Abstract
The chapter begins by exploring the rationale for experimenting with narrative career counseling. Our motivation was to provide space to work with practitioners, who were, like us, concerned about the effects of time constraints and, at times, hasty interventions made with clients. In the introduction we outline the two phases of the project and the development of the research, with reference to the location within which the work took place. Next, we explain the usage of key terms, identifying the debates and confusions involved. We also discuss what we mean when we use the term telling tales. Third, we describe the research project in detail and the context within which the work was developed as well as its impact. This is followed by an explanation of the framework for the narrative career counseling model used. We also provide examples of using the approach in practice, detailing the steps that can be taken, although we stress that a flexible approach is required. We move on to explain how the analysis was undertaken, demonstrating the use of an analytical profoma developed for auto/biographical and narrative research. The findings from the first phase of the project are then discussed, after which we describe in-depth interviews with our four practitioners who “risked” engaging with a new model (phase two of the project). We outline the successes achieved, but also discuss the struggles they experienced within, frankly, frenetic environments of work intensification, pressure to achieve targets, and demands for processing larger number of clients in “efficient” ways. We summarize the main points resulting from our analysis of the adoption of a new concept within career counseling and consider the relevance of the model for multiple cultural settings. Our conclusions focus on the need to think of career counseling, and education for career counselors, in more creative, culturally significant, and personally meaningful ways. Our aim is to encourage more telling stories.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychological Association (Producer). (2006). Career counseling (Series II—Specific treatments for specific populations) [DVD].
Arulmani, G. (2009). A matter of culture. Career Guidance Today, 17(1).
Arulmani, G. (2011). Receive in order to give: Eastern cultural values and their relevance to contemporary career counselling contexts. In H. L. Reid (Ed.), Vocation, vocation, vocation: Placing meaning in the foreground of career decision-making (Occasional Paper) (pp. 16–22). Canterbury, England: Centre for Career and Personal Development, Canterbury Christ Church University.
Bainbridge, A., & West, L. (2012). Psychoanalysis and education: Minding a gap. London, England: Karnac.
Britzman, D., & Dippo, D. (2000). On the future of awful thoughts in teacher education. Teaching Education, 11(1), 31–37.
Clarke, S., Hahn, H., & Hoggett, P. (Eds.). (2008). Object relations and social relations: The implications of the relational turn in psychoanalysis. London, England: Karnac.
Department for Education and Employment. (2000). Connexions: The best start in life for every young person. London, England: Author.
Department for Education and Skills. (2005). Youth matters. Nottingham, UK: Author. Retrieved from http://pubications.everychildmatters.gov.uk/eOrdeingDownload/CM5860.pdf
Edwards, R. (1997). Changing places? Flexibility, lifelong learning and a learning society. London, England: Routledge.
Egan, G. (2007). The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Frosh, S. (1989). Psychoanalysis and psychology: Minding the gap. London, England: Macmillan.
Giddens, A. (1999). Runaway world. London, England: Profile Books.
Guichard, J. (2005). Life-long self-construction. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 5, 111–124.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Hunt, C., & West, L. (2006). Border country: Using psychodynamic perspectives in teaching and research. Studies in the Education of Adults, 38(2), 160–177.
Hunt, C., & West, L. (2009). Salvaging the self in adult learning. Studies in the Education of Adults, 41(1), 68–82.
Institute of Career Guidance. (2010). New all-age careers service to launch in England in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.icg-uk.org/article823.html
Lewin, C., & Colley, H. (2011). Professional capacity for 14–19 career guidance in England: Some baseline data. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 39(1), 1–24.
Merrill, R., & West, L. (2009). Using biographical methods in social research. London, England: Sage.
Parsons, F. (1909). Choosing a vocation. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.
Reid, H. L. (2007). The shaping of discourse positions in the development of support and supervision for personal advisers in England. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 35(1), 59–78.
Reid, H. L. (2010). Supervision to enhance educational and vocational guidance practice: A review. International Journal for Vocational & Educational Guidance, 10(3), 191–205.
Reid, H. L. (2011). Embedding multicultural principles and skills into counselling work with young people. In H. L. Reid & J. Westergaard (Eds.), Effective counselling with young people (pp. 59–75). Exeter, England: Learning Matters.
Reid, H. L., & Fielding, A. J. (2007). Providing support to young people: A guide to interviewing in helping relationships. London, England: Routledge Falmer.
Reid, H. L., & Ford, A. (2008). Guide on the accreditation of careers guidance practitioners: Putting the EAS into practice (EU LdV project). Torino, Italy: COREP.
Reid, H. L., & West, L. (2011a). Telling tales: Using narrative in career guidance. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 78, 174–183.
Reid, H. L., & West, L. (2011b). Struggling for space: Narrative methods and the crisis of professionalism in career guidance in England. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 39(5), 397–410.
Roberts, K. (2005). Social class, opportunity, structures and career guidance. In B. A. Irving & B. Malik (Eds.), Critical reflections on career education and guidance: Promoting social justice within a global economy (pp. 130–140). London, England: Routledge Falmer.
Savickas, M. L. (1997). Constructivist career counselling: Models and methods. Advances in Personal Construct Psychology, 4, 149–182.
Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–69). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Savickas, M. L. (2006). Career counseling (Series II—Specific treatments for specific populations) [DVD]. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Savickas, M. L. (2009). Career-style counseling. In T. J. Sweeney (Ed.), Adlerian counselling and psychotherapy: A practitioner’s approach (5th ed., pp. 183–207). New York, NY: Routledge.
Savickas, M. L. (2011). Career counselling. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.-P., Eduarda Duarte, M., Guichard, J., … van Vianen, A. E. M. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3), 239–250.
Stanley, L. (1992). The auto/biographical I. Manchester, England: University Press.
Super, D. E. (1957). The psychology of careers. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Watts, A. G. (2010). National all-age career guidance services: Evidence and issues. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 38(1), 31–44.
Watts, A. G. (2011). The emerging policy model for career guidance in England: Some lessons from international examples. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 27, 32–39.
West, L. (1996). Beyond fragments. London, England: Taylor and Francis.
West, L. (2001). Doctors on the edge: Healing and learning in the inner-city. London, England: FA Books.
West, L. (2009). Really reflexive practice: Auto/biographical research and struggles for a critical reflexivity. In H. Bradbury, N. Frost, S. Kilminster, & M. Zucas (Eds.), Beyond reflective practice: New approaches to professional lifelong learning (pp. 66–80). London, England: Routledge.
West, L. (2013). When Bourdieu met Winnicott and Honneth: Bodily matters in the experiences of non-traditional learners. In M. Horsdaly, L. Formenti, & L. West (Eds.), Expanding connections: Learning, the body and the environment. Odense, Denmark: University of Southern Denmark Press.
West, L., & Carlson, A. (2006). Claiming and sustaining space: Sure Start and the auto/biographical imagination. Auto/Biography, 14, 1–22.
Winnicott, D. (1971). Playing and reality. London, England: Routledge.
Winslade, J., & Monk, G. (2007). Narrative counseling in schools: Powerful and brief (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reid, H., West, L. (2014). Telling Tales: Do Narrative Approaches for Career Counseling Count?. In: Arulmani, G., Bakshi, A., Leong, F., Watts, A. (eds) Handbook of Career Development. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9460-7_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9460-7_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-9459-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9460-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)