The purpose of this article is to describe vocational counseling in terms of dimensions. Clients who seek vocational counseling do so for a variety of reasons and therefore their expectations of counseling are different. Yet too often vocational counselors are like the one-tool counselor which Callis (1962) describes, who applies the same assumptions and methods to all cases. Vocational counseling can be described in terms of steps along a continuum in which the focus of the counseling effort changes at each step. Counseling events which have relevance for only one situation and which do not generalize to later events represent one end of the continuum, while events which generalize to future behavior represent the opposite end. Thus, several types of vocational counseling events can be defined in terms of the width of focus and might be as follows:
Type 1: Counseling which aids the client with a specific decision by providing information and clarification of issues.
Type 2: Counseling which aids the client with a specific decision by focusing, on decision-making skills rather than only on the decision at hand. This has application for the specific situation as well as later choice-points.
Type 3: Counseling which views career as a process rather than an end-point toward which all decisions lead. Thus, the focus changes from the objective of making the correct ultimate choice and once-and-for-all pronouncement of identity to the process of making a continual series of choices.
Type 4: Career process counseling which focuses on creating in the individual the ability to utilize his personal attributes to achieve self-determined objectives and to influence the nature of future choices rather than merely adapt to external pressures.
The continuum, then, is from focus on a specific decision at a given time to focus on career as a process in which the individual is a potent force.
The case of Mark provides an example of Type 4 counseling. The counseling consisted of participating as a group member in a day-long Life Planning Workshop. Sponsored by the Student Development faculty, it provided students with laboratory experiences designed to foster self-direction and awareness of career process. The workshop consisted of a series of semi-structured individual and group tasks which deals with the individual and his relationship to his future life.
Mark, an 18-year-old college freshman majoring in psychology, arrived at the workshop as a rather "lost" individual, unsure of his own identity and unclear about why he was in college. His being in college seemed to be more the result of parental and societal expectations than of his own decision. In answering the question "Who am I?" his main emphasis was on being "an objective person." Through the process of discussion and through the workshop method of stripping and reassuming roles, he decided that he had been limiting himself through his own definition of being "objective." He had created limitations by negating the whole area of feelings and emotions from his life.
During the workshop he changed his most important desired role identity to being an "experiencing person." He felt that this gave him much more freedom and that new areas of life had been opened up to him. By the end of the workshop day, he could clearly see that what he did in the future was up to him, that he would have to be the one to make the decisions. This was quite a reversal from his original statements about going off in all directions and not knowing what to do about it. At the end of the workshop, he recognized that being in college needed to be for his own reasons. He reported that he felt more in control of his own life and more able to begin some constructive and realistic planning, and he could accept this responsibility.
In a follow-up contact six months later, Mark reported that he was feeling much more comfortable about himself and his future direction. He was taking courses in a number of areas both to find out about himself and to locate opportunities available for him. He had formulated some tentative goals, which included at least two alternative directions. The following quote is indicative of his reaction to the workshop:
It helped me stabilize myself and my direction. It really improved my general outlook on how to take the rest of my college experience and how to go about solving some problems.
Discussion and Implications
A characteristic of good theory is that it should stimulate research and provide a basis for improvement in practice. Although there has been considerable theorizing and some research in the area of vocational counseling, there has been little change in the actual practice of vocational counselors since Parsons's original proposition that the characteristics of man and job should be matched. This article proposes that counseling for vocational development should parallel the developmental process; that is, the focus should be narrow when only a point-a specific decision-in the developmental process is being considered, and broad when the concern is the whole person in relation to his career process.
There are a number of factors to consider in determining the level or focus of counseling to be used. The expectations of the client are a major consideration in selecting an appropriate course of counseling. A client seeking help with a specific decision may not appreciate or need an effort designed to confront him with his life's direction and commitment. Conversely, a client seeking a general direction in which to move would be chagrined at being urged to consider work as a YMCA secretary or a mortician. Along with client expectations, client needs and level of development must be considered. Super's (1967) description of life stages suggests that the same counseling approach at all life stages would be highly inappropriate. Considering the levels of career counseling can better clarify the alternative approaches available.
Other factors which influence the counseling approach include the training, competence, and theoretical bias of the counselor. Career process counseling requires that the counselor (1) be more involved with the client as a developing person and (2) use greater skill in dealing with the client's internal processes.
Counselor education needs to stress the developmental nature of vocational counseling. There needs to be an emphasis on keeping the "person" in counseling about careers and an effort to avoid the compartmentalization of personal and vocational counseling. There has been a tendency to view vocational counseling as relatively dull and routine, while personal counseling is interesting and dynamic. In many cases vocational counseling is delegated to the less able, less trained counselor, while personal counseling is the domain of the better qualified professional. Career process counseling recognizes the developmental nature of vocational counseling and places it in perspective as an aspect of the growth of the whole person.
The major part of an individual's life is spent in activity related to his vocation and avocation. His ability to function in and profit from these experiences is a major indication of positive mental health. If counseling provides the individual with only the information and self knowledge to select a single vocational direction or job or even just to make a series of decisions, thus barely keeping up with a constantly changing environment, it has done little to provide the client with the developmental skills and abilities necessary to make him able to progress continually and shape his own destiny.
