TWO page summary and critique - Article Example

Article Critique Summary Individuals develop career behavior through social values. Career choice is an iterative process based on the meaning placed by an individual in his/her relationship with others. Narrative career counseling can be understood by foregrounding personal meaning. Exploring the story helps a counselor realize biographical truth and is motivational in effect. Listening and attending skills are fundamental to understanding the clients story. Savickas employs a systematic approach to counseling that follows a narrative exploration pattern.

It is a three-staged approach, consisting of beginnings in which the contract is negotiated between the counselor and client, middles in which the counselor explores the story of the client, and endings in which the discussion is concluded. Finally, the counselor works out ways based on the information he/she has received to help the client. In the beginnings stage, it is important that the counselor lends a sense of empowerment to the client so that the client feels confidant and his/her tendency to narrate life episodes is optimized.

In the middles stage, the counselor’s focus should be to develop a rapport with the client so that the client reveals about his/her life more. In the ending stage, the counselor should clarify any doubts with respect to understanding or recording of information with the client. Savickas’s approach creates multiple approaches for assisting people with career transitions. Response I find Savickas’s systematic approach to counseling quite appealing because it provides a concise yet holistic understanding of the process of counseling.

It makes it easier to memorize the process and the activities it entails by categorizing it into three stages (National Guidance Research Forum, 2012). The focus of the article is the key points a counselor must pay attention toward in each stage so that the counseling session is the most productive and the client is able to benefit from the counselor’s approach. It is correct that peoples career choices are determined, to a large extent by their life experiences and social connections. Media is a very powerful projector of the norms and values, trends and traditions of a culture.

In my professional career counseling, I will Savickas’s systematic approach by trying to develop a comfort level and rapport with my client. I will give the client a gift in our first meeting suited to the client’s age and gender so that the client feels good about me. I shall also provide the client with a list of questions and ask him/her if there is any question that he/she might not like replying. That question will be omitted accordingly. While conversing with my clients, I will use a semi-structure interview.

The discussion will start with a set of questions but as the conversation flows, more questions will be identified impromptu that will likely be more productive in revealing the history and live episodes of the client than the predetermined questions. I will conclude the counseling session by clarifying any doubts with the client. I shall try to work out the best action plan by getting the insights and opinions of the client over it. I would like to recommend a plan that the client finds more practicable considering his/her skills, capabilities, and routine.

ReferencesNational Guidance Research Forum. (2012). Narrative career counseling. Retrieved from http://www.guidance-research.org/EG/impprac/ImpP2/new-theories/constructivism/narrative/view?searchterm=narrative%20career%20counselling.