsellors who are moving beyond the differential (“how are people different?”) positivist career narrative based on personality traits and developmental stages are increasingly formulating investigative (heuristic) constructs aimed at empowering adolescents to understand and deal with a life course replete with transitions.

4.6 NARRATIVE COUNSELLING

The narrative or storied approach to career counselling, career construction and life designing is grounded in the theory of social constructionism, which is based on an interactionist perspective and proposes that people construct reality, roles, capabilities and competencies in social contexts through shared and agreed-upon meanings, which are communicated through language (conversation), social interaction and establishing, maintaining and promoting relationships. Whatever people do happens in relation to other human beings.

Morgan (2000) asserts that narrative counselling is characterized by an approach based on a deep sense of respect for people, a non-blaming attitude and the belief that people are the sole experts on their lives. They have the ability to deal with the challenges and problems encountered by them. In addition, ‘problems’ are viewed as unconnected to or separate from people.

Logan (2004) maintains that narrative counselling is based on, among others, the following premises.

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• People live by the stories they have about their lives.• Stories, which filter and focus people’s understandings and the meanings they

attach, can blind them to emotional, cognitive and behavioural patterns that are inconsistent with the way in which they interpret their lives.

• All people cling to a number of key stories about themselves. • These stories have been shaped by people and by important others in their lives

and are based on a number of selected events.• People do not have to passively accept stories they lived with and which have

been imposed upon them. There are always possibilities for new, healthier stories.

Cochran (1997; 2011) maintains that clients should be seen as informed individuals who have not before had the opportunity to apply their own abilities to make sense of, resolve or deal with the challenges they are facing at a given point in time. Cochran (1997; 2011) regards clients as the main protagonists (central characters) in their own lives, which are, in essence, their own self-scripted productions (emplotment). For storied career facilitation to be successful, the counsellor (as facilitator) should show clients the utmost respect and create a safe or environment within which the clients are subsequently invited (rather than instructed) to author, share and learn from their (career and life) stories.

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Two photographs depicting the notion of a sacred space. The first one shows the inside of a cathedral in Pécs, Hungary, and the second one a church in rural

Sekhukhuneland, South Africa.

4.7 CAREER CONSTRUCTION THEORY

Career construction theory (pioneered by Mark Savickas) builds on the naturalistic (interpretive) paradigm (Hartung, 2007, 2010; Savickas, 2002, 2005, 2006a, 2007a, 2007b). Savickas uses social constructionism as a grand (meta-)theory about how knowledge is constructed (stating, for instance, that all meaning is rendered in words or language) (Hartung, in press; Savickas, 2005). Based largely on Savickas’ (2005) hallmark contribution, career construction updates Super’s (1957; 1983; 1990) lifespan, life space theory. Savickas (2005) began with Super’s (1990) model, proceeded to career construction and then went on to advance life designing as a new paradigm for careers (Savickas et al., 2009). More specifically, Super’s understanding of the developmental perspective on vocational choice and adjustment was brought up to date. Career construction theory and practice help blend three core career theoretical traditions – namely (1) individual differences (the differential approach or personality-environment fit) (Parsons 1909; 2005); (2) individual development (the developmental approach) (Super, 1990); and (3) psychodynamic motivation (aimed at identifying life themes) and the narrative approach – into an all-encompassing theory of career and vocational behaviour. Career construction includes a) the

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discovery of what traits a client has and can be achieved with psychometric tests in combination with qualitative techniques, b) how one can adapt and develop these traits, and c) one’s life themes, that is, why one moves in a certain direction (Hartung, 2007). From a career construction perspective, multiple approaches, both objective and subjective, are therefore used to collect data and to enable clients to make well-informed decisions.

Career construction theory posits that people construct their own lives and careers by identifying (imposing meaning on) their vocational (work-related) behaviour and various experiences in the workplace. A constructionist perspective defines career from an active, movement, non-static perspective. Using this approach, career counsellors urge clients to reflect and meta-reflect on, (re-)interpret and contextualize earlier memories and present events and experiences as well as future aspirations. By telling or narrating their own life stories, clients are compelled to narrate the multiple mini- (smaller) and macro- (longer) stories that collectively constitute the grand narrative or complete and evolving life stories. They also reconnect or rekindle the feeling of being in touch with their innermost selves. A ‘biographical’ bridge is constructed between the past and the future thus empowering clients to build, rebuild and restore a sense of unity in their stories, a sense of control over circumstances and a sense of truthfulness in their life stories. The integrity of the self is thereby reaffirmed.

Narrating their life stories has become a crucial activity for workers. Clients, all of whom are or want to be workers, are being confronted increasingly in the postmodern era with the impact of change on the workplace – in other words, they have to face and deal with repeated work-related crossroads and transitions (Savickas, 2011b). Career construction counselling (Savickas et al., 2009) provides an ideal theoretical framework and platform for the design and construction of career- and life-related interventions and strategies that can be classified as lifelong, holistic, contextual and preventive.

The Career Construction Interview (CCI), which comprises five story-constructing questions (Hartung, 2010; Savickas, 2009a, b; 2011b), appears below. In Part 2 of this book, I will demonstrate how this interview can be used, either alone or in conjunction with other techniques, to elicit clients’ career and life stories.

It should be noted that the questions in Table 3 (p. 29) do not specify pain, although my applications/illustrations often do. They ask for stories that reveal the central preoccupation that will reveal the life theme containing the core problem/issue/concern that clients wish to solve more than any other and that may range from troubling to traumatic – as on a pain scale from low to extreme.

4.8 SELF-CONSTRUCTION

Savickas’ (2005) career construction theory holds that “individuals construct their careers by imposing meaning on their vocational behaviour and occupational experiences” (p. 43) and that “occupation provides a mechanism for social integration” (p. 48) and for making social contributions. This theory also claims that what clients know and their self-identity, sense of self or who they are is

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constructed primarily through discourse during social interactions (Savickas et al., 2009). This means that self-construction and finding personal meaning in one’s career underpin the narrative assessment process. The idea that clients’ identities are constantly unfolding is central to Guichard’s (2005; 2010) theory of self-construction. This theory, too, holds that clients actively construct themselves by conversing during social communication. It thus expands developmental theories, which maintain that identity construction unfolds continuously as clients progress linearly through ‘fixed’ stages. Self-construction commences when counsellors invite clients to narrate their stories, and, in doing so, construct their self-identity. The latter is not permanent and may well change: clients envisage possible selves by taking an active part in novel experiences that are opened up during the feedback clients receive from counsellors as well as non-counsellors (Savickas et al., 2009).

Table 3. The Career Construction Interview (Savickas, 2011b)

Question Rationale

How can I be useful to you as you construct your career?

Clients are regarded as the sole experts on their lives. The career counsellor can at best only be useful to them. Clients need to communicate their goals and set the scene for counselling.

1. Whom did you admire or who were your three role models before you were six years old? Why?

Role models represent clients' self-concepts and central life goals. They provide possible solutions to clients’ central life problems. Role models represent the self clients are or are becoming.

2. What is your favourite a) magazine, b) TV programme, and c) website? Why?

Indicates environments that fit clients’ lifestyles and that clients prefer (preferred settings for enacting the self)

3. What is your favourite story – book or movie or book turned movie?

Reveals characters who faced the same challenge as the clients and show how the characters solved the problem. Provides a script for connecting self to setting.

4. What are your three favourite mottoes or quotations?

Reveals clients’ advice to themselves at this moment.

5. What is the first thing you remember about your life? What are your earliest recollections? I am interested in hearing three stories about things you recall happening to you before you were six years old.

Early memories reveal core problems clients face; preoccupations. Major life themes emerge. Indicate the plot or main scenario of the life story.

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Two photographs demonstrating the notion of self-construction in a seriously disadvantaged region.

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Self-construction theory is more general than career construction theory (i.e., it does not focus only on the construction of the self in relation to the construction of a career and the designing of a life). This theory seeks answers to questions about what should give meaning to a client’s life and how client and counsellor should go about uniting the present by means of the advancement of future possibilities, including future selves (Savickas, 2005; 2010a).

4.9 CAREER COUNSELLING

Savickas (2011b) states that career counselling (or “counselling for career construction” (p. 41), rather than replacing anything, assumes its place among what is referred to as vocational guidance and career education. From a vocational guidance perspective, clients are seen as ‘actors’ who are characterized on the basis of scores they achieve on various attributes (stemming from the ‘objectivist’, individual differences approach). In terms of this approach, clients should be helped to match themselves with occupations in which they will find others who resemble themselves. Career education, on the other hand, is based on the subjective perspective portrayed as individual development. Clients are seen as agents and are distinguished by the degree to which they are ready to deal with developmental tasks that are consistent with their life stage. In terms of this approach, clients should be helped to acquire new attitudes, beliefs and competencies (ABCs) to extend their careers. Savickas (2011b), arguing from a novel and contemporary “project perspective of individual design” (2011b, p. 8) point of view, however sees clients as authors whose autobiographies are fundamentally important. Career counselling is aimed at empowering clients to reflect on their life stories (autobiographies) in order to identify their main life themes on the basis of which they can construct their careers.

4.10 LIFE DESIGNING

Savickas et al. (2009) maintain that every new social arrangement of work poses a series of questions and challenges to people who wish to be useful to others as they develop their working lives. The life design counselling model is the first-ever coordinated counselling theory. Previously, we only had theories of vocational behaviour and development, and not career counselling. Their life design framework for career counselling puts into practice and is a natural extension of Guichard’s (2005) theory of self-constructing and Savickas’ (2005) theory of career construction – both of which describe occupational behaviour and its development – and is structured to be lifelong, holistic, contextual and preventive of inadequate self-construction.

As stated previously, life designing represents a new paradigm for careers; one that augments 20th century matching and development. The life design approach recognizes that career concerns are only one aspect of a person’s life story and that it is necessary to help people design their lives by exploring their careers within their encompassing life stories. Concepts such as vocational guidance are therefore

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considered outdated. Five shifts in thinking are exploited in life design counselling. These are (1) from traits and states to context, (2) from prescription to process, (3) from linear causality to non-linear dynamics, (4) from scientific facts to narrative realities, and (5) from describing to modelling (Savickas et al., 2009).

The term “career construction theory” should be reserved for the vocational psychology model of vocational development and the term “life design counselling” for the coordinated counselling theory (M. Savickas, personal communication, March 13, 2013).

Life design counselling as an intervention strategy integrates the twin courses of action of career and self-construction with the unique contextually determined and contextually bound factors that play a role in people’s lives at any given time and in any specific place. Career and self-construction integrate and at the same time focus on people’s personality attributes, their developmental processes and their individual stories. While career and self-construction remain fundamental to the overall fitting of people’s individual characteristics with possible careers, present-day career counselling interventions require a narrative or career and life story (storied) approach (Guichard & Di Fabio, 2010; Maree, 2010c, 2010d) because of the underlying assumption that life stories play a key role in life design counselling.

Factors that can influence the process of life designing and that necessitate the redesigning (some would say ‘reinventing’) of one’s life are discussed next.

4.11 LIFE REDESIGNING

A distinction can be drawn between two broad types of reasons why clients consult career counsellors. A first group of clients consult career counsellors when they face a ‘natural’ crossroads, for instance, when they have to choose a school, a university, a field of study or choose one from a number of employment opportunities and often never again after that. A second group of clients consult career counsellors when they begin to doubt whether they have made the ‘right’ (appropriate) choice (in terms of, for instance, schools, subjects, universities, careers or employers). This is when the need for redesigning (facets of) their lives arises. Redesigning a life inevitably requires revisiting previous reflections that prompted certain career and life designing decisions. Typical scenarios that prompt visits by clients from the second group:

a. Joan1 (a second-year university student) no longer believes that accounting sciences is the ‘right’2 choice of a career for her because “I find the work boring and the prospect of working in such a structured environment does not seem worthwhile”.

b. Peter is disillusioned with the lack of employment opportunities he is facing after having completed his degree in marketing communication.

c. Tebogo (a third-year teaching student) has decided to leave teaching “because I now realize that teachers are expected to be everything for everyone with little opportunity for personal growth or creativity”.

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d. Moipone (a chemist) seeks guidance on how she should go about finding more time to spend with her three young children.

e. John (a 31-year-old journalist) whose wife is seeking a divorce requests career counselling because he feels ‘boxed in’ by the narrow views of her family and friends.

f. Mary, whose flourishing business was crippled when a supermarket opened up in the neighbourhood, requests career counselling to ensure that she “does not make the same mistake again”.

g. A minister of religion wakes up one morning to discover that a large informal settlement had mushroomed next to his house and the church overnight. Eighty percent of his congregation leaves the church, and he finds it impossible to find a congregation that will offer him a position. He seeks counselling regarding a career that will enable him to keep on doing what he has been doing for many years but without the ‘danger’ of ever again ending up in such a desperate situation.

In these kinds of cases, a narrative approach is most useful in uncovering major life themes that reveal deeper-seated reasons for seeking career counselling. These clients’ ‘original’ life design did not yield the results or outcomes they had been hoping for. Often, choices are intrinsically flawed from the outset because of inadequately trained career counsellors and/or because of inadequate information about the clients and their autobiographies and main life themes, their attributes, their developmental levels, their self-concept and the requirements of the world of work. Many clients are assessed on a once off basis and erroneously believe that the results of this assessment will remain the same for the rest of their lives. The vast majority of interest tests, for instance, do not have proven test-retest reliability.

Clients’ motivation has often been impacted negatively by a variety of contextual factors to such an extent that major reconstruction (change) is now needed in the manner in which these lives were previously designed. What career counsellors can do in such cases is to encourage clients to reflect carefully on what ‘went wrong’, on the one hand, and to decide what changes need to be made (redesigning) on the other hand to enable them to self-construct, to restore their sense of self (Law et al., 2005) and to achieve success in their lives and careers and make social contributions.

The principle of life redesigning should be applied at all levels. I have personally learnt a great deal from asking workers in humble positions (e.g., waiters, office cleaners, newspaper vendors, postmen, cashiers, and domestic workers) about which aspects of their work they enjoy (most and least) and what it is that they really want to do in life. Their answers rarely fail to amaze me and also some of their reasons for not doing what they really want to do (e.g., become social workers, teachers, medical doctors or engineers). Firstly, most of these people have a strong desire to do something that they consider more professional. Secondly, they feel frustrated and trapped. Thirdly, they experience very little job satisfaction. Fourthly, a little

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counselling for career construction from career counsellors on how to rewrite their career stories could go a long way towards enabling them to redesign their lives and thus find personal and social meaning in their work and life.

What is required is an approach that will enable clients to reflect on their situations and the twists and turns in their career and life stories and then to reflect on these reflections in such a way that guided self-advising is possible. It is essential for career counsellors to provide an audience for their clients (Briddick & Briddick, in press); to listen carefully and determine which turn in the career and life road prompted the consultation; what the origin and nature of the pain is that the clients wish to resolve; and in what fundamental ways the clients’ contexts have changed. This should help the clients acquire career adaptability, the fundamentals of which will be discussed next.

4.12 CAREER ADAPTABILITY

Career development stages and tasks formed part of Super’s (1990) career development theory. The segments of Super’s theory covered by career construction are growth, exploration, establishment, management and decline. As stated previously, however, career construction is a later elaboration on Super’s (1957) lifespan, life space theory (Hartung, 2007) and includes four fundamental dimensions of career behaviour, namely life structure, career adaptability, career personality and life themes. The adaptability segment refers to career development tasks, role transitions and strategies for dealing with the challenge of how to work through developmental tasks and negotiate crossroads and role transitions (Hartung, 2010). Savickas (1997) asserts that the concept ‘career maturity’ should be replaced by ‘career adaptability’ as the central construct in the career development theory. Career adaptability is defined holistically and applies to all lifespan stages (Savickas, 2009c). Career counselling helps clients make appropriate choices by increasing their career adaptability in terms of the following: Concern for their work role and career, Control of their career, Curiosity regarding their opportunities and options, as well as Confidence in making career choices (Savickas, 2010b). Hall (2002, p. 161) asserts that adaptability is a meta-competency which is evidenced by a person’s ability to “identify for himself or herself those qualities that are critical for future performance and [his or her ability] to make personal changes necessary to meet these needs”.

Career-related decisions are increasingly based on what is considered meaningful by employees themselves. Workers have to become lifelong learners who receive ongoing training and retraining so that they can acquire new (technology-related) skills that will make them employable instead of merely helping them ‘to find a job’. They should acquire career adaptability to help them manage recurring career and life transitions (Savickas et al., 2009). Dede (2009) refers to this as the acquisition of critically important 21st century workplace skills.

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Career counsellors have to play a greater integrating role in career counselling to ensure that workers’ career and life stories rather than the organization enable them to move from one occupation to another (Savickas et al., 2009).

4.13 ROLE OF COUNSELLORS IN ACHIEVING META-REFLECTION

The role of counsellors as reflective co-constructors of meaning in the stories and lives of their clients is generally acknowledged. I base my arguments on the premise that clients’ own voice is the one voice that will remain contemporary, valid and enduring in their lives. Clients can draw on this well of knowledge and timeless and expert opinion whenever they encounter a new crossroads. It is therefore the task of counsellors to help clients reflect on their life stories in such a way that they can listen to the voice within, and advise themselves on how to construct, design and actually live successful lives because people are capable of making the ‘best’ career-related choices at any specific moment (Lankton & Lankton, 2011). In other words, in postmodern career counselling, whenever clients are confronted with a challenge or face a crossroads (e.g., deciding on a field of study or choosing a career), they are first invited to answer a number of questions, all of which are aimed at encouraging them to reflect on facets of their lives to elicit their life stories. They are then invited to evaluate the outcomes of the elicitation or, put differently, authorize their career stories (Savickas, 2011b).

The significance clients assign to this process is central to their life designing in respect of which career-related choices are only one (albeit important) facet. This point can best be illustrated by an example: Mary, a 34-year-old woman who was frustrated in her career at the time, lost her best friend in a car accident some six months ago. After a dream in which her friend brought her a bouquet of yellow daffodils and told her that he was happy and that he wanted her to move on with her life, she consulted me in an attempt to determine whether the dream was a message from her friend and an instruction to change her career so she could ‘develop’ further. I asked her to ascertain the meaning of ‘yellow daffodils’ from a Jungian perspective and read up on dream analysis. A few weeks later, she reported that she had obtained clarity in her mind: yellow daffodils signified closure, and the message was not from her deceased friend, but actually from herself: her own advice from within.

4.14 FACILITATING (GUIDED) SELF-ADVISING

As stated previously, the strategy of guided self-advising draws strongly on an existential-phenomenological worldview. Advice given by an ‘expert’ career counsellor is not the (sole and only) ‘answer’ to clients’ career counselling needs (Crites, 1981). ‘True’, meaningful advice can be given only by clients to themselves, albeit under the guidance of counsellors. At the outset of any counselling relationship, clients should be advised to be ‘authentic’: decisions should never be made about fragments of their lives in isolation (e.g., the choice of subjects, schools, universities,

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fields of study or ‘careers’). The major emphasis should be on connecting the different dots that collectively constitute their life stories to enable them to become the architects of their own lives by taking responsibility for constructing, designing and living successful lives.

The aim of the counselling advocated in the career construction model includes helping clients to draw on their life stories when they face challenging situations and also to author and re-author their life stories. The responsibility of career counsellors is to elicit clients’ career and life stories by allowing clients first to reflect on their lives and then to enable them to listen to themselves, to reflect on their reflections and authorize these stories (read by career counsellors) and, eventually, to take an active part in their self-construction and start moving forward. By connecting the miscellaneous and unconnected dots, clients can be empowered to transcend their own limitations and, in so doing, advise themselves on how best to deal with crossroads that inevitably entail making career choices.

Clients are guided to identify the main themes in their narratives by allowing them to listen to themselves. The CCI and other qualitative career counselling techniques or instruments (e.g., the CIP) (Di Fabio & Maree, in press; Maree, 2006; 2008; 2009; 2010a; 2010c; 2012d) are used to empower clients to narrate their career stories by enabling them to listen to, authorize and fine-tune these stories and, ultimately, become actively involved in the process of self- and career construction (Savickas, 2011b). The CIP, for example, enables and inspires clients to meta-reflect on their own career-related responses as well as the reflections of the counsellor. By this I mean that the counsellor reads their responses back to them, repeatedly enquiring “Is this what you are trying to say?”, “Is this what I am hearing?” and requesting them to authorize and validate or invalidate the counsellor’s understanding of what the clients have said or written. In this way validity, credibility and trustworthiness can be established. The responses to the questions in a qualitative instrument such as the CIP accordingly provide career counsellors with a strategy to help clients communicate on micro-, meso- and macro-levels and subsequently construct themselves on micro- (e.g., responding to the question “What are my interests and strengths?”), meso- (e.g., “What careers would possibly ‘suit’ me?) and macro- (“What is my destiny?”) levels in terms of much more than merely choosing the ‘right’ careers. The entire process of authorising should be handled with due respect, circumspection and modesty. As stated previously, the counsellor should at all times adopt a ‘not-knowing’ role (Anderson & Goolishian, 1992) in order to advance clients’ unfinished stories, enable them to construct life trajectories, construct themselves and draw on their careers to design and live successful lives (Di Fabio & Maree, in press).

The process described thus far will help clients gain perspective on their life scripts, uncover who they are and help them make up their minds regarding where their stories are headed. Clients should continually be encouraged to advise themselves (finding meaning in their own responses to career-counselling questions) and to identify their main life themes first (their destiny) and then decide on possible ‘jobs’

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or careers (i.e., pathways towards that destiny). Their stories can be re-authored, if necessary, to sustain and buttress their efforts to design and live successful lives.

4.15 SELF-REFLECTION

Dimaggio et al. (2008) define self-reflection as the ability to think about one’s own thoughts. Moreover, various authors have highlighted the importance of engaging in continual meta-cognition (thinking about one’s own thinking (Hartman, 2001; Maree, 1986; 1997; 2010c) to facilitate self-reflection. Because employees in the postmodern era can no longer rely on organizations to provide them with holding environments (a life model or predefined career trajectory), they are increasingly expected to manage their own career trajectories (Reid & West, 2011) or arcs (Savickas, 2011b). Peavy (1992, 1993), an advocate of constructivist career counselling, argues that it is vital for clients to engage in constant self-reflection. He highlights the following postulations about constructivist approaches in general – postulations that necessitate continual self-reflection by employees in the 21 century: multiple realities exist (and should be considered during career counselling); all people’s lives should be narrated in the form of life stories; by constructing their own view of what constitutes reality, people can grasp their experiences; and the value of social relationships is pivotal in the life of people. McIlveen and Patton (2007), too, state that a narrative approach to career counselling is characterized by subjectivity and the search for meaning through self-reflection in search of improved self- and career construction.

The capacity to undertake self-reflective activities (which include identification of their core values in addition to whatever it is that adds meaning and direction to their lives) (Guichard, Pouyaud, De Calan & Dumora, 2012) has thus become crucially important today.

4.16 EXPLOITING REFLECTION AND META-REFLECTION TO FACILITATE MOVEMENT

Like Flavell (1979), I believe that meta-reflective insights involve the person (client), the task (self-constructing) and the strategy (self-reflection; completing a self-portrait) (Savickas, 2011b). Meta-reflection is about personal reflections by clients on their reflections about facets of their career stories such as their knowledge, insights, abilities, motivations, perceptions, experiences and characteristics (Brown, 1987). It yields indispensable perspectival insight into clients’ initial reflections about how they should go about constructing their careers and designing their lives so they can deal with the original pain in their life stories. All insight and activity are purposively held together throughout by reflection on reflection. This activity uses existing knowledge (the initially elicited career story reflections) to bring about novel insights (connecting the previously unconnected dots in the career story to facilitate the emergence of life themes). It provides the link (how to act

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on the identified life themes) between meta-cognitive knowledge (the identified life themes) and meta-cognitive self-regulation (acting, action, moving). It transforms knowledge acquired during the process of problem solving (narrating their career and life stories when the career and life story is elicited), includes adjustments made during the search for a solution of the problem (reflecting on their reflections while the career counsellor reads their ‘career stories’ in the form of their responses back to them), and, after finding a solution of the problem (once the unconnected dots have been connected and life themes have emerged), becoming active (investigating various possibilities) (Ertmer & Newby, 1996; Paris & Winograd, 1990). Subsequently, possible ‘solutions’ to the problem (choosing a career and designing a life) are continuously revised (during all subsequent phases of action, e.g., work analysis, job shadowing, enrolling for a degree, finding work) (Paris & Winograd, 1990).

In summary: meta-reflection facilitates the discovery of previously uncovered connections or links between existing reflections to gain new perspectives.

4.17 SUMMARY

Career construction theory, principles and practices and related concepts and theories have been discussed and presented systematically and schematically in this chapter. I have drawn on the existential-phenomenological belief that clients know themselves better than anybody else and should therefore be enabled to advise themselves under the guidance of experienced counsellors. A storied approach to career counselling, embedded in a narrative framework, is supported. This is based on the assumption that every life story starts with pain (also see 4.3.2), which needs to be identified by the client (under the empathetic eye of the career counsellor), drawing primarily on career construction principles and practices, Chapter 5 covers key aspects of career construction.

NOTES

1 Pseudonyms are used in all the case studies, and measures were implemented throughout the studies to ensure the clients’ welfare. Written informed consent was obtained from the parents and all the clients, and confidentiality was guaranteed and maintained. Clients were asked to authorize and confirm every facet of the information obtained during all phases of the assessment.

2 When clients refer to careers as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, they are reminded that it is better to refer to careers that are more appropriate or less appropriate.

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CHAPTER 5

SALIENT FEATURES OF CAREER CONSTRUCTION COUNSELLING

5.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I elaborate on essential features of career construction because (meta-) reflection is so strongly influenced by counselling for career construction. I first discuss the goals of career counselling and then consider the principles and characteristics of a holding environment, narratability, autobiographicity and intentionality. Lastly, I examine the key issue of listening to what clients say so that counsellors can, in turn, enable clients to listen to and hear themselves. The chapter ends with a discussion of the role of metaphors in this kind of counselling and a summary of basic hints for readers unfamiliar with postmodern careers work.

5.2 GOALS OF CAREER COUNSELLING

The goals of any kind of counselling-related intervention are wide ranging and include short-term (micro-) goals (for a particular session), medium-term (meso-) goals (interim goals) and long-term (macro-) goals (the eventual outcome the counsellor is hoping to achieve). i. Short-term goals: eliciting emotions (offering comfort by normalizing clients’

problems, explaining that these problems may be expected and encouraging clients generally) (Savickas, 2011b, 2011c); winning clients’ trust, establishing cordial interpersonal relationships (helping clients to accept the counsellor); and motivating clients to participate full-heartedly in the intervention.

ii. Medium-term goals: helping clients experience listening to and accepting themselves and their idiosyncratic attributes; helping them cast off feelings of rejection; helping them to be proud of themselves and to realize that they are the anchor point in their own lives, the only persons that can advise them and whose advice they should listen to; helping them experience reduced levels of anxiety; helping them improve their self-concept, self-identity, sense of self and realize that their previous view of themselves may have been unrealistic and based on ‘incorrect’ or faulty opinions of themselves; helping them relax; helping them improve their self-assertiveness skills; helping them uncover and understand their own motives, dreams and plans; helping them understand other people and their motives better; and helping them realize that they have

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grown over time and will continue to grow (i.e., acquire certain psychosocial skills).

iii. Long-term goals: normalizing clients’ multiple experiences; encouraging and inspiring them; helping them function more satisfactorily; helping clients choose a career and design a life; and, especially, helping them move more actively and vigorously and, in doing so, promote authoring of their life stories.

On the topic of ‘inspiring’ clients, a question I am often asked is: “How can I make sure that I inspire my clients but also stay authentic at the same time?” In other words, how do I know that I am setting ‘realistic’ goals for my clients? There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers to this question – just some guidelines and pointers. Leontiev’s (2005) view, from an existential psychology perspective, is that career counsellors and clients have no choice but to accept change as a given and to discover how to live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable with fewer guidelines or guarantees. Risk taking is becoming the norm in present-day society as is the experience of learning from not only our successes and our victories but also our failures and mistakes. Leontiev (2005) argues that “[t]oo much does not depend on us, and too much does, but we can never know which of our efforts will bear fruit. Existential psychology is to give people the courage to take responsibility to act without being sure” (p. 105). In other words, it is not career counsellors’ task to predict with absolute certainty what will work and what will not. Neither is it their task to act as experts who know what will work for their clients and what not. They should instil in clients the belief that it is all right to take ‘informed risks’, to encourage them to dare to dream … as long as they base their dreams on an informed, strategic and … reflexive summary of their own situations. In the end, this comes down to listening to themselves so that they can advise themselves.

5.3 CREATING A HOLDING ENVIRONMENT

Given Savickas’ (2009a, 2009b) explanation that the original meaning of the word ‘career’ is ‘care’ and not ‘path’ (its second meaning), counsellors should ideally focus in the first place on enabling clients to use their careers to hold themselves (Winnicott, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1987) and not use them primarily as a linear path to ‘the top rung of the ladder’. When clients consult counsellors, they stand at a crossroads. What used to ‘hold’ them and provide comfort and safety no longer does so (at least no longer does as well as it did in the past). Parents (mothers in particular), the home, the school and university or other tertiary training environments provide clients with holding environments early on in life. However, over time, these holding environments lose their holding capacity, which necessitates the construction of new ones. Eventually, clients have to ‘hold’

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themselves and others and use career as a strategy to create personal as well as social meaning in their lives. During times of transition, in particular, clients need to be imbued with a sense of continuity in a fragmented world (Maree, 2012b). It is thus essential for every client to identify and then connect the dots that collectively make up his or her life story; to put together the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that constitute his or her career and life story, so to speak, to let the bigger or grand picture of his or her career and life story emerge.

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Three photographs demonstrating different holding environments. The young girl in the first photograph held on to the tekkie while she was being raped; when their parents died, the three youngsters survived in a shack on their own for around two years until it

burnt down; and the third photograph shows Ms Catherine Sepato, who provides a holding environment for many young orphans and abandoned children.

5.4 NARRATIBILITY

Savickas (2009a, 2009b) maintains that people draw on autobiographical reasoning when they make a change in their lives. In other words, they use their own stories to ‘hold’ themselves; to restore their sense of self (Law, 1981; 1993; Law et al., 2005). The extent to which people can narrate the meaning of their lives indicates how much of what they do will matter to others. This process is referred to as narratibility, and it is about people’s ability to say who they really are (narrate their story). A career counsellor’s main aim is to help clients first reflect on their lives, narrate their own career and life story and then listen to and reflect on their own career- and life story-related reflections. His or her main task is to use appropriate strategies to elicit clients’ life stories. In quantitative counselling, results have to be interpreted for clients (e.g., “Your verbal aptitude is high; this means that you have a knack for fields of study in the human and legal sciences. In addition, your results on the interest inventories suggest that you are interested in language, debating and related fields. These two sets of results appear to be aligned well. What do you make of this? Fields of study which pre-require these kinds of traits include law, journalism and.…”). However, in a qualitative approach, minimal interpretation should be given. In this book, I focus on a number of ways in which career counsellors can achieve this aim (see Chapter 8).

5.5 AUTOBIOGRAPHICITY

Counsellors have to be useful to clients as they (clients) identify their life themes so that they can use work to heal themselves. Savickas (2009a; 2009b) coined the term

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‘(auto-)biographicity’ to signify clients’ ability to use their own stories to negotiate transitions. ‘(Auto-)biographicity’ also denotes clients’ capacity to use their stories as holding environments when life imposes changes on them. It is our task as career counsellors to elicit these life stories. We have to design an elicitation strategy carefully in order to provide clients with the means to narrate their stories. As stated previously, I encourage all readers acquire a copy of Mark Savickas’ book Career counselling (2011b; see List of References) for guidance on how this aim can be achieved. Also see Chapter 8 for further information in this regard.

5.6 INTENTIONALITY

To accomplish important changes in clients’ life stories, narratability (the ability to articulate a life story), adaptability, intentionality (the intention to make meaning in one’s life), and, ultimately, activity need to be promoted (Maree & Morgan, 2012). Hartung (in press) asserts that these counselling goals are enhanced when clients reflect on their answers to the questions posed in the CCI. They become enabled to narrate more clearly who they are and who they are becoming; they become better equipped with the skills needed to deal with the multiple changes and related challenges life imposes upon them; and they are enabled to design lives that are meaningful to themselves and that matter to others. Watkins (1984) maintains that intentionality is often witnessed in clients’ ability to create alternative plans, to gather information that relate to these different career- and life-related options, to assess these options actively and to explore these options actively before making decisions. Savickas et al. (2009, p. 246) affirm that actions can be considered intentional if they involve “behavior and meaning as they reflect possible selves and life in the future”.

This photograph demonstrates intentionality: I desperately needed electricity to continue with my research, so these creative youngsters connected me with the only house in the

village that had electricity, almost 1,5 km away.

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5.7 BODY LANGUAGE: THE BODY NEVER LIES; IT MERELY SPEAKS THE MIND (SAVICKAS, 2009A; 2009B; SHAPIRO, 2006)

Savickas (2009a; 2009b) stresses the importance of carefully noting clients’ comments or remarks, and observing clients closely from start to finish; making notes of any body changes. These include sounds and changes in sounds (e.g., sighs, coughing, breathing), shifts in body positions, gestures, rituals, personal space (Hedges, 2010), head movements, changes in direction of gaze, touching of the nose, licking of the lips, tongue movements, and so on. In Savickas’ words: “The body never lies” (Savickas, 2009b). Even though it is generally accepted that body language is not an exact science, physical movements and other non-verbal signals can help career counsellors ‘read’ clients and interpret and understand what such signals are trying to convey. These observations should be incorporated into the career counselling session. Counsellors should reflect clients’ body language by, for instance, verbalizing their observations as follows: “Did I see you are smiling?”, “Did I hear you sigh?”, “Was that a frown?”, “Did you raise your hand?”, “Did you turn your head away?”, “Did you look downwards?”, “Did you blink your eyes a few times?” “What am I seeing?”, “How do you interpret …?”, “What are you trying to say?” By doing this, career counsellors are indirectly and respectfully inviting clients to reflect on what these body movements reveal.

5.8 LISTENING CAREFULLY TO WHAT CLIENTS SAY

It is essential to ensure that clients hear and listen to themselves; hear what they tell themselves. Clients’ words should be written down accurately indicating any repeated phrases and any explicit emotions expressed. (This applies in cases where career counsellors work with individual clients and write down their words.) It is particularly important to listen carefully for what has been described as ‘symptom words’ (Geary, 1994), which can help counsellors describe the nature of clients’ deep-seated challenges (e.g., a client who repeatedly uses the word ‘absent’ to refer to her inability to focus). It is also essential to listen for repeated words, phrases or figures of speech, which may shed further light on the particular challenges a client is facing. In group contexts (when the CIP is used with, for example, 200+ clients and it is impossible for counsellors to write down clients’ answers themselves), counsellors should make sure that clients understand every question, check to see that all the questions are answered and clarify all responses that are unclear.

5.9 CLIENTS LISTENING TO THEMSELVES

During feedback, clients’ own words and expressions are repeated frequently by career counsellors. Clients should be prompted to say these words and expressions out loud because the more they say them out loud, the more the words and expressions will become ‘authentic’ to them. When clients express fear or anxiety, for example,

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they are reminded that this proves how brave they are for admitting the anxiety and that one can only become stronger at something one is weak at. Counsellors should reflect and acknowledge (validate) clients’ comments by, for instance, verbalising their observations as follows: “Did you say ‘I hate mathematics’? Did I hear you clearly?”, “Did you raise your voice when you talked about your mother?”, “Have you twice used the word ‘angry’?”, “What am I hearing?”, “How do you interpret this?”, “What are you trying to say?” By doing this, counsellors are inviting clients to listen to themselves and reflect on their reflections.

Geary (1994) and Zeig (1994) also emphasize the importance of ‘seeding’, that is, ensuring that the client is ready to participate in counselling (Geary, 1994). (“You say that you have been looking forward to this session for a long time. I am inspired by your enthusiasm; it is always a privilege to work with someone who is as motivated, eager and committed as you. These are usually the traits of a top achiever.”) In other words, an environment is created that facilitates counselling.

This photograph demonstrates the value of people listening to and advising themselves.

5.10 OBTAINING AUTHENTIC SELF-INSIGHT

Obtaining authentic self-insight often happens spontaneously. The career counsellor may, for instance, say: “You describe your role model as a caring, resilient, intelligent and independent person”, to which the client replies “This is actually who I am.”1 In telling me about her favourite book that turned into a movie, namely the Lion King, Anna recalled that Simba (main character) was told by his uncle Scar that he (Simba) had been responsible for the death of his parents. Simba consequently left the family, feeling that he was not worthy of their love. In the end, though, the truth came out,

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and he did everything in his power to get his family back and take care of them. Anna commented that Simba’s positive character traits were his self-belief, his refusal to give up hope, his leadership qualities and his eagerness to fight for his people. His negative qualities, she recalled, were his concern about what others thought of him, even though he did not show this, hiding his hurt behind a smile. Then, a look of surprize flashed across Anna’s face when she remarked: “But this is me; I have just described my own story; my own most positive and negative traits.”

5.11 USING METAPHORS TO WRAP UP THE CAREER CONSTRUCTION INTERVIEW

Metaphors can be created easily when the client’s reason for consulting the counsellor (the crossroad he or she is facing at that moment) has been identified (Inkson, 2002). Metaphors help in accessing hidden resources and in searching for relevance and projection (Yapko, 1995; 2003). Career counsellors can consequently wrap up the career construction interview by using metaphors that clients themselves used during the interview. Inkson (2002) lists a journey, a sequence of seasons, growth, a story, a creative work and a network as examples of metaphors that can be used to wrap up career interviews. Other examples of the use of such metaphors are: “you are an awe-inspiring painting that is about to be revealed”, “you are a beautiful song”, “you are a haunting novel” or “you are a timeless Bible verse”. Or: “the work you do in the children’s home acts like a pebble in a pond: it has a ripple effect on numerous fronts.”

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The following set of general guidelines can be tailored to suit any kind of career counselling intervention.

5.12 GENERAL HINTS FOR CAREER COUNSELLORS UNFAMILIAR WITH POSTMODERN CAREERS WORK

The following guidelines should be remembered whenever the approach advocated here is applied in practice.

1. Counsellors’ main aim is not to ‘test’ clients – rather, it is to elicit their career and life stories (facilitate narratability and autobiographicity).

2. Clients generally seek help at a crossroads in their lives. Counsellors should therefore try to find ways to provide them with a holding environment in the short term and to empower them to ‘hold’ themselves and others in the long run.

3. Counsellors should use the words “How can I be useful to you?” (Savickas, 2011b), or, for instance: “How can I add value to your life?” rather than asking “How can I help you?” to commence the career counselling session, and they should return to this question at the end of the session to check whether any movement has been made. “How can I help you?” immediately suggests that the counsellor is the expert who knows more about the client than she or he does herself or himself.

4. Counsellors should adopt a so-called not-knowing position. In other words, they should accept that the sole expert on the client is the client himself or herself (Anderson & Goolishian, 1992; White, 1997).

Photographs showing two examples of favourite quotations.

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5. Clients should at all times be requested to validate or invalidate counsellors’ comments and ask them to clarify their questions.

6. Counsellors should operate from the assumption that whatever they may surmise or infer remains uncertain until the client has clarified the ‘truth value’ of these assumptions or inferences. (It is easy to understand this when you consider that the word ‘run’, for instance, has 43 different meanings!)

7. Counsellors should repeat clients’ own words throughout to ensure that the communication remains authentic. Repeated phrases are particularly important.

8. If a client is not ready to respond to any question, she or he should be requested to “Think about it and let me know when you are ready”. When clients repeatedly say: “I do not know” (e.g., who my role models are) or “I cannot remember”, it is often because there is a lack of trust between them and the counsellor.

9. Career counsellors should carefully note body movements, emotional expressions and verbal comments.

10. Counsellors should ‘normalize’ traumatic experiences (facilitating reality orientation) by, for instance, referring to other (anonymous) clients who have had similar experiences and are coping well. This is typically followed by encouraging and inspiring clients.

11. Counsellors should consistently and gently emphasize ‘internal rerouting’, that is, clients should be guided to appreciate their faulty cognitions and adopt more appropriate and ‘accurate’ cognitions.

12. There are no chance memories. Every word or sentence or memory has a function and meaning (Adler, 1933).

13. Counsellors should consistently listen for and try to identify patterns of behaviour and thinking.

14. Meta-reflection helps client and counsellor verify whether their understanding of the client’s inner world is accurate (Rogers, 1951).

15. Clients should be allowed to authorize their own stories and to start ‘moving’ (actively investigate career choice and life designing options). In other words, they should be empowered to advise themselves. It is nevertheless accepted that counsellors will from time to time give advice, which can either be followed or disregarded by clients.

16. Any weaknesses reported/ displayed by clients should be converted into strengths and social contributions.

17. The world of work should be used by clients to heal others and themselves.

5.13 SUMMARY

For authentic (meta-)reflection in career counselling, a career construction approach should be followed because reflection in, on and for action is brought about by counselling for career construction. Enabling clients to find advice from within to meet personal and career-related challenges is, after all, best achieved when they are empowered to take a fresh look at ‘problems’ during counselling. Strong points are

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rediscovered and used, and weak points are converted into strong points. Through the use of strong and weak points, workable ‘solutions’ to career-related ‘problems’ are often discovered. Careful reading of this chapter should familiarize counsellors new to postmodern career counselling with the basic principles of this approach. However, the career construction approach cannot be mastered overnight – many hours of practice under the watchful eye of an empathetic counsellor au fait with this approach will be needed.

The next chapter reviews the use of early recollections in career construction counselling.

NOTE

1 For me, personally, this represents the most rewarding moment during the entire career counselling session; the moment when authentic meta-reflection pays off, and the client begins to appreciate and understand that she or he is actually now narrating or authoring her or his own story.

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CHAPTER 6

THREE EARLY RECOLLECTIONS TECHNIQUE

6.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the use of early recollections in career counselling. I first consider the three recollections theory and then elaborate on the practical implementation of early recollections to help clients identify their major life themes. This is followed by a discussion on how early recollections can be used to enable clients to turn their pain into hope and how early recollections are analyzed. The chapter ends with an analysis of a first early recollection.

6.2 USE OF EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS: BRIEF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND (MAREE, 2012A, 2012B)

Earliest recollections often signal the sequence of events that constitute clients’ life stories (Adler, 1929, 1933, 1937, 1956, 1958; Savickas, 2008). According to Adler (1958, p. 73), “[a client’s earliest] memories represent his [or her] life story; a story he [or she] repeats to himself [or herself] to warn him [or her] or to comfort [or inspire] him [or her], to keep him [or her] concentrated on his [or her] goal, to prepare him [or her], by means of past experiences, to meet the future with an already tested style of action”. Cochran (2011, p. 5) maintains that “[at] best, one or more earliest recollections will offer a prototype for a plot of life and career. Perhaps more commonly, earliest recollections offer fragments of a larger story that must still be composed”. Deceptively simple from the outside, these unembellished stories (earliest recollections) are, in fact, deeply profound and can help counsellors identify clients’ preoccupations. Dreikurs (1923, p. 15) maintains that “[t]he earliest memories of childhood are always significant … [Their] dynamics explain the fact that we choose to remember from the thousands of experiences of our early childhood only those which fit in our general – and still present – outlook on life. These early recollections, therefore, are indicative of our life style”.

Considering the three earliest recollections technique from an individual psychology, person-centred perspective, Adler (1933) maintains there is no such thing as ‘chance’ memories. Clients often remember or repeat stories to themselves in the process of reflexive constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing, and co-constructing themselves. These stories are used to advise, soothe, caution or comfort themselves; to keep themselves focused on their goals and to prepare themselves −

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through revisiting (drawing advice from) past experiences − for the future with an established plan of action.

The three earliest recollections technique (Maree, 2010b) is used to gather information on and transform the theoretical approaches into practice, that is, into a constructivist career counselling strategy and methods that normalize clients’ multiple experiences and encourage clients to (re-)author their career and life stories. In doing so, they enhance their chances of experiencing work as a personally meaningful endeavour and context for further development and for mattering to others (making social contributions), for connecting the multiple loose ‘dots’ that comprise their life stories and for completing life portraits (Savickas, 2011b).

6.3 USING EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS TO IDENTIFY CLIENTS’ MAJOR LIFE THEMES

All responses to Savickas’ (2006a) question (Table 3) should be written down verbatim. The order in which the three recollections are recounted is important. The client’s responses tell the story of the current problem and reveal possible solutions the client already has in mind (Adler, 1933; Maree, 2012a, 2012b; Savickas, 2007a; 2011b). The first verb is pivotal: the act symbolized here characterizes the client’s being and life philosophy; epitomizes his or her main life theme. It is the counsellor’s task to enable clients to find ways of turning their pain into a social contribution thereby actively mastering what they have passively suffered: making magic happen (Savickas, 2011b).

Whereas the first recollection in particular is linked to clients’ core or central life ‘problem’, the second and third anecdotes are normally associated with their subconscious solutions to their core life problems; their own advice from within. However, the second story may either confirm this problem or (like the third story) propose a solution to the problem. Every story has linear incidents (plots) and underlying themes (timelines). Once counsellors have elicited clients’ earliest stories, they should carefully guide clients towards analyzing their three earliest recollections and finding the ‘timeless’ themes in their stories; their pain and their preoccupations.

6.4 IMPORTANCE OF EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS IN CAREER COUNSELLING

Our earliest recollections serve as our psychological DNA: “The whole is in every part” (Savickas, 2006a). Working on the premise that clients repeatedly try to make up for what they suffered or missed during infancy, it is assumed that the subconscious purposely chooses memories that are valuable to clients at given points in time (Adler, 1933; Dreikurs, 1923; Savickas, 2009a, 2009b). These recollections will therefore change over time. These unadorned stories (memories) are deeply profound and can help career counsellors guide clients towards identifying their fixations. Every preoccupation is polar by nature (i.e., it is located on the opposite

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end of an opposing concept, e.g., pain as opposed to pleasure). Put differently: we, as counsellors, work from the thesis versus the antithesis assumption. Every thesis has an antithesis; everything has contrasting sides (contradictions). Our task is to turn

Pain into hope

Disadvantage advantageTorment being ‘in one’s element’Obsession professionVictim victorDefeat victoryHeartbreak inspirationMisfortune opportunitySymptom strength and a social contributionIndecision movement; doing somethingTension attentionIntention action (magic) (Savickas, 2011b)

We are useful to our clients when we succeed in enabling them to turn their pain into healing and happiness first and then into social contributions. We assume that clients’ stories start only when things go wrong. How else? Stories are woven around what went wrong and how this ‘unexpected’ and ‘unwanted’ turn of events is handled, otherwise there would be no story! We, as career counsellors, endeavour to identify the many ‘twists’ in clients’ tales. We then ‘hold’ or support clients as they attempt to negotiate transitions in their lives. We repeatedly attempt to instil in them the capacity or skill to use autobiographical reasoning (use their own story to ‘hold’, take care of, nurture or foster themselves) every time they are called upon to make a change in their lives.

As career counsellors, we are repeatedly requested to administer career counselling linearly (“Tell me which career is the ‘best’ one for me.”). However, far from being that simple, we know that all career counselling ‘problems’ have to be interpreted in terms of the larger pattern of clients’ lives, namely the overall search for meaning – to make sense of why they are here, to construct themselves and complete their life portraits. This means that all career counselling questions inevitably relate to and are embedded in clients’ all-encompassing life themes, which are evident from their life stories or autobiographies (Savickas, 2009a; 2009b; 2009c). Career counselling is about the search for patterns of meaning in clients’ lives. These patterns have to be analyzed to identify the grand narrative or story in every client’s life. Career counselling, seen from this perspective, is a science and an art: the pursuit of completing a jigsaw puzzle by putting together the seemingly unrelated pieces to discover what the big picture looks like. It is about using a paint brush to blend various, seemingly unrelated tiny particles of paint into life portraits of individual clients.

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A number of years ago I arrived at the school shown in the first photograph. Upon arriving back home, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, currently, the Rector of the University of the Free State (at the time, my Dean at UP) put me in touch with colleagues from the local

Department of Education, who made funding available for building a new school to replace the dilapidated one. The result is shown in the second photograph.

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In the middle of nowhere I stumbled upon this treasure: A desperately needed guidance and counselling facility sponsored by the European Union.

6.5 ANALYZING EARLY RECOLLECTIONS

As stated earlier, whatever the client says should be carefully noted and written down. The first verb used is of special importance because it indicates the kind of action that characterizes the way in which the client absorbs into and connects with her world. The career counsellor invariably revisits this verb during the discussion of the three early recollections and again at the end of the session. Since the first verb represents a distinct strategy that can help beginner therapists build their confidence, newcomers to this style of counselling are advised to begin their discussion on the three recollections by focusing on the first verb.

Any repeated words, phrases or expressions (both verbal and non-verbal) should be noted carefully as they present counsellors with important clues about clients’ life themes. After clients have told their three stories and counsellors’ questions have been clarified, counsellors should say something like: “How often do you read newspapers?”, “Can you tell me what the purpose of the headings of newspaper articles is?”, “Can you give me some examples of headings?” (If necessary, counsellors can show clients examples of headings in recent newspapers.) “Now let’s pretend that these stories will appear in tomorrow’s newspapers. We therefore need to add headings or headlines to each of these stories.” (It is important to insist that each headline should have a verb and that the headings should be ‘catchy’ and concise – preferably between five and seven words long.) “I want you to enjoy

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writing these headlines. Start with the headline of your first story.” Some clients may not be able or willing to share their earliest memories. They may, instead, prefer to talk about things that happened later in their lives (this is not necessarily because of a lack of trust but more likely merely their preferred mode of expressing themselves). In such cases, it is acceptable to proceed with these later memories.

During feedback, the counsellor explains that even though these memories (the stories, recollections or secrets) may seem superficial, they are in fact packed with meaning. They stand for clients’ advice to themselves. The counsellor should emphasize that these memories or stories reveal enduring life themes, and he or she should say, for instance: “It sounds as if your first story has a theme of deep compassion for others, especially the underdogs in life.” Or, perhaps: “A theme that seems clear from your second story is that you do not wish to be bound by an overly restrictive environment.”

Counsellors may also wish to facilitate the discussion about the three early recollections by saying: “Your first headline seems to suggest that the desire to express yourself artistically (by singing or dancing) is a particularly important theme in your life.” In my experience, most clients are capable of identifying these themes themselves. As Maria put it: “Just like my father gently and tenderly helped me to stay on my tricycle when first I started to ride it, teaching me in a gentle manner how to avoid getting hurt and how to stay on the road, I want to help others to do the same. This is what I have always wanted to do.” Counsellors may wish to confirm what clients have stated, confirming, for instance: “Isn’t it fascinating to see that, in your career, you want to satisfy the need to do what you have been rehearsing all your life. That is who you are. This is what you have to do; your destiny. There are different ‘careers’, though, or pathways, from which you can choose to enable you to construct yourself and reach your destiny.”

Hedges (2010, p. 16) asserts that therapists draw their stories, but also their assumptions and values, from culturally available scripts such as

(a) ‘assumptions’ and ‘grand narratives’ (e.g., the Western notion that the ‘self’ is individual; separate from other selves);

(b) ‘big stories’ and professional narratives about ‘best practice’ (e.g., the notion of the wounded therapist or the missionary therapist);

(c) our own personal stories.

A word of caution is needed at this stage: We, as career counsellors, should reflect constantly on the grand, personal stories we select (Hedges, 2010) so as to prevent our own frames of reference from framing the reference of our clients and lest we “[restrict ourselves] and the persons who consult us to deficit-centred or problem-saturated accounts” (White, 1997, p. 230).

6.6 DEMONSTRATING HOW TO ANALYZE A FIRST EARLY RECOLLECTION

Real angels walk this planet. One of them is Ms. Catherine Sepato, caretaker of the Tshwaraganang Orphanage, who selflessly and almost single-handedly looks after

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numerous homeless and abandoned children in the Hammanskraal region of South Africa. Catherine can best be described as a doer from whom we can all learn so much. She wanted to know how she could be of help (after we had delivered food and clothing, donated by some true Samaritans, to her orphanage). I responded: “Would you be willing to share your earliest recollections with me and readers of the South African Journal of Psychology? I am curious to find out why you do what you do and what motivates and inspires you.” She then proceeded to recount the following early recollection.

“On Christmas day, at the age of four, my father gave me a pair of shoes. Unfortunately, the shoes were neither of the same size nor of the same colour. I tried them on, but the left shoe (the smaller of the two) hurt a lot. I felt ashamed to wear the shoes to the family gathering, fearing that I would be humiliated and mocked.”

She sighed and continued: “Yet, my pleas fell on deaf ears, and Father insisted, ‘You will wear the shoes to the family meeting.’ I cried, and pleaded, but no one listened.” She sighed again: “My fears were realized when we arrived at the gathering. My cousins and nieces laughed at me, mocked me.”

A sad smile spread across her face: “I know how it feels to be mocked and to experience discomfort.”

Readers familiar with using earliest memories in career counselling will appreciate the profundity of this story. Firstly, the first verb (give) is pivotal: Catherine is a giver. The act of giving characterizes her entire being and life philosophy; it epitomizes her main life theme. Secondly, by helping others, she is healing herself. Thirdly, she is turning her pain into a social contribution. She is actively mastering what she passively suffered. Fourthly, by doing something (acting or moving), she is making magic happen. Her work or career story (taking care of voiceless, vulnerable children) is her life story. Anyone who knows this magnificent woman will confirm: Her life portrait, constructed over time, comprises the four elements delineated above.

Some readers may wonder whether the first verb (which is emphasised in the interpretation of reflections) must be the first verb used by the client (e.g. I was playing) or the first verb in the recollection (e.g. my father gave me a pair of shoes). We should pay attention to the action in the story as it happens. We expect the first verb used by the client (‘gave’ in this case) will become the theme: preoccupation with getting/giving, and so on. (It can indeed become the theme even if the person who does the giving is not the client.)

6.7 SUMMARY

The use of early recollections to help clients identify major life themes (preoccupations) is hardly new. In fact, Adler and others already wrote about the technique in the early years of the 20th century. However, Savickas was the first to show the world how this approach can be used in career construction counselling to

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identify clients’ main life themes. The goal is to help clients heal themselves and turn their pain into a social contribution thereby actively mastering what they passively suffered. Ultimately, clients should realize that by doing something, they will be “making magic happen” (Savickas, 2011b).

In the next chapter, I will discuss the use of the CIP as an example of an auxiliary, qualitative instrument in career construction counselling in addition to the CCI.

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CHAPTER 7

USING THE CIP AND ITS NARRATIVE SUPPLEMENT IN CAREER COUNSELLING

7.1 INTRODUCTION

The CIP (including its narrative, career style and life story supplement) (Maree, 1986; 1996; 2006; 2008; 2009; 2010a; 2010b; 2010c; 2012d) was first conceptualized in 1986 (Maree, 1986; Maree, 1996) when I began developing a qualitative (narrative) questionnaire that was originally aimed at eliciting career choice information in addition to the ‘usual’ information obtained at the time). Over time, based on feedback received from colleagues and thousands of clients, the narrative supplement was altered significantly to reflect the pioneering work done by Mark Savickas and to streamline its administration, implementation and interpretation. The CIP combines quantitative and qualitative strategies aimed at stimulating clients’ reflections (and meta-reflections) on their career and life stories in order to facilitate the construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, and co-construction of these stories.

7.2 AIMS OF THE CIP

The CIP was developed in response to the need for multiple approaches to the collection of data as a preliminary step in helping clients make appropriate career choices and, from a present-day perspective, design successful lives.

The broad aim of the questionnaire is to show how the theoretical framework outlined thus far could be tailored and applied by career counsellors to facilitate the career choice of thousands of clients including those from the poorest and most marginalized sectors of society who had received little or no career counselling and were consequently either excluded from sought-after fields of study at institutions of higher learning or had lost interest in their studies after having enrolled for particular fields of study.

The CIP aims to help clients narrate their career stories, thus enabling the counsellor to read these stories back to them so that they can reflect on their reflections and authorize or approve (or de-authorize or disapprove) and fine-tune the stories and, ultimately, become actively involved in the process of self- and career construction. The CIP provides career counsellors with a strategy to help clients not only choose ‘appropriate’ careers but, more importantly, advance their unfinished stories, construct life trajectories, construct themselves and use their careers to design and live successful lives.

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7.3 TECHNIQUES FOR ELICITING CLIENTS’ CAREER STORIES

The CIP merges several methods of assessing clients’ career interest profiles and eliciting their career and life stories, namely the testing clients method (using formal questionnaires), the interview method (asking clients about their interest category patterns), the observation method (observing how clients respond verbally and non-verbally to questions) and the administering informal questionnaires method (the last three methods are rooted in narrative theory). The CIP can be administered either on an individual basis or in groups. Ideally, in my view, the questionnaire should be re-administered after two years (as should all interest inventories).

7.4 CIP PROPERTIES

The CIP demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in a South African context (Maree, 2006; Maree & Sommerville, 2008) in terms of test-retest reliability, content and criterion-related validity as contained in the Rothwell-Miller Interest Blank (RMIB) (Hall, Halstead & Taylor, 1992). To assess its psychometric properties in an Italian context, the CIP and its narrative supplement as well as the Self-Directed Search Questionnaire (SDS) (Holland, Powell & Fritzsche, 1994) were administered at the University of Florence in. Results showed that in the vast majority of cases where this was to be expected, practically significant correlations between the CIP and SDS categories occurred (Di Fabio & Maree, in press).

The CIP has four parts.

7.4.1 Part 1

Deals with biographical details and family influences.

7.4.2 Part 2

Part 2, which deals with “career category preferences/dislikes”, requires clients to choose and rank their five highest career categories from a total of 19 broad, encompassing career categories in order of preference and then to rank their five least-liked career categories in order of dislike. Clients are invited to underline the specific occupations in which they are more interested than others in green and the specific occupations in which they are less interested than others in red. The 19 career categories presented in the CIP provide counsellors with a starting point for considering relevant career profiles in greater depth (Maree, 2010a).

7.4.3 Part 3

Part 3 contains career choice related questions (e.g., “Tell me which three specific careers you think you would like most and least at this stage and, for each career, give the single most important reason why this is the case”).

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7.4.4 Part 4

Part 4 (Version 4 of the CIP) comprises 171 career story related (narrative) questions and subquestions.

7.4.5 The CIP as a Unit

All questions in the CIP have been structured so as to provide a ‘logical’ flow (e.g., starting with uncomplicated, easy to answer questions and gradually moving towards more profound and complex questions). All questions are correlated positively with other questions, that is, questions are repeated in a different manner so as to check for consistency of responses (creating a qualitative consistency index). Inconsistent responses are generally given by tired, uninterested, depressed, unmotivated or uncooperative clients. Compare, for example, Peter’s response to Question 2(a) (“I care about people”) to his response to Question 4, “What do others say about you?”, namely “I don’t feel much for other people.” Kelebogile, on the other hand, while indicating a strong preference for office-based (administrative, clerical and organizational) activities, as well as ‘buying and selling’, also evinced a strong dislike for working as “as an assistant or ‘secretary’”. When questioned about these two responses, she replied: “I very much enjoy the work of a secretary or shop assistant but regularly seeing assistants being humiliated in public has convinced me that I would never consider choosing that occupation”. Clients are carefully observed and all body responses are written down meticulously.

7.4.6 Importance of the Second Last Question, Part 4

The second last question before clients are invited to conclude with their reflections on how they experienced the session is the following: “What were your three biggest challenges (problems) when you were younger; that is, before the age of six?” The rationale behind asking the question at such a late stage is to create a ‘safe’ space before asking clients to share their innermost secrets (Savickas, 2011c). Consider the following example (response of a 17-year-old learner from a seriously disadvantaged environment where most roads are impassable): My biggest challenges when I was very young were the following:

a. I watched while many of my friends were hit by cars.b. Many of these children subsequently died. The nearest hospital was far away.

In his reply to the first question in Part 3 of the CIP (list your three favourite careers and provide the single most important reason for your choices), he wrote:

i. A mechanical engineer (so I can design motor cars that can be handled more easily).

ii. A paramedic (so I can attend to the victims of motor car accidents).iii. A teacher (so I can teach drivers and learners how to use the roads).

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This young man, who had a knack for mechanical things, later studied mechanical engineering at a university of technology. He is still passionate about the medical side referred to above and often works in provincial hospitals over weekends. He also supports road safety instruction in rural schools in particular.

In a discussion with Mark Savickas in 2009, I clarified an earlier research finding I had made, namely that this question in particular seemed to yield an accurate indication of a client’s major life themes. I use this question instead of the corresponding three earliest recollections question because whereas it takes approximately 20–25 minutes to elicit responses to the three earliest recollections question, it takes far less time to elicit a satisfactory response to the question I asked, which is also the penultimate question in the narrative supplement of the CIP. In my experience, in group contexts, this question can be used successfully in the place of the three earliest recollections technique. Clients are typically divided into groups of approximately six persons and asked to write down their responses carefully.

7.5 INDUCTIVE DATA ANALYSIS STRATEGY

Once the questionnaire has been completed, an inductive data analysis approach is followed to identify life themes and interest-, attitude- and habit-related themes. Put differently, the search for patterns begins. My style is to read the client’s career story narratives back to him or her and to guide him or her gently towards discovering themes or patterns in these narratives. Whereas the earliest recollections question reveals, for instance, major life themes, interest-related questions yield interest-related patterns or themes. If, for example, a client states “My major strength is to fix car engines”, then writes “My favourite magazine is Popular Mechanics”, and goes on to say “Ever since I can remember I enjoyed taking engines apart and putting them back together”, and concludes “My favourite school subjects are mathematics, physical sciences and mechanical technology”, the theme or pattern of “an interest in mechanics-related matters” is evident.

I commence feedback by asking questions a-d below (clients generally know what the appropriate answers are – if not, I keep on probing until appropriate responses are given).2

a. “Who knows you better than anybody else?”b. “I will now be reading your career story or, if you wish, the results that we have

obtained, back to you. However, whose voice will you in reality be hearing?”c. “One should ideally listen to one voice; follow one person’s advice only … that

is also the person that one can then blame if things do not turn out the way one would want them to. Whose voice is that?”

By this time, almost all clients have identified the following pattern: I know myself better than anybody else; I should listen carefully to others’ advice, but only I can make my own, important life decisions: in the final instance, I should follow my own advice.

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d. “If you drive away from my rooms today and you are stopped by someone who asks you for directions, what will your reply be?” Clients almost always respond: “Where do you want to go to?” or “What is your destination?” I use this metaphor to explain to them that fields of study and careers or occupations can be likened to pathways to reach one’s destiny in life. I make sure that they realize that whereas there are numerous routes to one’s destination (one can, for instance, move from one city to another by car, bus, train or airplane), a journey has only one destination. Similarly, our destiny in life is revealed by the main themes in our life (e.g., helping others, defending people against bullies, speaking on behalf of voiceless people, breaking down barriers between people, ‘using’ others, always being late, always wanting more, never being satisfied, always being critical, always probing or enquiring, and so on). A person whose main life themes are, for instance, ‘helping others’, ‘empowering vulnerable people’ and ‘making social contributions’ (his or her destiny) may be excellent at mathematics and physical science and show a keen interest in engineering and the built environment as well as business and management. She or he may then choose to enrol for a degree in industrial engineering, then complete a course in project management, followed by a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) and eventually become the chief executive officer (CEO) of a large business (the pathways to his or her destiny). As the CEO, she or he will be in an ideal position to realize his or her main life themes by taking special care of the most vulnerable people in the business, helping those that are most vulnerable, providing funding for orphanages and empowerment projects, and so on.

This approach works particularly well with adolescents, who, more often than not, echo the following comment: “I do not take kindly to being told what to do.” Incidentally, this is how I recently handled this kind of comment by Susan:

Question 1: “How can I be useful to you?”

Susan: “I expect you to tell me what to study and in which careers I will be successful and happy.”

Question 5: What do you value most?

“Not being told to do things.”

Question 15: What were your three biggest challenges (problems) when you were younger?

Susan: “I was left with no choice but to relocate from England with my parents at the age of eight. A few years later, though, I was glad that we did relocate. The move was for the best.”

Susan was guided to connect the unconnected dots: “You are right; no person should decide on your behalf. Furthermore, when life imposes changes on us, it is useful to

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realize that while we cannot control certain occurrences in life, we can still control our reactions to what happens to us.”

7.5.1 Explaining the Concept of Qualitative Data Analysis to Clients

In order to enable clients to identify the main themes in their lives, I use the following example (or a similar one) to explain the concept of qualitative data analysis.

“Recently, in an effort to obtain information about a certain client, I asked five of her acquaintances to write brief notes about her. This is what they wrote.”

a. “You will always find her working in the townships on Saturdays, trying to make a difference in the lives of less privileged children.”

b. “When a friend of hers was recently accused unfairly of cheating in a test by a lecturer, she made an appointment with the lecturer and insisted that he apologize to the friend in front of the class.”

c. “Her favourite saying when she sees that one of her classmates is sad or unhappy is: ‘I’m a listener. You are welcome to tell me what is wrong. And she never shares others’ ‘secrets’ with anyone.”

d. “She is the chairperson of the school’s outreach project in an informal settlement.”e. “Thanks to her initiative, every teacher regularly receives a flower and a brief

‘thank you’ signed by all the learners to show their appreciation for the teacher’s dedication and commitment.”

I then ask clients to identify a few main ‘themes’ and subthemes’ – and they readily manage to identify themes such as “she has positive traits” and “she is virtuous”, as well as corresponding subthemes such as ‘compassionate’, ‘caring’, ‘giving’ and ‘selfless’. I assist clients in identifying their own career and life themes and subthemes but my prompting is minimal. Together, clients and I reread and meta-reflect until they authorize themes. All repeated phrases (which suggest the existence of themes, subthemes or categories) are noted. I also explain the concept of data saturation (the ‘large’ number of questions in the CIP promotes accomplishment of data saturation).

7.5.2 Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods to Facilitate Career Counselling

When a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used, either the quantitative or the qualitative data are analyzed first. An inductive data analysis approach is followed in order to identify a number of life themes. I sometimes prefer to score tests only after the inductive process had taken place in order to prevent contamination of the process and to prevent analysis of the quantitative data becoming more of a deductive process.3 Clients’ responses are read back to them verbatim, and they are informed of the importance of identifying their major life themes first and only then deciding on a career as a vehicle to execute their life themes and make social

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contributions. They are continually asked to ‘reflect upon [their] reflections’ and to tell the counsellor which themes they can identify from their responses. Minimal interpretation should be provided by the counsellor so as to enable clients to identify the main themes in their narratives thus enabling them to listen to themselves.

After the results of the qualitative part of the assessment have been discussed, the results of the quantitative assessment should also be communicated to clients (and any significant others who attend counselling with clients). At this stage, a table is created that the client and the counsellor use to establish the crosswalk between the two sets of data (see Table 4 below; profile of Timothy, an 18-year-old young man who sought career counselling, saying: “I want to do something that will not make me unhappy. I want a job that will allow me to figure things out, to enjoy what I do”).

In practice, there is always a significant overlap between the two sets of data. Table 4 shows that the quantitative data did not add meaningfully to the information obtained otherwise. It is, however, interesting to note that Timothy’s earliest recollections revealed the following major preoccupation or life theme: repairing things. First recollection: at the age of seven, both his arms were broken when he fell off a staircase resulting in his never again playing tennis, which he loved. Second recollection: one year later, he dropped his ‘boogie board’, which ‘cracked’. He figured out a practical way to repair it himself. Third recollection: he recalled how he built a crude rocket from instructions he found in a ‘mechanical’ magazine (“I love applying theory in practice.”). (Timothy is now studying Construction Management.)

7.6 USING TRIANGULATION AND CRYSTALLIZATION TO FACILITATE QUALITY ASSURANCE

Confirmation and corroboration are facilitated by triangulation of the data obtained by using the two modes of data collection to evaluate contradictory data and to determine the validity and credibility of the findings. Different qualitative data-gathering methods are typically used to facilitate crystallization and enhance the trustworthiness of a study.

Clients are also frequently requested to reflect on the crosswalk/crossover between the two ‘sets of results’ or different versions of clients’ career and life stories (triangulation takes place), and they eventually (co-)construct a list of fields of study they can analyze to arrive at an informed choice. Careful analysis of the quantitative results rarely adds significantly to the list of fields of study that clients have chosen to ‘job analyze’ (to facilitate movement) after having accessed the qualitative results. In other words, the qualitative approach should be sufficient to help clients uncover their interests.

Clients are regarded as the sole sources of reliable, valid and trustworthy information about themselves. Career counsellors co-author and co-facilitate clients’ stories (elicit these stories) and subsequently read clients’ stories back to them so they can approve their own stories (and, if necessary, disapprove or de-authorize) certain aspects of the script. The aim is ultimately to help clients start moving (acting)

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Table 4. Establishing the crosswalk between qualitative and quantitative data

Source of data: qualitative

Theme identified: qualitative

data

Associated field(s) of study

Crosswalk between

two sets of themes

Theme identified:

quantitative data

Source of data: quantitative

CIP (Maree, 2010c)CIP Narrative Supplement (Maree, 2010c)Life lineNarratives by significant others

Strong self-sentiment integrationHonestyLoyalty

Owner of own business

Evident The same as in the case of the qualitative data

High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ) (Visser, Garbers-Strauss, & Prinsloo, 1992)

Client’s reflections/meta-reflectionsCollageLife story

Investigative nature Enquiring mindAnalytical orientation

PilotAeronautical engineerAgriculturalistInformation technology specialist

Evident Ditto SAVII (Du Toit, 1992)RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (Briggs & Briggs Myers, 1995)

CIP (Maree, 2010c)CIP Narrative Supplement (Maree, 2010c)

Keen sense of businessPrefers to start own business in futureNot willing to supervise others

EngineeringArchitecture Construction Management Quantity surveyingTown and regional planning ElectricianForester

Evident Ditto SAVII (Du Toit, 1992)RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)

CIP (Maree, 2010c)CIP Narrative Supplement (Maree, 2010c)

IntroversionReservedDoes not wish to work for othersExpects little of others

All fields below Evident Ditto MBTI (Briggs & Briggs Myers, 1995)

CIP (Maree, 2010c)CIP Narrative Supplement (Maree, 2010c)

Strong practical-mechanical orientationTough-mindednessStubbornness

All fields below Evident Ditto (RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)HSPQ (Visser, Garbers-Strauss, & Prinsloo, 1992)

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from a static (passive) acceptance of what the counsellor says to a dynamic (active) orientation and progress. Personal agency and authorship are strongly emphasized throughout, and interest is seen as an adaptive means of using the environment to satisfy and realize long-cherished needs.

In my opinion, the main difference between the two modes of assessment lies in the way (the way) the clients’ career stories (from a positivist perspective, the results) are obtained and interpreted. In the case of the quantitative part of a study, the test results yield a number of fields of study; in the case of the qualitative part of a study, clients’ reflections on their own reflections (also) uncover major life themes (as suggested in career construction theory) (Hartung, 2010; Savickas, 2005; see Table 3). These themes are used by counsellors and clients to arrive at fields of study that can lead to career choices that may help clients find personal meaning in their work, fit work into their lives, design and live successful lives, and make social contributions.

7.7 SUMMARY

When the precursor to the CIP was first developed some 27 years ago, the positivist approach to career counselling was accepted almost unquestioningly. Little attention was given to or respect shown for qualitative approaches or techniques. However, after the publication of Mark Savickas’ 1993 article (Savickas, 1993), career counselling would never be the same again. The CIP as a qualitative (narrative) questionnaire (originally designed to elicit career choice information in addition to the ‘usual’ information obtained at the time) gradually evolved into an instrument that could be used in group contexts to facilitate career counselling for up to 200 clients at a time. Use of the CIP (as an auxiliary qualitative assessment instrument in addition to the CCI on the one hand and quantitative instruments on the other) enables counsellors to combine quantitative and qualitative strategies to stimulate clients’ reflections (and meta-reflections) on their career and life stories. Construction, deconstruction, reconstruction and co-construction of these stories, along the guidelines suggested by Savickas (2011b), are thus made possible.

In the next chapter, six case studies are discussed to demonstrate how the career construction approach can be implemented in practice.

NOTES

1 The number and content of questions are fl exible. The narrative part of the CIP is regularly updated to ensure that the newest developments and research in the fi eld are refl ected in the questionnaire.

2 A DVD (Maree, 2012b) is available which demonstrates in great detail how the CIP should be administered and the fi ndings interpreted.

3 However, this is purely a matter of personal preference and readers may just as well start with the quantitative results fi rst.

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PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF CAREER CONSTRUCTION AS SHOWN THROUGH CASE

STUDIES

8.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the practical implementation of the theoretical framework discussed thus far. I discuss Savickas’ eight-step strategy for crafting life portraits, consider clients’ written life portraits and explain the importance of enabling clients to create their idiosyncratic vision and mission (or identity) statements during career counselling. Six case studies help demonstrate the ways in which the CCI can be used with or without the CIP and other auxiliary career counselling techniques and strategies to facilitate career counselling.

8.2 SAVICKAS’ EIGHT-STEP STRATEGY FOR CRAFTING A LIFE PORTRAIT

8.2.1 The Eight-Step Strategy

1. In Step 1, the client’s goals for career counselling are determined by considering the client’s response to the question: “How can I be useful to you?”

2. In Step 2, the client’s earliest recollections are used to identify his or her central life or core problem or preoccupation1 because this “is where the life story metaphorically begins” (Taber, in press). Savickas (2011b) recommends the analysis of these recollections in the order of their recounting by the client. The first story typically indicates the client’s core problem or preoccupation, and the second story may either confirm this problem or (like the third story) propose a solution to the problem.

3. In Step 3, the people the client admired most before they were six (more accurately, what they represent to the client) are analyzed to determine the client’s self-concept, central life goals and possible solutions to his or her central life problems.

4. In Step 4, the client’s favourite magazine, TV programme and website are analyzed to determine the settings or environments that best fit his or her lifestyle.

5. In Step 5, the client’s favourite story book or movie depicts a character faced with the same problem as that of the client and relates how the character solves the particular problem. A script is provided on how the client can move or transition

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his or her present career-related setting to one more suitable for his or her preferred setting.

6. Step 6 involves analysis of the client’s favourite quotes or mottoes (his or her self-advice at a given point in time).

7. Step 7 involves analysis of different fields of study or occupations that may be appropriate (‘fitting’) for the client.

8. In Step 8, the last step, a response is given to the client’s original request for career counselling.

Following this, it is time to co-construct the client’s life portrait.

8.2.2 Crafting a Life Portrait

The life portrait (Savickas, 2011b, p. 117)

depicts a lifetime of experiences from a new perspective on career. Practitioners draw a life portrait that transforms little stories into a grand narrative that expresses identity and provides a superordinate view that comprehends the current transition and envisions future positions. Practitioners want to use the composition to help clients understand their lives by deploying past experiences to consider future choices. They do so by using the career theme to extend the occupational plot into the future. So in composing a life portrait, practitioners re-construct the past in ways meant to anticipate the future and prompt action.

After the first session of a three-session strategy, the career counsellor connects the seemingly unrelated dots contained in the responses to the CCI. The numerous micro-stories or micro-narratives are woven into a consistent, systematic, grand macro-story or life portrait (reconstruction), which is read back to the client in the second session so that she or he can authorize (co-construct) the grand narrative (Savickas, 2011b). Subsequently, counsellor and client collaborate to co-construct and fine-tune the life portrait.

Savickas (2011b) contends that life portraits are guided by the following five general principles according to which counsellors should

a. facilitate the best possible version of a client’s life at that stage; b. create a narrative that opens up opportunities for growth;c. concentrate on stimulating themes that promote and advance the career plot; d. craft a “credible, comprehensible, coherent, and continuous” (Savickas, 2011b,

p. 127) (authentic) life portrait; e. be circumspect in interpreting the meaning of a client’s story.

After the life portrait has been authorized by the client, at the end of the second session, purpose is transformed into action. An agenda is negotiated for action, and the client is requested to carry out this agenda after which the career counsellor is again consulted if necessary.

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8.2.3 Developing a Vision and Mission Statement

Towards the end of the second session, clients are requested to write a sentence summarising their vision and mission statements. (The number of sessions is flexible and needs to be contracted with the client up front. Readers should adapt the sequence put forward for three sessions in this chapter accordingly.) A vision and mission statement may read something like this: “I will be happy and successful when I work in an environment where my work and I are respected and where I can earn a decent living and support my family”). This statement can be expanded to include procedures and specific goals in line with the client’s fundamental intention: “I will become a … (occupational choice) so that I can … (social meaning) and in the process achieve … (personal meaning).”

Savickas (2011b) believes that career construction practitioners should use appropriate phrases from the CCI to construct a sentence that summarizes the client’s central narrative in the form of future intention. A future scenario is subsequently constructed from the client’s stated goal for seeking career counselling (Savickas, 2011b). The number of sessions will depend on the unique needs and situation of the client. Savickas (2011b) and Taber (in press) state that even though the indicated sequence (see Table 3) is recommended and widely practised, career counsellors are free to emphasize certain aspects of the CCI more than others. The client’s response to the initial question (“How can I be useful to you?”) will largely determine which factors should receive the most emphasis. The counsellor’s personal style will also often determine the extent to which the self-portrait is crafted. As stated previously, it is advisable to offer as little advice as possible – instead, clients should be invited to meta-reflect gently nudged towards connecting seemingly loose and unconnected dots. (The same strategy is applied with the administration of the CIP.)

Clients’ vision and mission statements should be formulated collaboratively by clients and counsellor. However, here, too, the counsellor should play merely the role of ‘editor’ of what is written. The essential ‘message’ or vision and mission statements should emerge from and be found within the client.

What a client (a former rape victim) reported some ten years ago:“I have pasted my vision and mission statement on the mirror that I use in the

mornings for combing my hair and on my study table where it is easily noticeable. My statement reads as follows: “Firstly, I want to attain a good mark in my next mathematics test and exam (micro- or short-term statement). Secondly, I will strive towards attaining an A in mathematics at the end of Grade 12 to help me being selected for medical studies (meso- or medium-term). In the long run, I want to work in a rural region as a medical doctor so I can practice and provide much needed medical care to the vulnerable of populations (a major life theme, which provides the glue that holds her career and life story together) (macro- or long term).”

Today, she is a medical doctor, working in a poor rural region.

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The first case study shows how the CCI can be used to craft a life portrait on the basis of the eight-step sequence designed by Savickas (2011b).

8.3 CASE STUDY 1

8.3.1 Participant and Context

The parents of Peter, a 17-year-old boy in Grade 11, consulted me during the second half of 2012 for guidance on the choice of a career for Peter. During the intake interview, it was agreed with the parents that a combined quantitative-qualitative assessment would be conducted. It was also agreed that the information obtained by means of the qualitative part of the assessment would be read to the client first during the second phase (authorization phase) of the intervention.

8.3.2 Mode of Inquiry

The case study was based on an interpretivist paradigm (Patton & McMahon, 1999) involving understanding and interpreting meanings as revealed during interactions with the client. The study had a mixed-methods (quantitative-qualitative) research design (Creswell, 2007).

8.3.3 Ethics

Measures to ensure Peter’s welfare were implemented throughout the study. Written informed consent was obtained from the parents and from Peter, and confidentiality was guaranteed and maintained. Peter was asked to authorize and confirm every facet of the information obtained during all phases of the assessment. Care was taken to ensure that he and his parents fully understood the intervention, and sufficient time was allowed for clarification. The parents were charged for the counselling service (which was rendered in a private practice context).

8.3.4 Career Story (‘Results’)

Interested readers may wish to read the responses below and decide how they would have applied the procedure outlined above before reading my exposition.

In response to the question, “How can I be useful to you?”, Peter responded: “Please give me clarity as regards what I will do with my life. Are my plans well-aligned with what the ‘results’ of the assessment suggest? I want to achieve; to stand out. My father feels that one should have something ‘special’ if one wishes to achieve in life. I was ‘tested’ (assessed) some time ago and I am curious to see if the ‘results’ are still the same.”

Peter’s verbatim responses to the questions in the CCI are given below.

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Whom did you admire or who were your three role models before you were eight years old? Why?“Mark Shuttleworth, the first South African space tourist. I had a mad love for space and my dream was to go to the moon. He is innovative and creative and a brilliant businessperson.”

“Shaun Pollock. He was my favourite cricketer and I idolized him. His red hair made him stand out. He was an accurate bowler, a brave fighter, solid, level-headed, hard-working, determined, down-to-earth and charity-oriented.”

“Richard Branson, the CEO and founder of Virgin group. He is a reliable, brilliant businessman who has achieved many ventures and successes through hard work and innovation.”

What is your favourite magazine, TV programme and website? Why? “My favourite magazine is ZigZag, a surfing magazine that is brilliant and inspires

me when I read it. It deals with sport, and it is unorthodox and informal.”“My favourite TV-programme is Suits, a series about lawyers who work very

hard and reap the just rewards. Harvey Spectre, the lead character of the series, is a brilliant lawyer who is fair and strong at heart.”

What is your favourite book or movie? Why? “Eragon. It is the story about how determination, hard work, standing up against tyranny to conquer tyranny. Love and selfless service help Eragon (the main character) achieve his goal. He was chosen as a Dragonrider by the last free dragon alive. The two then approached the freedom fighters in their country to start their battle against the dictator that was ruling it, and the man who killed all of the dragons leaving two left. Eragon goes through many dips, and works through all of these. He was unfazed by major challenges. His courage, strength, bravery, compassion, strong moral centre and maturity were his strengths. Conversely, his impatience, impulsivity, time management problems, recklessness and failure to sometimes see the plan to the bigger picture, on the other hand, were his weaknesses.

What are your three mottoes or favourite quotations? Why?“Pain is an emotion; you have to embrace it to live through it.”“Talent plus dedication will equal success.”“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.”

What are the first things you remember about your life; your earliest recollections? Tell me three stories about things you remember happening to you when you were young.

Older brother upset by sibling’s immaturity“At the age of four, I was sitting with my younger brother on the floor of our old house in Johannesburg. We were playing with building blocks, and I was very upset

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because he had broken the wall that I had built. I can remember walking to my mother who was sitting on a chair watching us play and telling her the story.”

Boy enjoys activity but is deserted by partner/Young man realizes playtime is over “I (when I was five or six) can remember playing with my best friend on the jungle gym in the kindergarten. We played through that whole thing and had loads of fun. When break was done, she walked back to class and passed through the blue gate at the edge of the playground at Swaan (Swan) and Flamink (Flamingo). Somehow her walking away after the break made me realize that it was time to stop playing and focus on more serious matters.”

Youngster unmoved by irritation on milestone day“My first day at school. I was seated across from my good friend who now lives in Dubai (Sean) and next to my other good friend Mary. We were all very nervous, and I can remember it was a hot day and our parents were there with us. Another boy in the class had a fascination for bugs and was trying to show me a beetle he was carrying in a plastic bug container around his neck. However, I was determined not to be distracted by someone trying to ‘bug’ or frustrate me.”

Constructing a life portrait for PeterAs stated previously, the client’s response to the first question in the CCI is considered first in the construction of the life portrait as it gives a clear indication of his or her goals for career counselling. A keen sportsperson, Peter is interested in legal and business matters. (Incidentally, the results of the CIP correlated almost perfectly with Peter’s expressed interests.) He seeks clarity on what he should do to achieve his goals and stand out in the crowd. At the instigation of his father, he wants to acquire a special skill to help him do well in life. He also wants assurance that he can ‘trust’ the results of the counselling. Attractive as the combination of the three main fields of interest (obtained from the CIP, namely law, business, and sport) seems on the surface, he is unsure as to whether he “really has what it takes to succeed”.

In Step 2, Peter’s earliest recollections are used to identify his core problem or preoccupation. The first heading (“Older brother upset by sibling’s immaturity”) introduces the story of a young man trying hard to construct something but being frustrated by an immature ‘other’ person. Peter recounted how he had recently been disappointed by the ‘immature’ and untrustworthy behaviour of a teacher who had acted immaturely and disloyally, by not supporting him during a meeting where a provincial sports team was selected, disappointing him deeply and in a way preventing him from realizing his dreams. Peter’s core problem or preoccupation appears to be the following: “I am sure about what I wish to achieve in life to stand out, but I am afraid that disloyal and/or immature people might thwart my plans.”

The first verb (‘sitting’) is crucial. Peter is not active enough in the pursuit of his life goals. After working for a while on a heading for the second story, Peter could not

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decide which of the two headings better epitomized the essence of the story, and he therefore opted to retain both. The first heading of the second story confirms Peter’s core problem: just when he finds something worthwhile doing, he is disappointed by ‘immature’ others. The second heading reveals Peter’s subconscious plan to resolve the central problem revealed by the first story: to ‘stop playing’ and to move on to more serious issues.

The third story provides a pointer on how to solve the problem revealed in the first story: when facing an important crossroads in life, one should not be deterred by others who may be trying to ‘bug’ or annoy one. Peter then repeated what he had revealed earlier, namely his deep disappointment in and anger at the sports coach whom he had trusted but who had overlooked him at an important selection meeting.

In Step 3, the central life problem is linked to Peter’s self-concept, central life goals and possible solutions to his central life problems. All Peter’s role models have a passion for what they do, which is something special and out of the ordinary. They are all innovative, creative, brave, fair, level-headed, determined, down-to-earth people who have a knack for business and management. Peter believes that he needs these traits to achieve his goals, not the inconsistent support of others.

The environments or settings that fit Peter’s lifestyle and in which he would like to work are revealed by his favourite TV programme and magazine in Step 4. The TV series Suits indicates his desire to work hard as a lawyer and earn good money (Holland code: ES; Du Toit, 1992), and ZigZag, a surfing magazine, points to his interest in sport and unorthodox and spontaneous pastimes.

In the fifth step, Peter’s favourite story concerns how a character who faced the same challenge as Peter solved that challenge. The novel Eragon provides the script for Peter’s extrication from his present dilemma. Peter believes that determination, hard work, selfless service and opposition to oppression will help him overcome unfairness and uncertainty about what to do next to ‘construct’ himself. Peter believes that even though he will encounter many ‘dips’ or challenges on his journey, he will succeed if he conducts himself in the same way as Eragon (the main character in the novel) does. He has to remain “unfazed by major challenges” and to find a way to deal with his own lack of courage and consistency, his impatience, impulsivity, poor time management and failure to see the bigger picture.

In Step 6, Peter draws on his three favourite mottoes or quotations to find advice that he can give himself at this point in time. Peter believes that pain (and disappointment) is something that one needs to live with and that it should be seen as something that will eventually make one stronger, once conquered. Peter also believes that his dedication and his talents will co-determine his ultimate success. Lastly, Peter’s advice to himself is to keep on trying. His recent setback, when he was not chosen for the provincial cricket team, is just a temporary setback that can be overcome by hard work.

Step 7 entails consideration of fields of study and occupations that may be appropriate (‘fitting’) for Peter. Fields of study recommended for job analysis included BCom (Law) (followed by a LLB), Business Science, Industrial Psychology/Human Resources Management, Business or Financial Management, Marketing

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Management, Human Movement Science and Physiotherapy. Peter was further advised to consider registering for an MBA qualification after completing any of the degree courses mentioned above.

In the last step, I asked Peter to write a response to his original request for career counselling. He confirmed that he was (maybe subconsciously in part) hoping for more than mere counselling regarding the choice of a career. He confirmed that he was feeling deeply disappointed. People whom he trusted had let him down. Consequently, feelings of uncertainty and not knowing how to handle matters or whom to turn to had begun to set in. He feared that he might disappoint his parents (his father in particular) but also himself. His belief that he was ‘special’ and that he had the potential to attain great heights in life, making his father proud of him and fulfilling his destiny in life, was severely dented. Not wishing to be let down by others again or to let others down, he jumped at the opportunity his parents offered him to obtain career counselling.

The following life portrait was constructed (along the lines suggested by Savickas, 2011b).

Peter’s life portrait

I want to find a way to play cricket for my country, to study to become a successful businessperson with a legal background and even go on to become the CEO of my own business. This will make it possible for me not only to stand out from the crowd but also to help others who have been betrayed and suffered injustices. I am feeling unhappy, disappointed and tense at the moment because I feel upset with the teacher who ‘broke my wall’, so to speak, and (temporarily) impeded me in my plan to become successful. Just when I was beginning to think that I had found someone who would be on my side during a ‘game’, I was let down for a second time [during the session, Peter had recounted how someone else had let him down previously]. However, the positive aspect of this disappointment is beginning to dawn on me. I am beginning to see the importance of focusing on the bigger picture now. It has become time to act in a more mature way and, if needs be, consult a counsellor to teach me certain important psychosocial skills. I want to deal with my lack of time management and study skills, my impulsivity and my concern about my puzzling inability to focus in class and on the sports field from time to time.

I am once again facing a crossroads and feeling nervous and dejected. The antics of an irritating person are threatening to make me lose my focus again, but I know deep down that it is not worth getting angry about what had happened. I am determined to learn how to deal with betrayal and disappointment in the future, to identify who I really am and can become in the future, to determine what is needed to enable me to stand out, to achieve my goals of becoming a CEO, and to help others.

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I subsequently asked Peter to compose his vision and mission statement. This is what he wrote: “I will be happy when I play for South Africa, study hard and become a successful businessperson. This will help me to stand out from the crowd but also make enough money and become influential enough to help people.”

As recommended by Savickas (2011b), I subsequently assembled phrases from Peter’s Career construction Interview into a sentence that encapsulated the essence of Peter’s career story and reflected his future movement. Peter articulated his identity narrative or vision and mission statement as follows: “I will be happy and successful when I play cricket for my country so that I can stand out and become a brilliant businessperson with a legal background and in the process ensure that fairness prevails for our employees but also for people outside of our business.”

I used this vision and mission statement to identify the resources Peter needed to design feasible action strategies to realize his goals (Taber, in press). Job analysis could include attendance of open days, visits to educational institutions/employers, discussions with occupational practitioners, part-time work, work shadowing and Internet surfing (all aimed at helping him make an informed career choice).

Peter was referred for counselling to deal with his feelings of disappointment and having been betrayed, time management counselling as well as for counselling on emotional social skills acquisition to help him control his tendency to act impulsively. He was also referred for neurological evaluation to help him deal with the difficulty he had in focusing.

When asked to comment on how he had experienced the career counselling session, he replied: “I felt taken care of in every sense of the word.” In other words, having experienced a secure holding environment, he can now work towards healing himself and providing holding environments for others (Winnicott, 1969). Working in partnership with me, Peter is piecing together missing parts of his career story. Recovering these parts may prove extremely useful to both of us in our endeavours to co-construct an alternative story to his ‘problem-saturated’ version (Hester, 2004, p. 339). We should thus succeed in attending to his private logic and uncovering some of the “guiding fictions in general and hidden reasons for occupational interest in particular” (Savickas, 2009d, p. 188).

The next five case studies show/exemplify different ways of using the CCI in combination with the CIP and other assessment techniques and instruments. Different counsellors may prefer a more structured or a less structured approach to the strategy expounded here. Likewise, it is not important whether one uses all the questions in the CIP or focuses on a few of them only. The only yardstick for measuring success in career counselling is the degree to which we as counsellors succeed in being useful to our clients and in adding value to their careers and lives.

The next case study reveals how a client can be guided to base her choice of a career on her own advice instead of the advice of others. A combination of quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques, instruments and strategies is used. Also, a slightly different data analysis strategy than the one used in the first case study is implemented here. Readers are invited to decide for themselves which

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(combination of) techniques, instruments and strategies they prefer and which ones they consider redundant.

8.4 CASE STUDY 2: FROM BASING THE CHOICE OF A CAREER ON THE ADVICE OF OTHERS TO GUIDED SELF-ADVISING

8.4.1 Participant and Context

The parents of Maude, a 17-year-old girl in Grade 12, consulted me during the second half of 2012 for guidance on the choice of a career for their daughter. During the intake interview, it was agreed with the parents that a combined quantitative-qualitative assessment would be conducted. It was also agreed that the information obtained by means of the qualitative part of the assessment would be read to the client first during the second phase (authorization phase) of the intervention.

8.4.2 Data Gathering

8.4.2.1 Quantitative techniques: psychometric instruments. The psychometric tests used in the study were the Differential Aptitude Tests (SAT-L) (Owen 2000), the MBTI (Briggs & Briggs Myers, 1995), the RMIB (Hall et al., 1992), the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes – Form H (SSHA) (Brown & Holtzman, 1974) and the South African Vocational Interest Inventory (SAVII) (Du Toit, 1992). The tests were scored by me.

8.4.2.2 Qualitative techniques. Qualitative data were gathered during in-depth (one-on-one, structured and semi-structured) interviews and oral discussions with Maude, by observing her (for the interview schedule, see the Results section below) and by implementing the qualitative data-gathering techniques referred to below. The CIP (Version 3) (Maree, 2012d) and its narrative supplement were used to facilitate data collection from the narrative paradigm. It should be stressed that the CIP is a predominantly qualitative career-counselling instrument and not a psychometric instrument as such.

8.4.3 Process

Because the client lived some 100 km from the town where the assessment was conducted, it was agreed with the parents that the assessment would be concluded in a single day (taking roughly seven hours to complete, with a number of breaks in between). The parents and the client were interviewed to start off with, after which the assessment process began. The quantitative assessment was followed by the qualitative assessment during which the CIP and the ‘timeline’ were administered (the client was requested to prepare a collage (Cochran 1997; 2011) upfront, to write

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her life story, to ask a friend to write a few confidential notes about her and to bring all the data along on the day of the assessment). Later, I conducted a concluding interview with the parents and the client.

8.4.4 Data Analysis and Interpretation

Although a ‘standard’ set of quantitative tests was administered, due to space constraints, only the results of the qualitative part of the assessment are reported in full here. The quantitative assessment results below indicate a strong positive relationship with the qualitative data (narrative assessment).

a. SAVII (Du Toit, 1992): The client’s highest preferred interest categories were Artistic, Business and Management, Social Service and Scientific Investigative. Maude showed a particular preference for

• buying and selling, promotion and persuasion, organising and management (acting in an enterprising manner in the world of business);

• social and legal sciences;• language and entertainment (actualising her creativity in a free environment); and• educational, social and personal services.

b. RMIB (Hall et al., 1992): Maude’s highest interest category patterns were Aesthetic (being creative/designing); Social Service (working with people in a helpful or supportive capacity); Literary (reading, writing, working with words); Persuasive (meeting and dealing with people, managing or organising); and Musical (making or listening to music).

c. MBTI (Briggs & Briggs Myers, 1995) (MBTI code: ENTJ): Maude was usually comfortable applying what she considered correct, efficient and effective to all aspects of her environment. She was highly analytical and matter of fact in her evaluation of situations and people. She cared deeply about others, and she valued competitiveness in others just as much as she valued it in herself. Her orientation to the ‘big picture’ and future goals, in conjunction with her drive to establish structure and to succeed, had the potential to enable her to occupy positions where she could lay down policy, plan for the future, demonstrate her competence and take on responsibility. Logic was important for her – she expected the world to make sense. She gave an indication of enjoying careers where she could express her creativity and her liking for complex ideas. She was attracted to positions/careers that were challenging and action oriented, and where opportunities existed for leadership such as management positions, marketing, law, teaching, consulting, human resources and acting (Martin, 1995).

The inductive data analysis approach discussed in section 7.5 was followed. Maude was frequently requested to reflect on the crosswalk/crossover between the two sets of results (triangulation thus took place), and she eventually (co-)constructed a list of fields of study she could analyze to arrive at an informed choice. Analysis of the

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quantitative outcomes did not add meaningfully to the list of fields of study that Maude had chosen to ‘job analyze’ after having accessed the qualitative outcomes. In other words, the qualitative part was sufficient to help her uncover her interests, preferences, and so on – the quantitative part actually added few additional data.

8.4.5 Career Story (‘Results’)

8.4.5.1 Maude’s responses to selected questions in Part 2 of the CIP. Maude’s preferred interest categories according to the CIP (Maree, 2012d):

1. Social, care giving, community services and teaching2. Legal practice and security services 3. Marketing4. Practical-creative and consumer science5. Research

Her responses to some2 of the questions in the CIP Narrative Supplement (Version 4) (Maree, 2012d) appear below. The responses are given with minimal editing (i.e., only glaring language errors were corrected). The assessment was done in English.

8.4.5.2 Maude’s responses to selected questions in Part 4 of the CIP

What are your

a. strengths?“I am good at languages … talking and writing. I have a talent for working with people. People easily trust me and feel comfortable in my presence. I find it easy to convince other people about my point of view.”

b. weaknesses?“I sometimes speak before thinking. I do not particularly enjoy doing either mathematics or physical sciences or anything three-dimensional.”

How do other people see you, for example, do they say, “She never gives up”?“Maude talks a lot.”

“She is strongly convinced about what she believes in and she will not hesitate to try to convince you about her point of view as well!”

“She is an easy-going type of person with whom others get on easily.”“She hates falseness and dishonesty.”“She often hides her pain behind a broad smile.”“She is outspoken about what she believes is right and what is wrong.”

What do you value most?“RELATIONSHIPS! To me, relationships comprise the most important aspect of everything I do because neither money, nor status nor happiness can happen unless it is built on the foundation of sound relationships.”

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What leadership positions did you hold during school and (where applicable) what leadership positions have you held after school?“I was appointed a leader during my last year in primary school. I was elected to the representative student council in Grade eight and again in Grade 11. More recently, I was appointed as editor of our school’s newspaper.”

What have been your three biggest

a. successes? • “Elected a member of the Grade 12 SRC.”• “Academic colours in high school.”• “Editor of school paper.”

b. non-successes (‘failures’)?“When I was not elected as a member of the SRC in high school. However, I realize very well that being elected a leader or not will not determine whether I become successful or not.”

“Mathematics in general, this year in particular. What I find particularly frustrating is knowing that I am intelligent enough but fail to achieve good marks. I feel disappointed in myself.”

“I am failing in my repeated attempts to improve the relationship between my brother’s girlfriend and me. However, I need to retain perspective. It takes two to tango. This is as much her failure as it is mine.”

What are the most prominent themes or patterns in your life story?“People, people, people. Everyone I love; everyone who has shaped me into who I have become today. There is an African saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. I wholeheartedly agree. Life revolves around people.”

(Words such as ‘relationships’, ‘people’ and ‘leader” occurred repeatedly in the interview.)

“Stumbling blocks develop into opportunities for growth.”“Everything that’s good has a small element of hardship as well.”

What were your biggest challenges (problems) when you were younger?“At the age of five, I developed some kind of stomach fever. I really almost did not make it. Due to that experience, to this day, I dread anything related to a hospital. My parents say that I spent seven days in ICU, fighting for my life and that I am a fighter to this day. I do not allow things to get the better of me.” (This theme, too, is consistent with many of her other responses.)

8.4.5.3 Responses to the questions in the CCI (Savickas, 2009a; 2009b)

How can I be of use to you as you construct your career? What do want to achieve during the assessment? What must be ‘different’ after today?“I do not necessarily want you to tell me what exactly I should study. However, I want broad guidelines about, well, my future. I have a large number of ideas but I

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want you to help me bring these together. I want to be sure of what it is that I want to do with my life after today; I want the uncertainty to abate.”

Whom did you admire or who were your three role models before you were six years old? Why?“Superwoman. She could do anything. She got on well with everybody.”

“My father.3 He made me feel secure and he could solve every problem in the world.” “Simba. He was resilient, a leader, strong, resourceful and never gave up. He

stood up for what he believed in and cared for others.”

Who are your three current4 role models? Why?“A friend, Martha. If only I can live as fully, learn as committedly, enjoy time with significant others as completely and treat others in the graceful and inspirational way in which she does, I will be a magnificent person.”

“My headmistress. She is the coolest human being I know of.”

What are your three mottoes or favourite quotations? “Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.”

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”“Philippians 4:13. I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who

gives me strength and power.”

What is your favourite website? Why? “weheartit.com. Here, one can find a variety of beautiful pictures, photographs and quotations, etc. I use them to create beautiful cards for others. I add my own, personalized and ‘gorgeous’ words as well!” (Smiles.)

What is your favourite book or movie?

a. What is the title of the book? “The Lion King.”

b. What is/are the book’s main theme(s)?“What will be, will be. When days are dark, try not to take life too seriously; rather keep in mind what is important and focus on that. Focus on the main thing in your life.” (Sighs, then smiles.)

c. Who is the main character?“Simba.”

d. What challenge did the main character face, and how did he deal with this challenge?“It tells the story of Simba, a young lion, who is to take his father Mufasa’s place as king. However, Simba’s uncle, Scar, manages to trick him into a situation where he (Scar) causes Mufasa’s death. Scar then tricks Simba into believing that he, Simba, was responsible for his father’s death and advises him to flee to a

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far-away place for the rest of his life. After many other events, Simba eventually returns home, where he forces Scar to reveal the truth about Mustafa’s death. Scar once again tries to kill Simba, even though Simba spares his life and tells him to just run away. Simba eventually overcomes Scar, who is killed by the very hyenas he used to cause Mustafa’s death.”

(Maude believes that she has been treated unfairly and betrayed by others. The truth eventually prevails, and she focuses on helping others in a similar position to hers when she was young.)

e. What were the main character’si. strengths?

“Believes in himself.”“Never gives up hope.”“Very good leader.”“Fights for the rights of others.”

ii. weaknesses?“Pays attention to what people say about him even though he pretends that this is not the case.

He hides his pain behind a smile.”(At this point, Maude looked up and smiled, saying: “When I recalled what

had happened between Simba and Mufasa, I realized that I was actually telling my own story and listing my own traits of character …”)

Child challenged by short-sighted ‘friend’“At the age of four, I was a member of the Little Tortoise play group, and we prayed just before receiving our food. Big was my surprize when another young girl complained to our teacher that my eyes were open while we prayed. The more I tried to explain to her that her eyes must have been open, too, to detect my open eyes, the more adamant she was that her eyes were closed. I was disappointed but I failed to convince her that she was unfair and wrong.”

Unfortunate incident will not stop young girl’s enjoyment of ‘count-down’“On New Year’s Eve, 12 years ago (I was five years old and my sister seven), we were visited by a number of friends. Late that evening we were still playing and swimming in the swimming pool. Then one of the boys, an eleven year old, who thought he was cool, tried to trip my sister. This happened the very moment she was diving into the swimming pool, resulting in her bumping her chin against the side of the pool. I insisted on accompanying my sister to the hospital, all the time holding her hand and comforting her and how much that meant to her. I remember how much I was looking forward to the count-down, which I enjoyed very much despite us being in hospital.”

Young woman learns that there is a time for everything“My grandmother passed away when I was six years old, and Mother left it to Father to break the news to us while she took my brother and sister to school while I sat

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in my usual place in front of the TV, eating my corn flakes (my favourite breakfast food at the time). Daddy started moving the furniture around and informed me that Grandma had passed away early that morning. Stubborn as I was at the time, I maintained that he had his story wrong. My grandma wouldn’t die because she was MY grandma. When Mother explained that we had no choice when people we loved passed away, I started accepting Grandma’s death.”

Maude’s first memory (of a young girl who had accused her of cheating) is understandable. Because she was unjustly accused (a central life problem) early in her life, she is adamant about protecting others who are treated unfairly. At present, she feels that some people in whom she believed had treated her unjustly.

Maude’s first verb is ‘prayed’. She is a woman who deliberates about challenges before taking decisions. “I realize that there are many things that I do not understand and that I am weak. We all are weak. It makes little sense to pretend that this is not so.” While Maude narrated these stories, I repeated the key phrases and clarified the meaning of the words and expressions she used to make sure that she listened to herself carefully and actually heard herself saying what she was trying to say. In other words, I facilitated narratibility.

When asked to reflect on the second story, Maude commented as follows: “Even though painful things happened at the time, as is often the case in life, I realize that life goes on. I have learnt not to become too emotional; to allow hurt and sadness to blur my perception. One must just learn to accept the good and the bad.”

(Sighs, then smiles.)“Enjoy life. Have fun.” Her second story confirms the theme of looking at the bigger picture and not

getting bogged down by pain and disappointment. Her parents provided a perfect holding environment when she was younger, and she has grown into a mature young woman whose aim it is to “serve others”, provide a holding environment for others who are suffering and who feel hurt or abandoned. She wishes to fight for the rights of others. In providing others with holding environments and a safe space, she is healing herself thus confirming her career and life identity and preserving her own sense of self.

When asked to reflect on her third story, Maude responded as follows: “This happened the very day after Lady Diana’s death, and I remember thinking then that her name was actually appropriate because even the most loved people do die. It was fascinating to realize that Lady Di actually personified living. Life and death are two sides of the same coin.”

She sighed first, then smiled, almost sadly, and said: “I realize all too well that there is a time for everything. One should not take life too seriously. In other words, one should realize one’s limited time on this planet and the need to be humble and enjoy life.”

Maude knows that many things are beyond her control. This knowledge provides ample reason for her to ‘protect and hold others who are vulnerable. She intends to

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use her verbal and leadership abilities to achieve this aim. Maude is an emotionally-socially intelligent, sincere, creative, caring human being who always tries to see the bigger picture and retain perspective. She is actively in search of a holding environment where she can hold both herself and others.

8.4.5.4 Maude’s reflections on her reflections

Reflect on how you experienced the session.

a. What did you enjoy?“Everything. One discovers so much about oneself one actually knew about oneself all along but never realized consciously until compelled to think about it.”

b. What did you not enjoy?“Nothing really. I would love to share my story with others now.”

c. Is there anything else about you that I need to know?“On a number of occasions in my life, I was disappointed by people who should have known better.”

All responses were later discussed with Maude who had little difficulty in identifying the themes and subthemes that emerged from her reflections on the reflections discussed above. Table 5 shows a remarkable overlap between the two sets of data.

Table 5. Identified life themes and associated fields of study: qualitative assessment

Theme identified Associated field(s) of study

Source of data: qualitative

Source of data:

quantitative

A. Verbal proficiencyi. Accomplished speakerii. Excellent writing ability

JournalismPublishingLawMarketing managementManager in general

CIP (Maree, 2012d)CIP Narrative Supplement (Maree, 2012d)Client’s reflections/meta-reflections

RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)MBTI (Briggs & Myers, 1995)

B. Leadership attributesa. Desire to leadb. Aspiring to negotiate between fighting partiesc. Willingness to put the interests of others before her ownd. Ability to remain calm e. Desire to create a safe space for others

Teaching at primary, secondary or tertiary level (lecturer)(Educational) PsychologyJournalismCommunication pathologyHuman resources management

(Continued )

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Theme identified Associated field(s) of study

Source of data: qualitative

Source of data:

quantitative

C. Sense of justicea. Keenness to do ‘what is right’b. Will to ‘fight’ for the rights of othersc. Being there for othersd. Leading others

Social workLaw

SAVII (Du Toit, 1992)RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)MBTI (Briggs & Myers, 1995)

D. Enquiring minda. Investigates matters thoroughly before making a decisionb. Takes time to ‘read’ situations before acting

All fields above SAVII (Du Toit, 1992)RMIB (Hall et al., 1992)

E. Big picture orientationa. Realizes importance of retaining perspectiveb. Willingness to sacrifice the satisfaction of short-term needs in favour of long-term needsc. Ability to step back and consider all options before acting

All fields above

F. Emotional-social intelligence i. Excellent inter- and intrapersonal relationshipsii. Stress management abilitiesiii. Adaptabilityiv. Sense of optimismv. Flexibility

All fields above

G. Spirituality i. Religious convictionsii. Forgiveness

TheologyAll fields above

H. Sense of creativityi. Creative abilityii. Innovativeness

ActingDesigningGraphic designCommunicationPhotography

I. Resiliencei. Unwillingness to give upii. Motivation to work through problems

All fields aboveAll fields above

Table 5. Continued

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Consistent with the counselling principles embodied in the career construction approach (upon which some of the questions in the CIP Narrative Supplement were based), the 16 questions in Part 4 (the CIP Narrative Supplement) were used to elicit life themes. These themes were subsequently related to various fields of study. Maude was repeatedly asked to make connections between her life themes and different working environments with a view to actualising these themes so that she could enter into an appropriate occupation and also make a social contribution. I helped Maude appreciate the importance of looking back and meta-reflecting on her thoughts and actions. I impressed upon her that she was the expert on her own life and that she would – while listening to me read her ‘career story’ back to her – actually be listening to her own voice. She could thus accept responsibility for her own decisions with the knowledge that she was free to make her own choices and that she was not subject to fate or circumstances beyond her control. Maude’s individual experience, choice, agency, and authorship in particular were repeatedly emphasized, directly and indirectly: whenever she asked for advice, I discreetly read back her responses to her to meta-reflect on. Maude’s uniqueness and irreplaceability were also accentuated as were her capacity and longing to realize her full potential. Lastly, and most importantly, Maude was continually reminded of her right and privilege to transcend her (perceived) limitations and to turn her weaknesses into strengths.

8.4.6 Discussion

Maude’s response to the first question in the CIP Narrative Supplement provides useful clues on how she intends to realize her life themes (i.e., by being there for others, fighting for what she believes in, leading people, showing resilience, being forgiving). Maude, who was facing a crossroads (leaving school and having to decide on a field of study/career), drew reflectively upon her autobiography to strengthen her self-concept, self-identity, sense of self and keep her story going. On being asked to reflect on her response to the tenth question (above), for instance, she realized that her early experiences had fundamentally influenced the direction of her life. Like the main character in her favourite movie, she had been accused unfairly of having done wrong but did not retaliate despite being ‘punished’ for things she had not done (e.g., losing out on leadership positions). Over time, she discovered the power of self-belief, doing what is right and resilience. Maude was enabled to identify her main life themes and also possible ‘vehicles’ that could help her actualize these themes. This would facilitate the integration of the different facets of Maude’s personality.

8.4.7 Sequel

Maude decided to enrol for a degree in the social sciences first. She intends to further her studies on a part-time basis after having completed her initial degree and to

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specialize in either teaching, (educational) psychology or law or a combination of these two fields. She hopes to establish her own ‘franchise’ over time and to act as the manager of her ‘firm’, be it in the legal field, the field of teaching or the field of educational psychology. She is moving to meet her inner convictions, needs and wishes by responding to the main themes that were identified. Although she is ‘sure’ about her chosen field of study, she understands that this is not an end in itself but rather a means to actualize the main themes in her life. Assuming authorship of her career and life story enabled her to follow her own advice. Her chances of living a successful life and making social contributions are accordingly greatly enhanced. She is better equipped now to confront the complexities of her life and appears highly motivated to realize her ultimate life goals, which are inextricably linked to her identified life themes. The conversations based on her career narratives have evidently contributed to her heightened self-insight into her experiences and perceptions, her enhanced growth, her self-confidence, her convictions about the need to help others and her belief in herself and others, despite having been let down by others. That has only made her stronger.

Case Study 3 shows how important it is for counsellors to treat all client responses with the utmost circumspection. It is vitally important to be on the lookout for meta-reflective comments and to find ways of allowing clients to express themselves freely right up to the very last question.

8.5 CASE STUDY 3: THE IMPORTANCE OF NOTING CLIENTS’ HOBBIES

Jeannie, an 18-year old girl, sought guidance on possible fields of study and was selected to participate in group assessment and career counselling.

“I am an ambitious woman who has high expectations about life. Despite not being sure about what I really want to do, I know what I believe in, what I stand for and what is important to me.”

Due to space constraints, it will suffice to say that all the tests and questionnaires administered on the day revealed a clear interest in numerical routine activities, business and related matters, legal matters as well as working with people (in the order indicated). A dedicated student, Jeannie achieved good marks in all her subjects (her marks for mathematics and accountancy were in the mid-seventies). Her teachers, parents and friends also believed that she would do well in the accounting and/or legal fields. Everyone accordingly urged Jeannie to job analyze the following fields of study: accounting sciences, forensic accountancy, law, quantity surveying, dietetics and consumer science.

Careful perusal of her responses to the CIP (version 4) and the CCI revealed a number of interesting factors. The following three responses in particular yielded revealing information,

What are your favourite magazines, TV programmes and websites? Why?“TV: Unique sweets. I really like the innovative ideas for baking. I am in fact inspired by them.”

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“Magazine: Women’s Health. Personal health and exercise are very important to me.”

What is your favourite book or movie? Structure your answer as follows:

a. What is the title of the book? “Julie and Julia”

b. What is/are the book or movie’s main theme(s)?“It is based on a true story. Deals with a woman who puts herself to the test for a year by trying out every recipe in her favourite cook book. What I learnt, is that whenever and wherever there is a will, there is a way. One should not allow others to put you off from realizing your dreams and true desires.”

c. Who is the main character?“Julie is the main character. People closest to her maintained that she would be unable to maintain her project, speculating that she would give up very soon. She proved them all wrong by trying out all the recipes in the book in a year and by becoming well-known for what she had achieved.”

d. What challenge did the main character face and how did she deal with this challenge?“A number of recipes flopped, but she kept on trying them out until she achieved success.”

e. What are the main character’s i. strengths?

“Dedication, application and self-belief.”ii. weaknesses?

“She allowed herself to be put off by the comments and opinions of others.”“At times she becomes very despondent.”

Reflect on this interview (the questions and the answers) with me.

a. What did you enjoy?“The questions made me think about matters one very rarely gets an opportunity to think about. I gained much knowledge and learnt an immense lot about myself.”

b. What did you not enjoy?“Some of the questions were hard to answer.”

c. Is there anything else about you that I need to know? “Yes … Even though I should probably not be saying this for fear of hurting or upsetting anyone. I did not put this into my autobiography [all clients who consult me are requested to write and submit a brief autobiography], but it is my ultimate dream one day to open and own my own bakery. I do not want my parents to know this for fear of disappointing them, though.”

Taken as a whole, these three responses reveal Jeannie’s lifelong dream. When questioned, she admitted to being reluctant to enter a field of study that (in the opinion of her teachers, parents and others) would yield limited

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employment opportunities. She was encouraged to do a thorough work analysis on the fields of study listed above, including attending open days; visiting educational institutions (including for instance hotel schools); e-mailing, phoning, consulting or visiting possible employers; holding discussions with employees; surfing the Internet; sending e-mails to employers in the field; visiting websites that focus on current career trends, e.g., O*Net Online at http://www.onetonline.org/find/quick?s=building%2C+history; careerexpo.co.za; www.careers.co.za; http://www.careerjunction.co.za/; http://www.pacecareers.com/; http://www.nqf.org.za/ and related websites, as well as the local Department of Labour website.

She was informed of the importance of visiting and “shadowing” people who were following careers that interested her. She was advised to find part-time or vacation work in relevant firms or to do related volunteer work in school, church or community organizations.

She was subsequently advised to rather consider realizing her dream of opening and owning her own bakery in the form of a hobby at first. It was also suggested that she should talk to the owners of existing home industries to find out how they operated. She could perhaps begin to write articles on baking in her spare time, present her own radio and/or TV show on the subject, and open her own tea garden.

She was reminded that the ultimate responsibility for exercising a career choice was her own and that this process entailed much more than a linear, once-off choice of one specific job. She was also reminded that a career was a lifelong learning and growth process in a dynamic, ever-changing world of work.

The fourth case study shows how the CCI can be used on its own to help a client start ‘moving’ again.

8.6 CASE STUDY 4: ‘STUCK IN A RUT’: USING FACILITATING MOVEMENT

The client was a purposefully selected 27-year-old black, Pedi-speaking woman (Precious). Precious, an industrial psychologist, volunteered to act as the ‘client’ during a live demonstration of how the technique (administering the CCI using the three early recollections) was applied in practice. At the end of this type of demonstration, three attendees are usually asked to tell the audience what the client’s story meant to them personally. The attendees are reminded of the ethical issues involved: no one is allowed, for instance, to abuse a client’s privacy by, for example, discussing the case with anyone else.

The selection criteria called for a person who expressed a need for career counselling and was willing to volunteer as the ‘client’ in a live demonstration during a workshop on Career Construction and Life Designing (an element of convenience sampling thus also characterized the sampling style).

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In response to the question, “How can I be useful to you?”, Precious responded: “I am rather frustrated in my current work environment with little that is new. No new boundaries to push. I am beginning to wonder if this is the ‘right’ career for me. Should I perhaps do something else?”

Precious’s responses to the questions in the CCI on (1) role models, (2) magazines, (3) favourite book, (4) mottoes and (5) early recollections (Hartung, 2010; Savickas, 2009a, b) and to one of the questions contained in the CIP (Version 4) are given below.

Role models“My mother: she always looks at the big picture; gives of herself to others; she is loving, kind, focused and determined. She always challenges herself; looks for new boundaries to cross. She is always on top of her game.”

“Oprah Winfrey: she is always clear about what she wants to do. She is consistent; able to GIVE; operating on another realm; impact is not small; throughout world. That is how I see myself.5

“Beyoncé: she has been has been consistent in her career. By that I mean that she is a strong woman; constantly passionate about her work. She is a hard worker, mostly because she is living the dream about what she loves to do.”

Favourite quotations“Be the change you want to see in the world.”“Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.”“Be true to yourself.”“The truth will set you free.”

Favourite Book“Conversations with God. I read the book when I was at a point in my life when I was trying to figure out whether I am in charge of my life or whether God is in charge of my life. I figured that I, too, needed to rethink my own life seriously because I was beginning to lose control of my situation.”

Magazines“Heat. I find it hugely entertaining to learn more about other people’s lives. Not in a negative way, though. I am really interested in others; to discover what makes them tick and to learn more about the challenges they are facing.”

“Runner’s guide. I like the stories about how people are trying to better themselves by taking on things to do in a positive way. Of course, this also gives me nice tips about how to live a healthy lifestyle. I’m very much into running.”

“Destiny. This magazine combines matters related to entrepreneurship, business and female or gender issues. I find the views expressed encouraging for

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businesswomen; it gives me the courage to persist in my efforts to rise above my current circumstances.”

Three biggest challenges/ problems when you were young“Sibling rivalry. My siblings and I often quarrelled about matters.”

“Loneliness. I was a lonely girl. An outsider. I did not fit in with the ‘typical’ people in my school.”

“Pressure from my parents and others (but also myself) to perform well at school.”

Three earliest anecdotesGirl discovers world is sometimes not pink and fluffy“I was six or seven when this happened. I was running a relay race (I was always active; very involved in sport). I was moving faster (expecting to feel the baton in my hand) but the girl who was supposed to pass the baton on to me threw it at me instead of putting it firmly into my hand. She hit me in the mouth and I instinctively grabbed my mouth. When I opened my hands, I found blood on them and discovered that my teeth were out (I already had permanent teeth by then). I remember hearing everyone making a noise. I was panicking and crying. I remember calling my mother. She was there, almost immediately. The other girls kept on shouting; they were mad at the person who threw the baton at me.”

Precious articulated feelings of being hurt and disappointed by selfish people as a major life theme. A born ‘runner’ (an extremely active person who made things happen), she was beginning to feel ‘stuck’ in her current environment because of the lack of movement (she expressed concern about management’s unwillingness to allow a woman like her move ahead).

Rowdy audience scares girl as regards leadership positions“Our teacher went out and put me in charge as a class monitor (I was eight years old). I had to write down the names of all who were speaking. When teacher left, the kids started making a noise. One boy was talking so much I threatened to write his name on the board, but he said: ‘If you write my name I will get you’. He started influencing everybody else in class. It felt as if everyone was making a noise. Only my two best classmates did not. The others were poking fun at me. I remember that I was crying because the kids were not behaving. More than anything, I was disappointed in myself because the others were not respecting me. When teacher came in, he was surprized about why I was crying. During break, I was still crying. I remember my two close friends trying to comfort me. I developed a fear of leadership that day. I decided to challenge myself. I decided to spread. Later on I became very passionate about leadership and I am constantly trying to face my fears. Yes, I am passionate about leadership but not just about leadership; I want to grow and inspire female leaders.”

Precious’ advice to herself (as identified by herself) was to realize that there was no reason for her to stand back when her authority and abilities were challenged.

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Quite the opposite. It was time she started believing in herself and taking stock of what she had already achieved and building on this platform to reach new heights in life.

Threats and boredom ignite woman’s quest for God“At the age of seven, I sat in the garden of our house, talking with an older friend. I remember sitting on the patio. It was a lovely, sunny day. There we were, staring at the sky, talking about God. She talked about her church and informed me that one was not supposed to wear earrings to church, otherwise (so they were threatened in their church) you will go to hell. I took the story in but started questioning not only the minister but God, too. I had so many questions about this matter and related issues. My mother and I had started attending that church, but from then on I couldn’t hear anything or, rather, take anything in. After a while we stopped going to that church. I could not carry on going to a church where one was threatened for doing things that seemed so normal.”

A dedicated, genuine and sincere young woman, Precious did not like pettiness and being ‘bullied’ into accepting the views of others unquestioningly. From then on, she would pride herself on her willingness and ability to question matters critically without in any way being disrespectful.

Having listened to herself, Precious had little difficulty in ‘connecting the dots’ contained in her career and life story and subsequently advising herself on how she could answer the question she posed in response to my first question (“How can I be useful to you?”). She would stay on in her current job, make appointments with members of the executive and insist on the reconsideration of the position of women in the firm and on the creation of equal opportunities for growth and promotion for everyone in the firm. She would also make an effort to introduce new and exciting assessment and counselling strategies in the firm, push the limit, attend as many short courses as possible on innovative assessment and counselling techniques as well as on leadership and project management. She would also start investigating the possibility of doing an MBA and also (in the longer term) her doctoral degree. In her own words: “I am where I belong. I just needed to remind myself of the need to focus on the bigger picture, my right to push the boundaries, not to be bullied, and to find ways of turning failures into successes.” (Sighs, looks upward.)

“Yes, indeed, I would dearly love to go back to my roots and make the contributions to my community (women in particular) that I can and should.”

In the penultimate case study, I demonstrate how the CCI can be used to help a counsellor restore a client’s sense of self. The usefulness of applying a combination of techniques, questionnaires and strategies is demonstrated once again.

8.7 CASE STUDY 5: RESTORING A SENSE OF SELF

John, a 25-year-old man, consulted me during the second half of 2011. In response to the question, “How can I be useful to you?”, John responded: “I have no idea what

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it is that I want to do or can do. There are too many options, too much uncertainty. I want ‘explicit’ guidance. I want you to say, yes, you can and should or no, you cannot and should not. After school, I tried out many options. Worked for a courier company. Warehouse manager. Portfolio manager. Enrolled for a degree in theology. Dropped out after three months, tried project management. Became increasingly depressed. Worked as a barman. I am incredibly despondent at the moment, which is why I am here today.” (I explained to him that he was the only expert on his life and that the responsibility to choose a career was his and his alone, adding that no one can make such an important choice on behalf of another person.)

John’s preferred interest categories according to the CIP (Version 3) (Maree, 2010c):

1. Word art2. Research3. Practical-creative and consumer science 4. Arts (painting, sculpture and decoration) and culture5. Marketing

As can be seen from the quantitative assessment results below, there was a strong positive relationship between the quantitative and the qualitative data (narrative assessment). a. SAVII (Du Toit, 1992): John’s highest preferred interest categories were

Scientific-Investigative, Artistic, Business and Management. He showed a particular preference for• social and legal sciences;• language and entertainment (actualising his creativity in a free environment;• promotion and persuasion.

b. RMIB (Hall et al., 1992): John’s highest interest category patterns were Literary (reading, writing, working with words); Aesthetic (being creative/designing); Musical (making or listening to music); Scientific (discovering new facts; solving problems); and Persuasive (meeting and dealing with people, managing or organising).

c. MBTI (Briggs & Briggs Myers, 1995) (MBTI code: ENTJ) (see section 8.4.4).

His responses to selected6 questions in the CCI and the CIP Narrative Supplement (Version 3) (Maree, 2010c) appear below.

What are your strengths?“I am creative, passionate and inquisitive.”

What are your weaknesses? “I become demotivated easily. I am scared and afraid.”

What are your special skills and talents?“I am a good speaker and good at debating.”

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What do you enjoy doing?“Writing, reading and thinking.”

Who were your role models when you were young? Why?“Churchill: he was a fighter who detested structure and convention.”

Who are your current role models? Why?“Kierkegaaard: his passionate involvement in the existential philosophy inspires me.”

“Bukowski: I am inspired by his ability to write poems.”“Etienne le Roux (well-known Afrikaans author): his unconventional, sincere

style impresses me immensely.”

What are your favourite quotations?“He did not do what he had to do and therefore he died” (Bukowski).

“If you’re not busy being born, you are busy dying” (Bob Dylan).“If you are not feeling holy, you are living as if you have died” (Leonard Cohen).“Something that suddenly comes to mind: No one has the right to continue being

mediocre. I don’t know who said that, though.”

What is your favourite magazine? Why? “Time. I love the journalists’ way of critiquing matters they feel passionately about.”

What are your earliest recollections? I am interested in hearing three stories about things you recall happening to you when you were very young.

Young man ponders the sea“I was four years old at the time. I was sitting and staring in front of me at the seaside while the other kids were playing. I had built a sand castle and was doing my best to protect it against the relentless incoming tide. I frantically dug and built and fortified the castle walls, the walls of Jericho. All to no avail; the waves kept coming in; the white foam hitting their target with military precision. I could smell the salt of the sea; hear the children laughing while my castle was being destroyed. Eventually I just sat and stared in front of me as the waves kept on breaking on the shore, thinking to myself: here comes the hurt again.”

John realized that he had a history of staring and sitting (passivity), building ‘sand castles’ (which could not endure) and not keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

Inquisitive boy finds his lion world“I woke up on my fourth birthday and ran down the hallway, off to my parents’ bedroom. On my way I saw a Daisy [air rifle] in the hallway and stopped, amazed at the beautiful ‘rifle’. The logo (which resembles a target) was just so inviting. Just then my parents emerged from their room and I realized that it was my birthday gift. I was unbelievably happy. Later that morning I disappeared (I used to ‘disappear’ for

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hours) to ‘explore’ the farm world. Just before sunset an older farm hand found me in the veld. I told him that I was hunting … he smiled and said that it was time to go home; the time would come for me to acquire a real rifle and hunt for real.”

John’s advice to himself was to begin focusing on the future. Marvellous as it was to build sand castles, it had become time to work on building more permanent structures in his life.

Flights of witch’s imagination inspire young boy“At the age of five, I went to nursery school. The headmistress reminded me of a friendly witch … a creative witch who could put a spell on us with her charms and flights of imagination. A tree became a palace full of trolls, a bamboo forest where my friend and I could enjoy our sandwiches before departing on a journey to the magic world of our imagination. A nursery school teacher, she gave me wings and freed me from the restrictions of this world.”

John’s interpretation of this early recollection was extremely telling. “She showed me that it was possible to dream in a realistic way; the importance to develop the skills needed to allow one’s imagination to flourish and open doors.”

John needed little help from me to arrive at a decision to find a way to study at a university. He would investigate the following fields of study.

a. Languagesb. Journalismc. Lawd. Teaching/Lecturinge. Human resources management/Industrial psychologyf. Marketing management

(Various other strategies were discussed with John including the possibility of receiving therapy from a clinical psychologist as well as counselling on psychosocial skills, including time management, emotional-social, study and social skills.)

Now, three years later, John is in his third year, studying for a degree in languages. He has found a way to sponsor his studies, is excelling and plans to do well enough to get a university lectureship. He has a particular interest in antique cultures and intends focusing on this subject in the future. He has been involved in a highly satisfying relationship with a female friend for more than nine months and has managed to secure a post as a tutor in the faculty where he is studying.

In the last case study, I again show the importance of identifying and examining patterns in clients’ responses and allowing major life themes to emerge.

8.8 CASE STUDY 6: CONNECTING THE DOTS TO ‘CONFIRM’ A CAREER CHOICE

8.8.1 Interest Profile

The parents of Janie, an 18-year-old girl in Grade 12, consulted me during the second half of 2009 for guidance on the choice of a career. During the intake interview, it

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was agreed with the parents that a combined quantitative-qualitative assessment would be conducted. Janie’s preferred interest categories according to the CIP (Version 1) (Maree, 2006) were as follows:

1. Medical and paramedical services2. Research 3. Engineering and the built environment4. Mathematics and/or Accounting 5. Music

These fields correlated strongly positively with the results of the SDS (Holland code: IR) (Gevers, Du Toit, & Harilall, 1997).

Her responses to some7 of the questions in the CIP Narrative Supplement are given below.

8.8.2 Career Story Narratives

“How can I be of use or value to you as you design your career?”“Help me confirm that my choices are ‘correct’; reassure me that my envisaged

choices are the ‘best’ for me.” (She was reminded that words such as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and ‘best’ were inappropriate in this context and that it would be better to refer to ‘appropriate’ and ‘less appropriate’ or even ‘inappropriate’ choices, depending on unique contexts.)

Whom did you admire or who were your three role models before you were six years old? Why?“Stephen King: even though he writes gruesome stories, he uses the money, fame and skills he has acquired to improve the lives of other human beings.”

What are your three mottoes or favourite quotations?“I saw the angel in the marble and I did not stop until I had set it free.”

“Lead the way, follow or get out of the way … but do something.”“Whatever you do, try to improve the lives of others.”

What is your favourite TV programme? Why? “Gray’s anatomy: I love stories about hospitals and what happens in hospitals.” (Smiles.)

What were your biggest failures?“Not succeeding in convincing a friend to stop cutting herself.”

If you were asked to write the story of your life, what would be the title of your book and the headings of the various chapters?Book title: Barefoot in the rain

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Chapter headings:The early years: the innocenceGrowing up and realizing that life is not always a bed of rosesFacing realityFreedom … at last

What were your biggest problems when you were younger?“I was mocked by other children.”

“I was very self-conscious …” (When prompted by me, she commented that she was ashamed of her big breasts.)

Reflect on this interview (the questions and the answers) with me. Is there anything else about you that I need to know?“Two months ago, a plastic surgeon performed a breast reduction operation on me. The childhood mockery has stopped since. I do not have the vocabulary to tell you how much this meant to me.”

SequelJanie is a fourth-year medical student at this stage. She has achieved exceptional results and has decided to specialize in either plastic surgery or (forensic) pathology.

8.9 SUMMARY

The six case studies discussed in this chapter demonstrate the value, flexibility, resourcefulness and usefulness of the qualitative approach to career counselling in general and the career construction approach in particular, using the CCI (and, possibly, auxiliary strategies and techniques). The case studies were chosen carefully to reflect the way in which counselling for career construction facilitates reflection and reflection on reflection in the service of construction, deconstruction, reconstruction and co-construction. The ultimate aim remains the following: to help clients deal with a painful and traumatic past and transcend hard times and lack of resources. By telling their stories and hearing themselves tell these stories, clients are assisted by counsellors to meta-reflect on their life stories and, eventually, to construct meaningful careers and lives. The six case studies were selected to reveal the counselling diversity of the client base in career counselling and to show the different ways in which multiple approaches, both objective and subjective, quantitative and qualitative, can be used to collect data to enable clients to make well-informed decisions.

The novel way in which data can be obtained to enable counsellor and client to craft the client’s life portrait can be acquired by all counsellors who are willing to renew and postmodernize. They should, of course, first master the required skills before applying the approach.

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Lastly, I reiterate my words in Chapter 1: Our primary allegiance in career counselling should never be to any particular theoretical approach or technique. Rather, it should be to find the best ways to be useful to our clients.

NOTES

1 The words ‘challenge’, (core life) ‘problem’ and ‘preoccupation’ are used interchangeably.2 Due to space constraints and the need to demonstrate the resourcefulness of the CIP, only selected

responses are provided in the case studies.3 Although it is generally not advisable to allow clients to list family members as their role models, I do

allow them to do so. I believe much can be gained from learning what it is about the particular family member that is admired.

4 This question is based on the assumption that people’s role models may change over time as they continually redesign themselves.

5 Here, once again, the client steps out of herself, as it were, and realizes that she is actually describing what she wants to be like in the world. As stated previously, this is inevitably a golden moment in the interview – when the client begins to discover who she actually is, what it is that she wishes to achieve still and, most importantly, what her advice to herself is.

6 Due to space constraints, only selected responses are provided here.7 Due to space constraints, only selected responses are provided here.

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9.1 INTRODUCTION

I have attended and presented numerous workshops and courses on the theory and practice of the career construction approach, and, more particularly, the administration of the CCI. Feedback from counsellors and clients on the value of the approach and associated techniques has been overwhelmingly positive. However, given the relative newness of the approach, and against the backdrop of the stated aim to ensure that what we as career counsellors do is consistent with ‘best practice’ principles in research and practice, a number of caveats need to be raised. First, I elaborate on the limitations of the approach and then make a number of recommendations as well as offer advice to practitioners and theorists alike. This is followed by a brief examination of the role of career counsellors in facilitating career construction by clients.

9.2 IS IT SUFFICIENT TO USE ONLY THE CCI IN CAREER COUNSELLING?

This is a routine question asked during courses and workshops on counselling for career construction. The answer depends on the unique crossroads a client is facing. Generally speaking, counsellors still use quantitative tests and techniques in the case of, for instance, school-going learners. The combination of tests and techniques used will to a large extent depend on the counsellors’ level of training and experience. In the case of most students, experienced counsellors will probably not require further information than that elicited by means of the CCI.

Newcomers to the approach advocated in this book are reminded that practice and supervision by trained counsellors is essential. Success with the approach will depend largely on the individual skill and flexibility of the career counsellors involved (Goldman, 1990).

9.3 SOME LIMITATIONS AND CAVEATS OF THE APPROACH

The approach to career counselling outlined in this book has a number of limitations and caveats. Firstly, triangulation and crystallization should be applied to enhance the validity, credibility and trustworthiness of the intervention. Secondly, ideally, the services of an external coder or interrater and a blind scorer of psychometric tests (when these are used) should be acquired to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility

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of the intervention – subjective interpretation of the data by the career counsellor alone could be viewed as a limitation. The approach could also be regarded as too lengthy, which could have a negative impact on the results.

9.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations for theory and practice include the following: firstly, counsellors who have been trained in a different paradigm should attend workshops on the theoretical framework discussed here to become familiar with the basic principles of the approach. Secondly, the viability of this approach in group contexts should be explored since it is often not practically possible to conduct qualitative assessments in such contexts (Di Fabio & Maree, 2011; Maree & Molepo, 2007). Thirdly, counsellors should make a point of reading the guidelines and findings in books and articles which as they indicate the merits of the approach in promoting a deeper experience by clients of the value of listening carefully to themselves thereby discovering ‘truths’ about themselves and advising themselves on how to deal with repeated transitions when confronted with crossroads. Fourthly, since it remains unclear whether this approach to career counselling can be applied successfully in developing country (disadvantaged) contexts, research is needed on the effectiveness of the approach (in conjunction with the quantitative approach) in such contexts.

9.5 ADVICE TO OTHERS USING THIS APPROACH

The counselling principles embodied in the career construction approach should enable clients and counsellors to elicit clients’ life themes. Career counsellors should assist clients throughout the process, but their prompting should at all times be minimal. Counsellors and clients should reread and reflect on clients’ initial reflections until clients feel comfortable enough to authorize themes and associated fields of study. Clients should be reminded repeatedly that they are the experts on their own lives who have to look for connections between their life themes and different working environments. In addition, they should be reminded that they are actually listening to their own voices when they listen to the counsellor who reads their career story back to them with minimal interpretation. They can thus accept responsibility for their own decisions knowing that they are free to make their own choices. Clients’ individual experiences, their right to make their own choices (and to accept responsibility for their choices), and their agency and authorship should be emphasized repeatedly, directly and indirectly. Attention should be paid to the identification and interpretation of non-verbal communication as well as to the use of conversational modalities (such as reformulating clients’ comments appropriately and paying due attention to clients’ questions). Clients should continually be reminded of their right (and obligation) to reflect on and transcend their (perceived) limitations; to turn their weaknesses into strengths and, eventually, into social contributions.

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In addition, the creation of a ‘sacred space’ (Savickas, 2011c) in which the therapeutic relationship between counsellor and client can be built is non-negotiable.

9.6 ROLE OF COUNSELLORS IN FACILITATING CAREER CONSTRUCTION BY CLIENTS

Career counsellors need to develop a deeper understanding of what can be done to reflectively (a) construct a career by means of multiple small stories, (b) deconstruct and reconstruct (weave) these micro-stories into a larger story, and (c) collaboratively co-construct the next chapter in the client’s career and life story (Savickas, 2011b). This sequence will enable clients to self-advise themselves (under the guidance of a counsellor). This applies especially to those who do not have access to either career counselling or sought-after fields of study and training institutions. The strategy advocated in this book is designed to enable clients to script their own career and life stories, explore personal meanings and deal with the many challenges related to meaning making during career construction, self-construction and finding ways to matter to society. Not only is personal agency promoted; ultimately, clients are empowered to author and re-author their stories; to choose a career and contribute to society (Savickas, 2011b).

Clients are seen as active agents in their personal development, authors of their evolving career and life stories who display self-sufficiency, self-reliance, resourcefulness and adaptive capacities. Their unique emotions, cognitions, volition and passions are consistently emphasized (Cochran, 1997; Littleton et al., 2000; Savickas, 2007a; 2009a; 2011b; 2011c). Cochran (1997) and Rogers (1942) emphasize the importance of an active, movement-oriented approach as opposed to a passive approach that labels clients who are unwilling to take the necessary action to move forward as ‘patients’.

Career counsellors, too, have to move forward in terms of their own theory and practice. They can do this by reflecting constantly on their reflections when they offer career counselling to clients by not only listening to clients and allowing them to meta-reflect but also reflecting on their own situation in relation to what and how they are doing. Career counsellors should keep track of clients’ movement, for instance, how they are doing, the extent to which they are coping, what actions they have taken since receiving career counselling including where they are studying, how well they are doing in their studies, where they are working and what and how they are doing in the work context. Put simply: they should continually assess clients’ actions and movement (how their career and life stories are evolving). They should take the necessary steps to stay abreast of the latest developments in their field in order to renew and improve their existing practice and re-invigorate their own careers and life stories.

9.7 CONCLUSION

As stated previously, Mark Savickas’ work has liberated career counsellors from the shackles imposed on us by an overly positivist approach. The paradigm advocated

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by Savickas in numerous publications, and espoused here, is aimed primarily at equipping career counsellors with a strategy to enable clients not only to ‘choose’ careers but fit these careers into their lives (and not the other way round). This narrational approach to career counselling should enable career counsellors to transcend many of the weaknesses associated with traditional approaches to career counselling (Maree, 2012a). This approach provides a theoretical and conceptual framework for explaining and facilitating the career behaviour, career choices and career development of clients who seek ‘career counselling’. The subjective meanings clients individually and collectively attach to their career stories are central to their life designing (of which career-related choices are only one facet). Career counselling thus becomes reflexive social co-construction of meaning by them (Blustein, Palladino Schulteiss & Flum, 2004).

The qualitative techniques used in this kind of intervention augment the quantitative techniques and vice versa and indicate how contemporary theories and goals in career counselling, including the historical and philosophical underpinnings of qualitative as well as quantitative approaches, can be merged to provide a viable framework for the interpretation, explanation and directing of career-related behaviour. The approach described here offers a useful strategy to help clients deal effectively with repeated transitions as and when they occur (Di Fabio, 2012; Duarte 2010; Maree, 2010d; Savickas et al., 2009).

Lastly: My hope is that this book will contribute to the advancement of constructionist perspectives generally and career construction in particular. I am aware that the issues discussed here are open to further debate. However, enabling clients to advise themselves while considering the advice and opinions of others seems crucial. Far too many clients avoid taking responsibility for career-related decisions and develop an overly strong dependence on counsellors’ ‘advice’.

Ultimately, for our clients and for us as career counsellors, the aim of career counselling is to turn the experience of administering and receiving career counselling into what it was for Epston, namely “the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve [offering] the possibility of a new beginning” (O’Hanlon, 1994, p. 3). Furthermore, it should be our aim to turn pain into hope, failure into victory and despair into happiness. The following words from a song by Dolly Parton (Coat of many colors) express how this aim can be achieved.

But they didn’t understand itAnd I tried to make them see That one is only poorOnly if they choose to beNow I know we had no moneyBut I was rich as I could beIn my coat of many colorsMy momma made for me

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What she was saying was: Whereas one’s poverty (disability, sorrow, pain, …) is not denied, none of us is defined by our circumstances. Quite the contrary. We should actively strive to overcome barriers, to master what we have suffered or are suffering and eventually turn our condition into victory, much as Ms Parton and so many others have done.

This ideal lies at the heart of this book, and the approach developed by Savickas and advocated here provides a powerful strategy to achieve it.

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EPILOGUE

Jonathan D JansenVice-Chancellor

University of the Free StateFebruary 2013

There are few scholars in the world today with such enormous capacity for thinking and doing across fields of inquiry as is the case with the author of this significant volume on career counselling. Holding the highest qualifications in psychology, mathematics teaching and education, Professor JG Maree remains one of South Africa’s most prolific scholars in each of these fields. His intellectual appetite for academic production is hard to believe until you work with the man, a privilege I had for almost a decade as Dean of Education at the University of Pretoria.

I have been impressed by the sheer weight of thought carried in this book with the primary title Counselling for Career Construction. This book is many things. It is a compendium of classical and modern thinking in counselling that will serve generations of professional counsellors with a reference book to consult in practice. It is a critical survey and synthesis of knowledge on the subject covering a range of theories and methods that will guide Master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral scholars for purposes of teaching and the design and the execution of counselling research. It is a treasure trove of innovative thinking in counselling that provides a launching pad for the next generation of research in this exciting field. It is a teaching resource for those who train young researchers and professionals in the field of counselling.

What makes this book so special is its biographical location in the life of the author. This is a modest man who seldom talks about himself, and so I found the origins of the author’s interests in counselling as service to be both riveting and disturbing. He draws a powerful, emotional portrait of two small children in an overheated shack with one parent dead and one in prison and of how the everydayness of that experience for so many young people has driven the author into counselling as a public commitment.

Professor Maree could easily have chosen a narrow scholarship based exclusively on self-interest and self-promotion and reaped the kinds of accolades that accrue to selfish scholarship. He does this well — besides the prolific production of top-rate scholarship, he also serves the most rural and impoverished communities of the northern provinces of South Africa by repairing schools, building vegetable gardens, recruiting promising matriculants for university, teaching extra mathematics and, of course, offering vital counselling services to the poor. If ever there was an example

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of public scholarship in the best Boyerian sense of the term, Kobus (as he is known among friends) is that testimony to research that improves the human condition.

But Kobus Maree is also a teacher, a professor who can make accessible some of the most complex ideas in career counselling so that students, professional counsellors, academic teachers and others can understand and use these ideas for learning and application. The use of ‘life portraits’ is a particularly inventive way of bringing to the imagination some very powerful stories of broken and altered lives and, in the process, demonstrating the principles and practices of a progressive career counselling that not only helps but liberates.

No book can achieve more.

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NOTE

1. Pseudonyms are used in the case studies.

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INDEX

AActive, movement-oriented approach

to career counselling, 115Actively master what we have

passively suffered, 2, 62, 67Adversity, 3Agency, 25, 30–31, 79, 114, 115Altered occupational landscape, 15

appropriate response is called for, 15

prompts profound rethink of theory and practice of career counselling, 15

Assessment on a once off basis, 42Attributes or traits, 21–24

emphasized during four economic waves and concurrent helping models in career counselling, 21–24

Authentic decisions, 44self-insight, 55–56

Authorization, 84, 90 Authorizing and validating career

stories, 6, 44, 45Authorship, 30, 79, 99, 100, 114Autobiographicity, 52–53Autobiographies, 2, 19, 32, 40, 42, 63

BBest practice, 4–6Biographical bridge, 37Biographicity, 52–53Blending narrative and psychodynamic

approaches, 11Body language, 54Boundaryless, 16–17

CCareer adaptability, 43–44

concern, control, curiosity, and confi dence, 43

Career and life patterns, 12 Career construction counselling, 49–57Career Construction Interview (CCI),

8, 37–38, 56Career construction theory, 36–37

reserved for vocational psychology model of vocational development, 41

Career construction theory and practice blends, 36–37

individual development, 36individual differences, 36psychodynamic motivation and the

narrative approach, 36Career counselling (counselling for

career construction)about the search for patterns of

meaning, 63assumes place among vocational

guidance and career education, 63autobiographies fundamentally

important, 40clients as actors, 40clients as agents, 40clients as authors, 40imbuing a sense of continuity in a

fragmented world, 51in group contexts, 84, 74, 79, 114main life themes, 40, 42, 45, 75, 99project perspective of individual

design, 40refl exive social co-construction of

meaning, 116

131

INDEX

132

Career counsellorfacilitates refl ection and refl ection on

refl ection, 110acts in the service of construction,

deconstruction, reconstruction, and co-construction, 110

Career counsellors to refl ect constantly, 66on their own practice and

refl ections, 66on the grand, personal stories they

select, 66Career education, 25, 40

clients as agents, 25, 40, 115subjective perspective portrayed as

individual development, 19, 40Career identity, 22Career Interest Profi le (CIP), 71–79

aims, 71auxiliary, qualitative instrument in

career construction counselling, 68, 81

life-story supplement, 71Career stories, 43–47, 71, 72, 79, 116Careers

as more appropriate or less appropriate, 109

as pathways towards one’s destiny, 75viewed as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, 50

Case study, 84–110Caveats, 113

level of training and experience, 113practice and supervision, 113

Central life themes, 12Client-centered therapy, 29Clients listening to themselves, 54–55Climbing the corporate ladder, 21Coat of many colors, 116

I was rich as I could be in my coat of many colors, 116

persons not defi ned by their circumstances, 117

one is only poor if they choose to be, 116

Connecting the different dots that collectively constitute life stories, 45

Connecting life themes, 8Constructing

careers, 46life portraits, 8, 63

Constructing a self-identity, 37, 38Constructionist perspective, 37, 116

defi nes career from an active, movement, non-static perspective, 37

Contemporary career descriptions, 26boundaryless, 16–17kaleidoscopic, 16portfolio, 16 post-industrial, 16protean, 16–17

Contributing socially to alleviating the hurt and pain of others, 3

Counselling for career construction, 15, 21, 40, 43, 49, 58, 113, 119

Crossroads, 12–13, 32, 37, 41, 43–45, 50, 57, 87, 99, 113, 114

Critical self-refl ection, 13

DDe-authorizing, 71, 77Defeat, 3, 63Designing a successful life, 10Destination, 75Destiny, 31, 45, 46, 66, 75, 88Developing and non-Western

contexts, 17Developmental perspective

on vocational choice and adjustment, 36

Differential and developmental approaches, 11

Different career services, 25career counselling, 25career education, 25vocational guidance, 25

INDEX

133

EEconomic waves, 17, 20, 21

infl uence on work-related and career-related matters, 17

Elicit and recount career and life stories, 6Emplotment, 35Every story starts with pain, 62Existential and humanistic psychology, 21 Exploiting refl ection and

meta-refl ection to facilitate movement, 46–47

enables discovery of previously uncovered connections or links, 47

FFirst economic wave, 20, 21Fit careers into lives (and not the other

way round), 116Focus on the bigger picture, 9,

11–12, 105Fourth economic wave, 9, 16, 21, 23Fourth helping model, 21Friendly volunteers, 18, 20From practice to theory, 10–11Functions of personality and career

counselling theories, 10–11

GGeneral hints for career counsellors, 57Globalocalization, 27Goals of career counselling, 49–50

short-term, 49medium-term, 49–50long-term, 50

Guided self-advising; link to, 44–46authorizing stories, 45eliciting career and life stories, 45moving forward, 45

HHappy memories, 32

often indicate a preoccupation with achieving happiness, 32

Healing by narrating or telling the story, 3Healing oneself by helping others, 2,

11, 67, 89, 96Heal psychic wounding and scarring, 3Holding environment, 50–51

IIdentifying deep-seated strengths and

motives in clients, 4Identity

rather than personality and vocational personality types, 19, 23

Indigenization, 26Indigenous practices in career

counselling, 26Inductive data analysis strategy, 74–77Inspiring clients, 50, 58Intentionality, 53

JJob

analysis, 4, 87, 89prospects, 16transitions, 16

Journey, 56, 75, 87, 108

KKeeping on probing, 74

LLife design counselling, 8, 40–41

incorporates unique contextually determined and contextually bound factors, 41

integrates career and self- construction, 41

life stories play a key role,41reserved for the coordinated

counselling theory,41Life design counselling model, 8, 40fi rst-ever coordinated counselling

theory, 8, 40–41advances theories of vocational

behaviour and development, 40

INDEX

134

Life designing, 40–41career concerns, 40career-related choices only one facet,

44, 116people explore their careers within

encompassing life stories, 40Lifespan, life space theory, 36, 43Life portrait, 82

depicts a lifetime of experiences from a new perspective on career, 82

transforms little stories into a grand narrative, 82

re-constructs the past in ways meant to anticipate the future and prompt action, 82

uses career theme to extend occupational plot into the future, 82

Life redesigning, 41–43Life stories, 6–8, 11–12, 23.25, 26, 32,

37, 40, 41, 43–47, 50, 52, 53, 57, 61–63, 71–72, 77, 115

Life themes, 62

MMajor life themes, 62Making career related decision, 43, 116

based on repeated refl ections, 6–7Making magic happen, 62, 67Making painful experiences as a gift to

others, 2–3, 31Making sense of careers, 23Making social contributions, 2–4, 10,

37, 42, 62, 75, 79, 100Managing own career trajectories or

arcs, 46Marginalization, 26, 71Mediated approach, 26Merging intention and action, 4Metaphors, 56Meta-refl ection, 6–7, 29–33, 44, 46–47

as refl ection-in-action, 7, 13 as refl ection-on-action, 7, 13as refl ection-for-action, 7, 13

Mini- and macro-stories collectively constitute grand narrative, 37

Motivation to do something, 4 Movement

from pain-fi lled to triumph-fi lled themes, 4

Movement (action), 4ultimate aim of career counselling,

4, 116Multiple stories, 25

micro-stories, 25, 82, 115 macro-stories, 25

NNarrating and authorizing own stories,

7, 37, 47, Narratibility, 52, 96Narrative counselling, 34–35Narrative strategies, 11

enable clients to play meaningful roles in their own life stories, 11

Naturalistic or interpretive research and praxis paradigm, 25

Negotiating career transitions, 9–10Non-deterministic premise, 30 Normalizing traumatic experiences, 58Not-knowing position, 6, 57

OObjective assessment instruments, 21Objective (psychometric) tests, 1, 4

PPain

as the starting point and life plot of every career and life career story), 2

socially constructed, 2Pain in the sense of ‘no pain no gain’, 32People as main actors in their career

and life stories, 25People as sole experts on

themselves, 34Personal choice and agency, 30

INDEX

135

Personal life story, 7drawn on in times of change, 7enables clients to manage repeated

shifts from occupation to occupation, 7

provides script for each individual’s life, 7

Postmodernumbrella term for qualitative,

narrative or storied perspectives, 12Postmodern career counselling,

3, 26, 44Postmodern (qualitative, narrative

or storied) approach to career counseling, 24–25

Poverty, 1, 117Power of early childhood experiences

and memories, 6should be factored into any career

counselling approach, 6Predicting occupational outcomes, 24Primary allegiance in career

counselling, 5, 111Prompting should be minimal, 76Providing an audience for clients, 43Psychology of self-advising, 31

QQualitative approaches, 5

value to career counselling, 5, 11–12

Qualitative data analysis, 76combining quantitative and

qualitative approaches, 76–77explaining the concept to clients, 76

Qualitative-quantitative approaches, 25, 116

facilitating triangulation and crystallization, 77–79

using the best elements in both approaches, 5

Quantitative career counselling, 5, 11positivist approach, 5, 8, 24

RRationale for identity, 19, 23Reality of trauma, pain and hurt, 3Re-authoring stories, 4, 45, 115Recollections or stories

(preoccupations), 32may include happy and pleasant

memories, 32Refl ection, 6–7, 29–33, 44, 46–47, 77Refl ective and meta-refl ective course of

action, 26Refl exive construction, deconstruction,

co-construction, and reconstruction, 2

Refl exivity, 7–9, 13Repeated refl ection, 6–7Respect, 4, 9, 23, 34, 35, 44, 79Responding adequately to new

developments globally, 9

SSafe environment, 35, 96Safe spaces, 7, 12, 73, 96Satisfaction of needs, 31Self-actualization, 31Self-completion, 11Self-construction, 37–40Self-construction theory, 40Self-refl ection, 46Second economic wave, 20, 21 Self-concept, 42, 49, 81, 87, 99Sense of self, 37, 42, 52, 96, 99, 105–108Short-term contracts, 16Social constructionism, 33–34Social constructivism, 34Storied career counselling, 4, 35

embedded in a narrative framework, 32, 47

every life story starts with pain or trauma, 32, 47

interconnectedness between existential-phenomenological theory and storied approach, 31–33

INDEX

136

Storiesoften indicate what clients need to

know about themselves, 12Subjective facet of career

counselling, 11Subjective or phenomenological

experiences, 1, 4Subjective perspectives, 21Survivor mission, 2–3Systems theory, 33

micro-, meso-, macro-systems interconnected, 33

TTaking decision to work, 4Telling stories to shape identities, 32The body never lies, 54Theoretical approaches in psychology,

8, 10, 17–24, 87, 100psychodynamic, behaviourist,

social learning, and existential- phenomenological, 30

Theories of career choice and development, 10

Three early recollections, 8, 61–67analyzing recollections, 65–66fi rst verb, 62, 65, 67no chance memories, 58, 61offer a prototype for a plot of life and

career, 61often signal the sequence of events

that constitute clients’ life, 61represent client’s life story, 61reveal possible solutions, 62warn, comfort, inspire, and prepare, 61

Tragic loss, 2Transcending hard times and lack of

resources, 32Triumph, 3, 4Turning pain into a social contribution,

3, 30, 62, 67–68Turning pain (hurt, sorrow) into hope,

1–7, 30, 31, 63, 116work from thesis versus antithesis

assumption, 63Turning passive acceptance into active

mastery, 2

UUncertainty among workers, 21Using innovative techniques, 4

VVictory, 3, 63, 116Videotape or voice record

conversations, 13Vision and mission statement,

83–84, 89builds on client’s stated goal for

seeking career counselling, 83constructs a future scenario, 83highlights future intention, 83summarizes client’s central

narrative, 83Vocational guidance, 17–20, 25, 40

WWaves in psychology, counselling, and

career counselling, 17–24Work, 15–27