Case-Study- Career Development Plan

I need help doing an outline to create a career development plan for helping Alicia (the client) with her career development.

Could you please include in outline;

1. Intake Process Interview/ Assessment Process

A) What information would you want to obtain from the client in a brief intake interview or from a questionnaire? (If the client's family is involved or influential in a client's life and educational planning, then using a career genogram may be helpful.

B) Why is this information relevant or helpful?

2. Motivation for Counseling

A) What prompted the client to seek career counseling now? What are the presenting circumstances and problems? Are these problems new or do they represent a pattern of some kind?

3. Issues and Problem Focus

A) What are the key problems and needs which the client should address? If more than one exists, rank them from the most serious to the least serious and explain the rankings.

B) What mental health issues exist and may impact the client's vocational situation? (Example might include AOD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental health issues). How might they affect the counseling relationship? Will other professionals be involved?

C) What are the clients' assets and strengths? What skills does the client possess, and what skills might he or she want to develop (see pp. 191-193) How can you "dig deeper" into the assessment of skills and abilities?

D) What decisions does the client need to make? What models or interventions could be used to help him or her make these decisions? See the sections in the textbook that address decision-making processes and style e.g., the CIP and SCCT approaches.

4. Professional Relationship with Client

A) How will you develop a build a good working alliance with the client? How can you establish rapport, encouragement, and support for the client? What skills will you use, as a counselor, to establish a solid working relationship with the client?

B) Are multicultural issues relevant? If so, what might they be?

5. Goal Setting and Implementation

A) What goals will you and the client set together? Will you use a contract? How many sessions do you think it will take to reach the goals?

B) Will you do any type of vocational assessment? This can be quantitative or qualitative. Which instruments or exercises will you use? How will you present the results to the client?

6. Career and Educational Information

A) Does the client need career information about:

â?"Specific jobs, general occupational requirements, educational and training opportunities, employment prospects in their local or other region, or financial aid and resources for college or training?

B) If so, what Internet or school-based resources will you use with:

â?"The client? (CIDS, Occupational Information Systems)

C) If relevant, what job search resources will you use with the client?

7. Follow up Activities

A) What follow up activity will you do to monitor the client's progress and achievement of stated goals?

The Case of Alica: Woman at a Crossroads

Alica is a 40-year-old, white, Greek (mother), Irish-American (father), who is a former schoolteacher and left teaching high school English two years ago after being burned out by teaching "high schoolers with raging hormones." For the past two years, she has been working as a consultant for a company that writes programs and curriculum for training managers and salespersons for utility companies. She works in a small cubicle and hates the deadlines and pressures to get out the product. She holds a B.A. in English (summa cum laude) with a minor in Journalism, and an M.S. (with distinction) in Education. She has been a member of several honor societies as an undergraduate and graduate student. She is married and is a mother of a son, Michael, age 11, and a daughter, Libby, age 7. The daughter has a mild mathematics learning disorder. Alica's husband, Bill, a white German-American, age 42, works as a physical therapist in a local hospital, affiliated with the University of Rochester. Bill has worked at the university for 10 years and is entitled to free part-time tuition benefits for himself and his wife. Alica is the middle child of David, 69, and Melina, 67, with a brother Ray, age 43, and a sister, Donna, age 36. Her father David was an insurance representative for Liberty Mutual, and her mother, an elementary school teacher for two years, a homemaker, then a substitute teacher for several years and in her final year of full-time employment, an administrative assistant to the vice principal of an elementary school. Alica's brother Ray is an electrical engineer for Xerox Corporation and Donna is a school counselor for a suburban middle school. Ray is married with three children and Donna is divorced with no children.

Alica indicated she had been thinking about getting professional help from a vocational counselor for over a year but felt the time was now right to make a change. When asked what options she considered, she said working as an editorial assistant for a publisher, technical writing, or a recreation planner for adults. Alica is athletic and works out regularly. She played two varsity-level sports in high school, basketball, and tennis. She also coached the high school tennis team for several years while teaching to earn extra money. One of her fantasies was to be a sports writer covering professional tennis events, like the U.S. Open or the Women's National Basketball Association. Alica is also involved in her local Catholic church (she was raised as a Roman Catholic and her father converted from the Greek Orthodox faith when he married her mother.) Alica describes herself as a dedicated, compassionate, and ambitious professional women, but she is also concerned about raising her children and not "shipping them out to day care providers all the time."

Alica's situation is complicated by the fact that she suffers from a form of mild, low-grade depression, described by the DSM-IV as dysthymia. She has been in counseling twice over the past eight years, once six years ago to help cope with the suicide of a cousin with whom she was very close. She and her husband were also in couples counseling three years ago for 15 sessions, with his alcoholism and her anger management problems being the primary issues. She indicated this was helpful to her marriage, and that her husband supports her efforts to find a new career. She is currently taking 20 mg of fluoxetine (generic Prozac) and this generally keeps her moods stable, although she complains that she doesn't get too excited or as "jazzed" when good things happen to her. In the past two weeks, she indicated she has been more anxious of late, waking up early and feeling a mild dread upon waking. She will be seeing her family doctor, Betty, (internist) in two weeks for help for her poor sleeping behavior.

Alica has considered going back to school, and one of her friends, Judi, suggested she consider a career as a school psychologist. Alica thinks going back to a school setting would be tough and she would not look forward to the bureaucracy inherent to education. Besides, she said, "I believe that what school psychologists mostly do is test kids and put them into special education classes." Alica's hobbies include cooking, gardening, playing poker, and working out. She has also considered work as a dietician because she pays very close attention to her diet and that of her husband and children.