Experiential Activity: Career Counseling

For my experiential activity I attended career counseling sessions. Though I am aligned for a particular career in education as a science teacher, and my path is pretty set, I have been contemplating a career in counseling after teaching for a few years. The question that I posed to the counselor was, "Should I pursue another advanced degree in counseling later in my career?" At the first session, the counselor stated that she could not answer the question for me but that she could help me answer the question myself with her guidance.

First Session: The counselor seemed nervous at first, but after we began talking for a while about ourselves and to assess what I needed to talk about, she relaxed as indicated by her body language. I think her anxiety was stemming from the videotaping process. She explained her credentials and that the videotaping process was to evaluate her and not my responses. She was very professional. She had me complete an activity with index cards. There were categories ranging from very important to not important and I was given index cards with various aspects and qualities that people value in a career. The counselor was clear that this activity was to gain insight as to what I wanted in a career by assessing what was important to me. Afterward we discussed why I categorized the values as I did. I found the exercise very helpful in determining what I value most in a career, like ability to be creative, working with people, and contributing to my community. While this didn't exactly answer my question, the exercise did put into perspective why I chose the path that I did.

Second Session: We began by reviewing the previous activity and she asked whether I thought is was helpful and relevant. I explained that I found it very helpful. While I didn't think that it helped me discover something new, it did reinforce values that I knew that I wanted in career and life. She asked whether I had thought about the proposed question and if I had any questions for her. We moved along to another activity where she iterated that she would be asking a series of seemingly random questions but assured me that they had a purpose. The questions were comprised of things like, my favorite book, magazines that I read regularly, role models outside of my family, and three memorable life experiences that I had to assign newspaper headlines and last, but not least, a current motto. I answered the questions and elaborated on my answers. The counselor listened and took notes, asking me for more information when necessary. At times I felt pressured to come up with an answer to particular questions but not by the counselor. Perhaps it was because I was pressuring myself and thinking too hard about the questions and was caught up with the curiosity of how these questions were going to relate to the topic at hand. Finally, the counselor said I would have to wait until next time to find out the connection between the activity and the topic.

Third Session: I was anxious to see what was going to be discussed regarding the last activity as I had racked my brain to make a connection. However, I had faith that my counselor had a clear and distinct puprpose for the seemingly random questions because by this time she had established rapport. Also, by this session, her demeanor was completely relaxed and I could see more and more that she was going to be a great counselor. She rervealed that the questions actually indicated what was at the forefront of my mind now. She explained that if I were asked these questions at a different time, the stories may be similar but not the same, indicating what my brain was processing at this particular moment in my life. She showed me that this activity was rooted in particular theory and cited where and from whom she gleaned it, thought I cannot remember. We discussed my interpretation of the questions and what the theory said they meant and her interpretation to see if there was a congurency. This felt revolutionary and was like putting together a pieces of a puzzle. All of the stories and answers were related to two things...science and school! We discussed, and both agreed that the answer to my question was that I am exactly where I need to be right now. And according to my motto, which was be present, that I needed to heed my own advice. The best thing I can do for myself is just be here now, be present and focus on the task at hand. I use this advice now on a daily basis! Finally, she told me about Holland Codes. Together we looked on the internet and she asked me to read about the different personality types and which I felt that fit me best. I said, Doer, Creator, Helper. She said that she agreed and we talked about different careers that satisfy my three personality types. She introduced me to ONET and we searched for careers in my three categories. The first one that came up was Naturalist/Interpretor/Educator for the National Park or Forest Service. I thought, "Wow! That hit the nail on the head!" because that is a dream job. I remember thinking...I wish I had discovered this when I was first entering college.

Final Session:
We wrapped up the session with checking to make sure that my career question was worked through to my satisfaction. She asked if I had anything else that I wanted to discuss or any pertinent questions. I told her that I felt very satisfied and that the sessions were very helpful. She asked what I liked about the sessions and if there was anything that I didn't like, so she could take the advice and either use or discard certain things. I pointed out specifics that I found particularly enjoyable and helpful and recommended that I felt they could be useful in many situations with graduate or undergrads in the future. She gave me some resources that I could use, and place where I could find information if a career related question ever came up again. We wrapped up the short session and she stated that I could contact her if I needed anything else. We departed and I felt that overall, this was a great experience. I only wish I had utilized these kinds of services when I was younger, but I am just thankful for the opportunity to have it now.

Reflection of Meaning: What does it mean to you?

"We need to give clients power and control of the session whenever possible. They can often generation new interpretations/reframes and new ways of thinking about their issues."

-Ivey, Ivey, and Zalquett

To reiterate a statement from a previous post, I can feel the skills culminating, working our way up the skills pyramid. As these skills compile, I feel a little overwhelmed and anxious. Like, how am I going to remember all of these in one interview? I feel that this chapter somewhat alleviated that anxiety with the focus on meaning. The chapter reinforced that my role as the counselor is not just have all of the answers, or problem solve, or come to a conclusion through a rigid checklist. My purpose is guide the client through a journey to find their own answers and draw upon their own strengths to conclusions.

Reflection of meaning seems just an extension of reflection in feeling with just different key words that focus on purpose or vision, so that skill should come naturally. While reading the comparisons on pages 204-205, I kept thinking, "Wow, I would never say that." Perhaps that is simply comfort level as a beginning counselor or some of the answers may not be congruent with my personal theory. I can see my self reframing, as the book describes it as a gentler construct and I resonate more with the person-centered approach. However, linking, though it seems an important skill should wait for experience because it is a bold to link statements together because they could create a misunderstanding and rapport or relationship could be destroyed with a new client.

I particularly liked the section on resilience, purpose and meaning. The idea of teaching these concepts through exercises to avoid childhood depression and even to prevent adulthood depression was an idea that I feel like I would use regularly. This method would seem to be effective not only for developing minds who have difficulty with those kind of cognitive abilities, but also as an alternative for the interview where the counselor asks questions like "What does that mean to you?" in a repetitive fashion.

Multicultural issues in reflection and meaning was a great reminder to be aware that we as counselors should not make assumptions about anyone and the meaning that they attach to a particular context. I like the quote..."Individuals do not make meaning by themselves, they make meaning in a multicultural context." We must always be aware of the family, community, neighborhood and keeping the community genogram present to use as a visual and reference tool may be a helpful reminder.