Proposed Working Assumptions
We have hinted at some dimensions of our proposed assumptions by identifying some common false assumptions. The following assumptions may be used to help counselors structure their work; some are appropriate to discuss with clients.
Different clients need or want different things to help them make occupational decisions. A variety of available services is important to serve a range of clientele. Sometimes seeing a counselor is helpful, sometimes it is not. The same is true of vocational exploration groups, vocational tests, or discussion with someone who has experience in an occupation of interest to the client. In college counseling centers students often seem to want the opportunity to use occupational information files without seeing a counselor. The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (with extensive explanation on the back of the report form) and the Self-Directed Search (with programmed instructions) are clearly oriented for use without a counselor to interpret the results. Vocational counseling agencies should, appropriately, offer a variety of services from which to find help with a vocational decision.
The vocational counseling outcome is often enhanced by the active involvement of the client. Clients can engage in a variety of services whether or not they wish for the kind of active involvement counselors may promote. Counselors, though, would properly encourage the client's active involvement on the basis that such involvement leads to better counseling outcomes. If clients perceive that counselors consider vocational counseling to be important, they are more likely to devote additional time and energy.
We believe that clients' involvement is enhanced when the counselor recognizes the predictive value of the clients' ideas. We have used the Tyler Vocational Card Sort and the Dole Vocational Incomplete Sentences Blank to promote clients' use of those data as an important consideration in making occupational choices. Vocational fantasies can be used in this same manner. Counselors are usually perceived as experts, which promotes clients' paying attention to counselors' opinions. Clients need to be perceived as experts also regarding their vocational decisions, so that counselors will pay greater attention to clients' opinions.
Difficulty making occupational decisions often stems from a number of circumstances within clients' lives. In our experience, three major approaches are available to meet clients' needs:
- Occupational information. We believe that clients frequently need help to envision themselves functioning in an occupation. The book Working can be useful because it contains the personal statements of people in occupations. Clients also benefit from being able to talk with someone in an occupation that seems attractive to them. This allows clients to learn about the day-today demands, the rewards, and frustrations not usually covered in written occupational information.
- Values clarification. Satisfaction in an occupation often stems from belief in the worth of the occupation. Values clarification is identifying what individuals consider worthwhile in their lives. Value clarification exercises are often carried out in groups. In this setting, clients can be aided by hearing about the values of others.
- Decision-making skills. Specific steps in decision making can be taught either in a group or individually, perhaps as part of a sequential process in a vocational exploration group. Various writers have developed models of decision making, which are reviewed by Herr and Miller.
Vocational counseling is rarely a matter of clients' making a final occupational choice, but rather a matter of several occupational possibilities being defined for further exploration. Successful vocational counseling is a focusing process in which clients discard some alternatives and select others. Clients after the termination of formal vocational counseling are often involved in the process of getting more information about how a particular occupational area fits their abilities, interests, personality, and opportunities.
Conclusion
When clients come for vocational counseling, they have assumptions about what will occur and what the outcomes will be. For instance, some clients believe that there is a single right occupation for them and expect the counselor to help them find it. Vocational counselors also have their view of probable counseling processes and outcomes. For instance, counselors may assume that occupational selection is a process of narrowing, trying out, weighing potential benefits, and selecting the direction that leaves the most desirable alternatives open. Sometimes counselors fail to identify the clients' views. When counselor and client do not reach agreement at the beginning of counseling, the client may harbor resentment, or perhaps drop out before the counseling series is completed, or be disappointed with the outcome. Counselors could be pleased with an outcome that is disappointing to clients, but if the counselor has said during one of the first interviews that the client is not likely to identify a specific occupation, the client can reorient expectations about the outcome of the counseling. When clients and counselors hold reasonable assumptions, satisfaction for both parties is more likely to occur.
