special populations and private practice.

Last week I found the activity of cultural case studies intriguing and wish we had been able to answer all of the questions.

I found the title of chapter 6 misleading due to the American cultural connotation I have with the term “special needs” (Brown, 2012, p. 117).  To me, the term special needs associates with individuals who have some sort of struggles due to physical or mental differences.   Women, the LGBT community, and job changers would not fall under my previous connotation of special needs. I think Brown should consider a different title for this chapter which better identifies the content, for example, ‘Specialized Populations’ or something. Brown also needs to update his terminology for ex-offenders. Now the term is “returning citizens”.

                In my work at Lord Fairfax Community College I worked with several rehabilitation counselors from the state who transitioned to a position as a general career and academic counselor at the community college.  I learned a lot from them about working with individuals with disabilities. Like Brown (2012) wrote, these counselors used job tryouts in the process of helping the individual prepare for a life of work. In a lot of career counseling those with disabilities may require us to do some training and advocating with co-workers and the superiors of the individuals. This is another place where advocacy falls into the job of a counselor.

                To add to the career coaching discussion, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) employs a large number of career coaches.  These positions are either community college employees in local high schools or are for a specific population, for example, their program for college students who were/are in the foster system is a career coach. Many of the career coaches I knew got their career coach training through the organization when they were hired or came with some experiences; however, few held masters degrees or formal career development certificates.  I think the VCCS utilized the term career coach to differentiate from advisors or school counselors. These career coaches are not private practitioners like the textbook defines career coach. 

                It is great how much information Brown (2012) included about the organization, marketing, and considerations for setting up a private practice. One billing issue that comes up is the awkwardness of the counselor collecting the money.  One of my friends who worked for a health services organization said that the counselors fought very hard to have a receptionist work late on the nights they had evening appointments, because paying the receptionist for the services allowed a smoother transition and a better relationship between the client and counselor if they client did not have to worry about the money with the counselor.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.