Career Counselling with Couples and Families - Assignment Example

VC Week 8 Assignment Today, many families are faced with the need for both family members to work. The challenge is that so many have to work a full-time job that they feel they cannot always make a choice as to a career. Many feel they must find a job that makes the most money they can in order to make ends meet. Evans (2006) suggests that there are many concerns when both parents work that can include, "childcare, household duties, and managing the spillover from work to home and from home to work" (p. 344). These challenges create very busy people who work very hard to maintain their jobs. According to the text, women are more prone to consider their families in choosing a career than most men (Evans, 2006). This could mean that women may not work in an ideal job if she needs to make a choice between the job and taking care of her children. The spillover between work and home can also cause more stress on both sides of the marriage, which can have a negative impact on the marriage as a whole. As an example, Evans (2006) quotes research by Barnett (1994) that says that women more often experience stress than men when marital or family experiences are negative. Women also are more prone to spillover than men. Herlihy and Watson (2006) suggest that men and women choose careers differently. As an example, women are more likely to choose a career based on relationships and the connectedness to others, while also basing their career decisions on what others have to say. Men on the other hand, have been taught that they are their jobs. In other words, men find their identity through the work that they do. I think that a career counselor would need to talk to their clients about their idea of gender roles and how they were affected by them. Often, how they perceive themselves will determine the careers they may be willing to pursue. Counselors must be sensitive to gender and family issues so they can help their clients find even ground when needed. References Evans, K.M. (2006). Career counseling with couples and families in Capuzzi, D. and Stauffer, M.D. Career Counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and applications. pps. 336-359. Herlihy, B.R. and Watson, Z.P. (2006). Gender issues in career counseling in Capuzzi, D. and Stauffer, M.D. Career Counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and applications. pps. Assignment 3 Maria and Richard are coming from vastly different backgrounds and their needs are very different. This means that as a counselor, I would use two different approaches with them. Maria is a 24 year old Hispanic woman who has many traditional ideas about her life. She comes to counseling because she wants to figure out goals that are specific to her. She is interested in going to college, but she is not sure that she should be able to do well in a "real university" (Herlihy and Watson, 2006). Maria has been taught that her first priority is to take care of others and not herself. The reason this is evident is because she is reasonable to help her mother take care of her younger brother who has cystic fibrosis. She has an older brother who works a full-time job but has no obligation to his home after work. Her father is the head of the household as in most Hispanic families. Although she understands that moving out would help her manage her time, it would not allow her to fulfill the obligation to her family (Herlihy and Watson, 2006). In working with Maria, the counselor should need to understand the Hispanic culture and how it related to men and women. Maria has internalized the idea that women are supposed to take care of family and the home, so she feels pressured to take care of these needs first. The counselor just understand the cultural values of the Hispanic culture if they are not Hispanic and realize that these values are different form what they may imagine. The holistic approach that I would use with Maria would be self-efficacy. The reason I would use this is because it is based on the theory that an individual can work in their own behalf and because this method can help when someone is experiencing career inaction (Goodman, 2006). Maria is in a state of inaction it seems because her values tell her she must put her family first. Since "self-efficacy expectations are learned" (Brown, 1992 as cited in "Goodman, 2006), Maria could learn to have new expectations for herself that also fall within her values. While she is learning to understand what she really wants for herself, the counselor can help her do career research and college searches. She may be able to find a university that she is interested in and talk to the dean of the department. This experience could give her the courage to try the university. Some of these activities would help to empower Maria, which is important to improving self-efficacy (Goodman, 2006). I also wonder whether there are Hispanic women in the community who are successful and who balance a family and school. This would be some thing to explore with Maria because these women could help her see how she could also do this balancing. Richard Richard is a 52 year old who has gone to the emergency room four times in the last three months and found that he has panic attacks. Richard works full-time and has moral support from his wife. He is articulate and highly verbal, but did not finish high school or his GED because he was bored (Herlihy and Watson, 2006). Richard has also worked as a forklift operator for the past 18 years, but finds his job "Dull and unchallenging" (Herlihy and Watson, 2006, p. 381), but he is well paid. Richard also has a love of woodworking which could work for him towards a career. Richard does not currently have career goals but wants his life to have meaning (Herlihy and Watson, 2006). Richard would need to explore many things with the counselor. I would want to know if there were specific triggers for the panic attacks and whether they are tied to his feelings about work. One gender issue that may be important to explore is his need to be the breadwinner. He has been married to his wife for 24 years and she works part-time in a gift shop. This may indicate that Richard is the main wage earner. This might mean that he is staying in this job because it pays well and helps him take care of his wife (Herlihy and Watson, 2006). The holistic approach that I would use with Richard would be Planned Happenstance. The reason I would use this approach is because he is uncertain about what he wants to do with his life. Because he feels stuck in his career and because of his lack of education and skills, he needs more information to move forward. Richard also has a woodworking hobby that could actually be turned into an entrepreneurial business if he was willing. He may not need any more education for it. The counselor would encourage him to stay with his indecision to see what would happen. Robert could start by learning how to research careers and looking at their educational requirements. This action may surprise him and learning about careers would give him more education in this area. Also, it would be important to help him explore going into business for himself as a woodworker. He already makes things for his family and friends so expanding his hobby may be a very lucrative venture and stop him from being bored. Exploring careers and entrepreneurship may create curiosity in order to explore new opportunities. This is the first of the five steps in Planned Happenstance. Robert already knows the concept of persistence because he works a job he does not like. He does this because he has a wife to take care of and sees himself as the major breadwinner. As he becomes more aware of what he wants through these activities, I would want to know how he chose his current job because he may be able to use some of the same techniques to find his next career. To understand optimism, Robert will begin to have positive career experiences in his research that will promote an understanding of careers that may not need a high school diploma as well as those that do. AS he approaches risk taking, it would be a good idea for him to write down what he thinks will happen as he decides to change careers. I would also have him write down the risks he has taken in the past and their outcomes. References Goodman, J. (2006). Towards a holistic view of career counseling. in Capuzzi, D., and Stauffer, M.D. (Eds). Career counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and applications. pps. 69-73. Herlihy, B.R. and Watson, Z.P. (2006). Gender issues in career counseling in Capuzzi, D. and Stauffer, M.D. Career Counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and applications. pps. 363-385. Read More