Constructing a Life That Works: Part 2, An Approach to Practice

Abstract

) of this 2-pan exploration of postmodern approaches to family therapy and narrative approaches to career counseling explored the differences between traditional trait and factor counseling models and postmodern approaches using life narratives and social constructionism. In this 2nd article, the authors discuss 7 aspects of their practice as posrmodern career counselors that ask clients to ( In Part 1 (Campbell & Ungar, 2004) of these two articles, we examined the differences between trait and factor models of career counseling and postmodern approaches. Our goal has been to outline a social constructionist approach that focuses on life narratives and constructions of identity. A social constructionist approach emphasizes that the way individuals experience their world depends on how they construct meaning for events in their lives through the language available to them to describe their experiences. Both the theoretical and applied aspects ofthese two articles grow out ofour experiences in both the career and vocational counseling and marriage and familytherapy fields. In the first article, we examined the differences between traditional trait and factor models of career counseling and postmodern approaches that use life narratives and social constructionism. Ascareer counselors and marriage and family therapists, our approach to career development brings together the extensive literature on postmodernism in the field offamily therapy with emerging narrative approaches to career counseling. Our purpose in this second article is to discuss in detail practical applications of our approach to postmodern career counseling. In the field of career counseling, translating postmodern theory into practice has been challenging. In this article, we hope to provide a practical application of material that at times can seem overly theoretical and abstract.Specifically, we discuss a model that focuses on helping clients to articulate their preferred futures rather than answering the question that is traditionally explored in career counseling: "Who am I?" This question assumes that the self exists as an essential aspect of the individual, which can be revealed through the exploration of interests, skills, aptitudes, values, and personal styles. A fundamentally different question that a

Research on life design in (South) Africa: a qualitative analysis

“…It blends career construction with time-, context-, and individualitybound factors as well as time-, context-, and individuality-defined factors. Moreover, it aims to enable clients to progress smoothly through seven career-life 'chapters' and to advance from selfreflection (understanding their perceptions of their 'limitations' and identifying what they have, want, hear, see, and perceive) to reflexivity (building on their reflections and moving forward by embracing their preferred career-life story and eventually healing themselves by realising this story) (Campbell & Ungar, 2004a, 2004bMaree & Pollard, 2009). Savickas et al (2009) state that life design is based on the following five assumptions about people and their work lives: (a) contextual possibilities, (b) dynamic processes, (c) non-linear progression, (d) multiple perspectives, and (e) personal patterns.…”

Assessment of the value of group-based counselling for career construction

“…Campbell and Ungar (2004) suggest that life design intervention has the potential to enhance the design of individuals' lives in response to the many challenges they face. This form of counselling translates Guichard's (2005) self-and career construction theory into practice by seeing individuals as actively constructing themselves through narration or story telling in social interaction.…”

Life design counselling effects on the career adaptability of learners in a selective independent school setting

“…Participant responses confirmed the usefulness of listening to multiple opinions as well as the power of the audience (see also Campbell & Ungar, 2004;Kuijpers et al, 2010;Del Corso & Briddick, in press). In our study the shared engagement of story-telling and listening that occurred between the participant/teller and the other group members/audience seemed to hold a beneficial reward for both parties, since participants could indeed witness and be inspired by their fellow participants' efforts to authorise their story (Di Fabio & Maree, 2012).…”