The Working Alliance in Career Counseling

Abstract

The research related to the working alliance in career counseling is reviewed in this manuscript. This review indicates that the working alliance does typically increase over the course of career counseling. Furthermore in career counseling, most of the correlations between the working alliance and various outcome measures were significant and hovered around .30, which is consistent with findings related to the correlation between the working alliance and outcome in psychotherapy. In terms of factors that predict the working alliance's contribution to career counseling outcome, there is a lack of studies and more research is needed in this area. This manuscript also provides suggestions for practice in career counseling and recommendations for future research.

Using the U-Cube for Career Counselling with Adolescents to Develop Career Conversations

“…This ingredient is inherent to the working alliance between client and counsellor. However, Whiston et al (2015) surmise that there is very little research about how to facilitate a working alliance in career counselling. The U-Cube is a tangible medium that connects the client and counsellor in a conversation and it is this conversation that becomes the grist of career exploration .…”

“…Along with the critical five ingredients of career interventions' effectiveness (Brown et al, 2003), the working alliance is a key predictor of counselling outcomes (Masdonati, Massoudi, & Rossier, 2009;Whiston, Rossier, & Barón, 2015). Working alliance refers to the relationship between client and practitioner, and is a tripartite model made up of goals, tasks, and bonds.…”

Expectations of Career Counseling and Their Effect on Client Satisfaction

“…These agreements are important because, on the one hand, clients are usually aware of their preferences related to career counseling before the intervention, but, on the other hand, they do not have clear ideas of what will occur during the career counseling process (Galassi et al, 1992;Niles et al, 2000). Many studies have demonstrated that the working alliance tends to increase during the career counseling process (see review by Whiston et al, 2016), and this increase positively affects the outcomes, including satisfaction with the intervention (Masdonati et al, 2014). Consequently, initial expectations are not enough for understanding the whole process through which clients perceive and evaluate a career counseling intervention.…”

The Career Decision‐Making Difficulties Questionnaire: A Case for Item‐Level Interpretation

“…Fostering a Working Alliance Investigating clients' responses on the item level may foster the working alliance that is critical to career counseling efficacy (Whiston, Rossier, Baron, & Hernand, 2016). According to Bordin (1979), the working alliance comprises three key factors: (a) agreement on the goals, (b) agreement on the tasks to achieve that goal, and (c) the emotional bond between counselor and client.…”