Career Counseling and Relationship Strategies
Not what you're looking for?
Case Study:
Taneka
Taneka, a 17-year-old African American female, is a high school junior. She is the oldest of three siblings living with her single-parent mother. Her mother has worked for the past 15 years at a manufacturing plant. Her father has not been a part of Taneka's life.
As the oldest child, Taneka has held major responsibilities throughout her life to support her working mother, such as carrying for her younger siblings, Derrick, now age 14, and Kenya, age 12. These early duties reinforced development of her natural leadership skills. Taneka has been recognized from an early age for being mature, responsible, and dependable. As her siblings have grown, she has been able to have part-time jobs, most recently as a salesperson at a teen fashion store in the local mall. It was here that she first realized she had a knack for dealing with people, and they responded well to her—employers, co-workers, and customers alike. She was recently approached by her supervisor to consider participating in the company's employee leadership training program.
This has started Taneka to think about post-secondary education possibilities. Previously she had thought college was out of her reach, due to the limited financial resources of her family and no history of anyone in her family ever attending college. As such, she had not previously given much importance to her grades. Rather than participating in extracurricular school activities, she focused on working. She is on track for graduating with her class next year and has a current grade point average of 2.05.
Taneka is now questioning her previous assumption about college or other post-secondary educational possibilities, but she does not have a clear idea of what she would like to pursue as a career. Choosing a career and a post-secondary program to prepare for it, seeking financial support, and navigating the admissions procedure all remain mysteries to her. When her school counselor invites her in for her junior-year session to plan for life after high school, Taneka starts to open up about this and seeks help to start the process of planning for the rest of her life.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Argue for one relevant theory to be applied to the scenario. Note: Appropriate career counseling theories include but are not limited to Holland, Super, Krumboltz, Gottfredson, Social Cognitive Theory, Work Adjustment, and Person-Environment-Correspondence.
Provide a rationale as to why you have selected this career theory.
Include a synopsis of the key components from this framework.
Be sure to examine research findings that support your inclusion of this theory (minimum of one citation).
Differentiate and then synthesize strategies for establishing and maintaining an effective relationship with the client.
Explain the need and importance of the relationship.
Address the basic and advanced counseling skills that would be appropriate to meet this expectation. You must include:
Core communication skills.
Rapport with clients, coworkers, and supervisors.
Central competencies needed to establish positive rapport.
Need at least 4 references.
Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary
This solution discusses the person-centered approach in the context of a career choice applied to a specific case study.
Solution Preview
(1) Argue for one relevant theory to be applied to the scenario.
In addition to her other emotional problems that include the absence of her father in her life, and the major responsibility in caring for her younger siblings, Taneka needs to make a decision in choosing a career. According to Osipow & Walsh (1990), career counseling has been regarded in the past as more of a personal-emotional type counseling. However, they argue that clients attempting to choose careers need more than solutions to their emotional problems. Moreover, they assert that personal and emotional issues often result in emotional distress.
On this basis, the counselor must be prepared to choose for a client, who is discerning a career choice an intervention that is appropriate. In Taneka's case she needs a career counselor who will be supportive. Weiner (1978 as cited in Osipow & Walsh, 1990) offers a suggestion as he makes a clear distinction between in depth (analytical) therapy and supportive therapy. Supportive therapy helps the client to deal with his or her problem, and provides the client with a warm and accepting counselor.
Osipow and Walsh (1990) add that the client-centered, or person-centered approach is limited in the literature, because Rogers (1951) was more interested in the core principles of personality changes than career counseling. However, he highlights studies to suggest that this approach can be appropriately applied to Taneka's case, as she is experiencing both emotional problems and making a career choice.
(2) Provide a rationale as to why you have selected this career theory.
Prior to the introduction of Carl Roger's person-centered approach, the 'quality' of the counseling relationship between client and therapist was not emphasized in vocational guidance (Osipow & Walsh, 1990). However, they provide recent examples in which career counselors have utilized the client-centered approach in the literature successfully (e.g. Miller, 1998; Arbuckle, 1961; Doleys, 1961 as cited in Osipow & Walsh, 1990). These studies provide a strong rationale for using the person-centered approach. Results of the studies suggest that that as clients improve psychologically, following the core principles of person-centered counseling; they are better able to handle vocation and career problems. In addition, Osipow and Walsh (1990) present research in career counseling that shows the influence of emerging theoretical ...
Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud
This quiz explores the personality theory of psychoanalysis, in particular reference to how Freud conceptualized of this theory.
Childhood Disorders (Axis 1)
This quiz is designed to test one's knowledge on childhood Principle Disorders found in the DSM-IV (1994). This is a good quiz for those who wish to pursue a career in child assessment or child development. Good luck.
Perspectives of Psychology
A review of main theoretical perspectives and those most closely associated with them
Piaget's Theories on Development
Do you know all about Piaget's theories on development? Find out with this quiz!
Sigmund Freud
How much do you know about Sigmund Freud's theories? Find out with this quiz!