Blog 4

            While reading the Savickas article, I felt that the constructivist view of counseling for career indecision was reflecting some of the content I am currently learning in Psychotherapy and Intervention Skills. The first similarity I noticed was that in the Savickas five step model for counseling career indecision, a major focus is that that client and the counselor work together in discussing the client’s life theme and how that will impact the future of the client (Savickas, 1995). In Psychotherapy, Cormier, Nurius, and Osborn cite that there are four commitments helpers are encouraged to make as part of gaining clinical competence. One of these commitments is collaboration (Cormier, Nurius, & Osborn, 2013). In both of these examples, the researchers are discussing the importance of the client and the counselor having mutual involvement in the treatment process, and caution against assuming the “expert” role.

            The second similarity I noticed while I was reading over the case study. In the Savickas article (1995), the counselor asks the client numerous questions in order to tie in the career indecision to the client’s life theme. These questions largely reflect the helping skills discussed by Cormier and his colleagues. For example, the questions, “What were the circumstances under which your indecision was labeled?” and “Tell me a part of your life story that is important to your career choice?” are all open-ended questions. Cormier states that open questions are intended to be thought provoking and to challenge the client to broaden responses (Cormier, Nurius, & Osborn, 2013). The counselor in the case study in the Savickas article also avoids closed questions, which Cormier states are not to be completely avoided, but should be used sparsely to get more specific information from the client or if the client veers off track (Cormier, Nurius, & Osborn, 2013).

            To conclude, I wanted to cite two quotes from both references to further reiterate how they are similar. In the Cormier text (2013), the researchers state, “Client narratives are stories that provide both historical and cohesive meaning to client’s lives, a link from the past to the present and the future, and a mechanism by which clients not only explain themselves to themselves, but also introduce themselves to helpers” (p. 115). In the Savickas article (1995), he cites, “Connecting today’s indecision to yesterday’s experiences and tomorrow’s possibilities makes meaning, allows comprehension, and creates new possibilities” (p. 4). Both the Savickas article and the Cormier text focus on how the client’s stories can, and do, impact their life choices, and in turn, how they impact the counseling process. 

References:

Cormier, S., Nurius, P., & Osborn, C. (2013). Interviewing and change strategies for helpers.

Belmont: Cengage Learning

Savickas, M. (1995). Constructivist counseling for career indecision. Northeastern Ohio

Universities College of Medicine