Outline for a longer for Career/Vocational Counseling - Research Paper Example

Outline: The Case of Alaina—A Woman at a Crossroads Intake Process Interview/ Assessment Process A) What information would you want to obtain from the client in a brief intake interview or from a questionnaire? (If the client’s family is involved or influential in a client’s life and educational planning, then using a career genogram may be helpful (see p. 144 of the textbook regarding genograms). I would like to obtain information on the work efficiency, mood changes, patterns of making friends, and sexual behaviour of the client.

Also by assuming that her mother is having an influence on her life and planning processes (as the mother has had a very active career), I would like to prepare a career genogram on her mother's side. B) Why is this information relevant or helpful? This information will be helpful for me in identifying what my client's real problem is. The preliminary information that I have with me about her only show that she is disturbed and the reason could be job dissatisfaction, lack of proper marital communication, or some kind of personality disorder or a combination of these.

The above-said information would give me an insight into all these aspects. 2. Motivation for Counseling A) What prompted the client to seek career counseling now? What are the presenting circumstances and problems? Are these problems new or do they represent a pattern of some kind? Most probably it is the stress and dissatisfaction that she endures in her work that prompted the client to seek career counseling. It is also possible that she wants to evade her life's problems by narrowing them down into just a career issue.

It is evident that she is dissatisfied with her present job but it is to be found out whether this is the only problem she has. She seems to be very indecisive about what she really wants, which is visible in the totally unrelated career options that she has been considering. Her earlier disillusionment with her previous job and this indecisiveness indicate that her problem is not a new one and that it has something to do with her personality also. 3. Issues and Problem Focus A) What are the key problems and needs which the client should address?

If more than one exists, rank them from the most serious to the least serious and explain the rankings. The key problems that the client needs to address are 1) the depressive stage of her mind that demands medication and might be hampering her work involvement and efficiency, 2) her job dissatisfaction, and 2) her inability to decide what she wants from life. B) What mental health issues exist and may impact the client’s vocational situation? (Example might include AOD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental health issues).

How might they affect the counseling relationship? Will other professionals be involved? Mental health issues exist in this client in the form of an accumulation of small, small, disillusionments with life. The fear that she feels when she wakes up is a sign of this slow accumulation. But on further examination, there is also the possibility of diagnosing her with a personality disorder, most probably, Anxious Personality Disorder. The vocational situation is sure to be impacted by her condition of mental depression.

If the counseling session simply concentrates on her career options alone, soon she might loose her trust in the counsellor as she might feel the counsellor is not fully aware of her situation. After diagnosing her case, help of mental health professionals will have to be sought if necessary. C) What are the clients’ assets and strengths? What skills does the client possess, and what skills might he or she want to develop (see pp. 191–193) How can you “dig deeper” into the assessment of skills and abilities?

The major asset of this client is her openness to things in life and others' suggestions as is indicated by her diversified interests. She also seems to be very resourceful as is indicated by the option of becoming a dietician that she is considering, and by the information that she used to coach high school tennis team to make an earning. The skill that she might want to develop is to distribute her time among her job, family and her diversified extra curricular interests. Also she it might be helpful for her to develop decision making skills.

We can dig deeper into assessing the skills and abilities of the client by using card sorts, and the Morrisby profile. D) What decisions does the client need to make? What models or interventions could be used to help him or her make these decisions? See the sections in the textbook that address decision-making processes and style e.g., the CIP and SCCT approaches on pp. 56–59). The client needs to decide whether t stick on to her existing job or look for a new one. If she decides to look for a new job, she also needs to decide which career field to choose.

A subjective intervention model will be helpful in assisting the client to make those decisions. Subjective intervention model is useful in helping the client to understand themselves better, and this model is especially helpgul for clients who are indecisive and mid-career changers. SCCT approach can be adopted so that the client is instilled with confidence in her abilities rather than getting aware of her deficiencies. 4. Professional Relationship with Client A) How will you develop a build a good working alliance with the client?

How can you establish rapport, encouragement, and support for the client? What skills will you use as a counselor to establish a solid working relationship with the client (see p. 193 for the 12 essential skills of career counselors) A good working alliance will be built with the client by having an agreement on objectives and tasks ahead and also by developing a therapeutic bond. The counsellor has to be a non-judgemental listener to the client. All the same, the counsellor should assess whether the goals set by the client are realistic and should help the client to get clarity on her objectives.

I would use basic counselling skills like reflection, openness and congruence and tools like interest inventories, genograms, tests and card sorts. Above all, I will have to show genuine care, and respect for the client and also use the essential core conditions delineated by Carl Rogers. B) Are multicultural issues relevant? If so, what might they be? (May want to reference specific objectives or activities in chapters 13–16.) Multicultural issues are relevant in this case as my client, her husband, and her family hails from multicultural backgrounds.

I also am having a multicultural background. The client might be experiencing some ambiguity regarding her cultural and religious identity and that could be a cause of concern for her, at a subconscious level. Therapeutic telling of my life narrative can help my client to give meaning to her personal history. All the same I have to be culturally sensitive also. 5. Goal Setting and Implementation A) What goals will you and the client set together? Will you use a contract? How many sessions do you think it will take to reach the goals?

See reference to the Action Plan on p. 194. We will set our goals as 1) deciding whether a career change is necessary, 2) if decided in positive regarding career change, deciding which new career to choose and 3) enabling my client to lead a fulfilling and happy life. I will use a contract to give the counselling process an official character. I believe a maximum of 6 sessions will be needed. There will be exercises between sessions as well. B) Will you do any type of vocational assessment? This can be quantitative or qualitative.

Which instruments or exercises will you use? How will you present the results to the client? (See Chapter 5 for resources.) I will carry out a vocational assessment, which will mainly constitute a functional capacities assessment and an assessment of transferable skills. Behavior observation, psychometric testing, and situational assessment will be the tools used. I will present the results to my client in the form of a vocational assessment report with an assessment summary and behavior observations. 6. Career and Educational Information A) Does the client need career information about: —Specific jobs, general occupational requirements, educational and training opportunities, employment prospects in their local or other region, or financial aid and resources for college or training?

The client does not need career information about specific jobs, occupational requirements, educational and training opportunities, or financial aid and resources for college or training. This is so because she is a mid-life career changer. But she might need to know about employment prospects in her local or other region. She might also be interested in knowing occupational requirements for becoming a dietician or school psychologist, which are comparatively new areas to her. B) If so, what Internet or school-based resources will you use with: —The client?

(CIDS, Occupational Information Systems) I could use Occupational Information Systems to assist her in knowing more about occupational requirements of a dietician, school psychologist, or any other career that she finds interesting in the course of career counselling. C) If relevant, what job search resources will you use with the client? (see p. 168) I would use job search resources like www.timesjobs.com, www.monster.com and www.jobsearch.com and also local resources as well. 7. Follow up Activities A) What follow up activity will you do to monitor the client's progress and achievement of stated goals?

I would pay a one time visit to my client's working place as well as to her home as part of follow-up. I would also give her monthly calls to make sure she was not relapsing from her mental recovery. Two follow up sessions, one each in six months. Will also be suggested for this client.