This week’s class was very personally enlightening for me in
a way that may have practical significance for the older kids I will be working
with as well. Before class I had not made the connection between my past experiences
and synchronicity. Honestly, I had written it off as something impractical.
After realizing, however, that many people in America are religious and/or
spiritual people, I can see how exploring dreams and visions can help clients.
While synchronistic dreams seem rare (possibly because I have not experienced
one myself), visions in prayers and meditations that sync with real life events
have happened both to me and to people that I know. If the kid I am working
with finds a dream, vision, or event significant to him or her, I want to allow
that person to explore its meaning.
In
terms of the case study given out in class, Dorece is experiencing
Gottfredson’s theory in an opposite way. She feels pressure not to enter into a
typical female job. I believe limiting her career choice in this way can have
the same negative affect on her exploration. Her tolerable level boundary also
seems to be quite low as her parents want her to have a prestigious career. It
seems as if there should be a circle in the middle of Gottfredson’s chart that
accurately represents what careers she could do that would please her loved
ones. As a counselor, I would first investigate her relationship ties to
understand how hurtful it would be to her if she went against her parent’s
wishes. Then I would help her explore what she really wanted to do, possibly
using a narrative approach.
I
appreciated that Bloch (2005) summed up how complex career exploration really
is. For many people, careers are definitely non-linear and cannot be explained
simply by taking assessments. Referring to careers as living entities breathes
life into what can seem to be something monotonous. The language used in any
kind of counseling is important as it can set the tone of the session. By
opening up one’s career and understanding it in a dynamic way, clients may be
more invigorated and less overwhelmed by the process. Reading the case analysis was a perfect example of this. She
was so frustrated with her current situation that she could easily mistake it
for unhappiness in her field when, instead, it opened up the possibilities of
what she could do in her field instead.
My
views about post-modern career counseling have been evolving as the semester
has progressed and this article has been significant in my views surrounding
the counseling process. While I am most comfortable with objective data, it now
seems like taking the easy way out. If my client is open to exploring the complexities
of his or her career path, it is worth the journey. It also may produce more
meaningful results to understand a client’s situation as a whole and as
narrated by the client his or herself.
Bloch, D. P. (2005). Complexity, chaos, and non-linear
dynamics: A new perspective on career
development theory. The
Career Development Quarterly, 53, 194-207.
No comments:
Post a Comment