Postmodern Career Counseling E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 747

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

This practiced-based handbook describes postmodern career counseling models and methods designed to meet clients' diverse needs in today's challenging work environment. Readers will gain a solid understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of postmodern career counseling and learn practical approaches to counseling clients of various ages and backgrounds on occupational choice and other issues, such as coping with developmental tasks, career transitions, and work traumas. Drawing directly from their experiences with clients, career counseling experts link theory to practice in 17 application chapters that demonstrate the process of postmodern career assessment and intervention embedded in culture and context. Multicultural case vignettes and a "Practical Application Guide" in each of these chapters facilitate classroom learning and discussion. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website here: https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail.aspx?id=78124 *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected]

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

About the Editors

About the Contributors

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Postmodern Career Counseling: A New Perspective for the 21st Century

Part I: Perspectives

Chapter 1: Career Counseling in Postmodern Times: Emergence and Narrative Conceptions

Chapter 2: The Postmodern Impulse and Career Counselor Preparation

Part II: Principles

Chapter 3: Multicultural Career Counseling: Limitations of Traditional Career Theory and Scope of Training

Chapter 4: Culture and Context in Constructionist Approaches to Career Counseling

Chapter 5: Postmodern Career Assessment: Advantages and Considerations

Part III: Procedures

Chapter 6: Using the My Career Story Workbook With an African American High School Student

Chapter 7: Using My Career Chapter With a Malaysian Engineer to Write and Tell a Career Story

Chapter 8: Constructing a Course: Constructivist Group Career Counseling With Low-Income, First-Generation College Students

Chapter 9: Early Recollections With a Paroled African American Male: A Career-Focused Group Approach

Chapter 10: The Storied Approach to Career Co-Construction With an Older Female Client

Chapter 11: Using the Genogram for Career Assessment and Intervention With an Economically Disadvantaged Client

Chapter 12: Using Life Role Analysis for Career Assessment and Intervention With a Transgender Client

Chapter 13: Using Personal Construct Psychology: Constructing a Career With an Asian American Client

Chapter 14: Tools to Connect: Using Career Card Sorts with a Latina Client

Chapter 15: Possible Selves Mapping with a Mexican American Prospective First-Generation College Student

Chapter 16: The Life Design Genogram: Self-Construction with an Italian Female Transitioning to the World of Work

Chapter 17: Relational Cultural Career Assessment: The Case of an Indian Immigrant First-Year College Student

Chapter 18: Solution-Focused Career Counseling With a Male Military Veteran

Chapter 19: Using the One Life Tools Narrative Framework: From Clarification to Intentional Exploration With an East Asian Female

Chapter 20: From the Systems Theory Framework to My System of Career Influences: Integrating Theory and Practice With a Black South African Male

Chapter 21: Action Theory of Career Assessment for Clients With Chronic Illness and Disability

Chapter 22: Using Chaos Theory of Careers as a Counseling Framework With a Female African American College Student

Conclusion: Postmodern Principles and Teaching Considerations for 21st–Century Career Counseling

Glossary

Index

Technical Support

End User License Agreement

Postmodern Career Counseling

A Handbook of Culture, Context, and Cases

edited by

Louis A. Busacca and Mark C. Rehfuss

American CounselingAssociation6101 Stevenson Avenue, Suite 600Alexandria, VA 22304www.counseling.org

Copyright © 2017 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

American Counseling Association6101 Stevenson Avenue, Suite 600Alexandria, VA 22304

Associate Publisher Carolyn C. Baker

Digital and Print Development Editor Nancy Driver

Senior Production Manager Bonny E. Gaston

Copy Editor Kay Mikel

Cover and text design by Bonny E. Gaston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Busacca, Louis A., editor. | Rehfuss, Mark C., editor.

Title: Postmodern career counseling: a handbook of culture, context, and cases / edited by Louis A. Busacca and Mark C. Rehfuss.

Description: Alexandria, VA : American Counseling Association, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016020323 | ISBN 9781556203589 (pbk.: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Vocational guidance. | Cross-cultural counseling. | Career development—Case studies.

Classification: LCC HF5381 .P6727 2016 | DDC 331.702—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020323

Dedication

To my late loving father Sam Busacca, Sr., and family.

—Louis A. Busacca

To Tracie, Adelyn, Taylor, and Claire, the most incredible women I have ever known.

—Mark C. Rehfuss

Foreword

Mark Pope1

Insecurity is the predominant psychological characteristic of the postmodern historical period. What Drs. Busacca and Rehfuss have done in this book offers career counselors who are facing such issues with their clients an important perspective that enables them to plan their career counseling interventions accordingly. They accomplished this by gathering together the brightest thinkers and practitioners of constructivist and constructionist career counseling, both the new and the more mature, to write about their passion. And this passion comes through in each of the chapters.

Insecurity about precarious work is an inherent part of career choice and job search, but in the postmodern era it is both the quantity and quality of the insecurity that has changed and is changing. During the industrial era, workers moved even further away from having some felt control of the means and outcomes of production. In some cases, benevolent owners tried to compensate for that inherent insecurity by pledges of lifelong employment, but in many cases workers had to fight for such job security with labor unions as their instrument. And fight they did! In fact there were 4,740 labor strikes in 1937 alone.2 In the modern era, however, the power of U.S. labor unions plateaued, and during the Reagan presidency the utter defeat of the PATCO air traffic controllers union strike of 1981 set in motion the gradual descent of union power, which continues even to this day. This descent coincided with the beginning of the postmodern era, shortening of the capitalist boom or bust economic cycles, and a concomitant rise in workforce insecurity for both blue- and white-collar workers. Thus the time is right for this book as postmodern theories and interventions are coming to the forefront of our profession.

What also makes this book unique is the chapter authors' thorough integration of cultural context into the constructionist paradigm in career counseling. Nowhere else in the career counseling and development literature will you find this consistent dedication to such integration. For this reason alone, this book sets a new landmark for our field.

And finally, this book is a very real tribute to the pioneering and continuing work of Dr. Mark Savickas, as both a theoretician and a mentor. His impact on our field is indescribable; in so many ways you can see his soul permeating each chapter. His mentorship is evident in the professional lives of so many of these authors and of the two editors, Louis A. Busacca and Mark C. Rehfuss, as well as in my own.

This is a very special book. A treasure! I hope that you both learn from and enjoy it as much as I have.

Notes

1

Mark Pope is a past president of both the National Career Development Association and the American Counseling Association. He is also a former editor of

The Career Development Quarterly

and an Eminent Career Award recipient, curators' professor and chair, Department of Counseling and Family Therapy, University of Missouri–Saint Louis.

2

Brenner, A., Day, B., & Ness, I. (Eds.). (2009).

The encyclopedia of strikes in American history

(p. ii). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Preface

Two colleagues discuss the reduction in hours in their department and the rapid change of assignments over the past year. The company they work for has been going through restructuring due to offshore outsourcing, and it has implemented new computer programs that have replaced the need for some workers. Several employees in their department have already been laid off or had their hours reduced. Leon, a middle-aged African American with a bachelor's degree, has just been informed of a 40% reduction in his part-time hours due to the company's need to comply with the Affordable Care Act. After 4 years with the company, Leon is worried that he may need to find another job or eventually be laid off. He mentions how difficult it will be for his wife and child now that his hours have been cut, and more so if he loses his job. He is despondent and repeats over and over that he just cannot imagine having to look around for another job again after the struggles he experienced when he was laid off from a full-time position 6 years ago. Leon talks to his colleague Ann about how he struggles to focus on his work and how he just lost an account because of his preoccupation with the uncertainty over his job, career, and family.

Ann has been a full-time employee for 2 years. She is 30 years old, a lesbian, and working on her master's degree. She fears she will be downsized or asked to take an unappealing position within the company. Her partner of 5 years is happy living in what they consider a gay-friendly community, and she does not want to move. Ann discloses that she too has been preoccupied and not doing her best work for the department lately. Although Ann has her own concerns, she listens and helps Leon understand how much he has contributed to a series of important projects and how he has demonstrated skills that the company increasingly needs. Leon and Ann acknowledge feeling alone and unable to share their fear and insecurity with other employees or with their supervisor. They both feel a lack of guidance from their supervisor and the company with regard to how to position themselves for possible transition. Leon decides to take advantage of his employee assistance program and seek out counseling services.

Graduate students learning about career counseling and practitioners who provide career services need to know how to assist individuals like Leon and Ann. In the uncertainty of today's workplace, career counselors are increasingly called upon to help clients navigate work and life situations, which are typically in a state of flux. Every client's experience is embedded in a cultural context, which is a factor that makes each client's experience unique. Thus we may also inquire: How might Leon and Ann's culture and context influence their experience at work? The most effective counseling approach for Leon and Ann requires extending the postmodern perspective in general to career counseling in particular. Postmodern Career Counseling: A Handbook of Culture, Context, and Cases demonstrates how counselors can holistically apply postmodern career assessment and counseling to clients like Leon and Ann in their social and cultural contexts.

We believe there remains a need for scholarly publications within the counseling profession that highlight the usefulness of the most prominent career counseling models and methods derived from postmodern epistemologies and that also represent a range of diverse populations. For this book, we operationally define the phrase postmodern career counseling to include career counseling paradigms and processes derived from the epistemologies of contemporary psychological constructivism, social constructionism, and narrative. We adopt Savickas's (2011a) definition of career counseling as “career intervention that uses psychological methods to foster self-exploration as a prelude to choosing and adjusting to an occupation” (p. 151). We conceptualize culture as the personal meaning and interpretations clients ascribe to such variables as race, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion/spirituality, socioeconomic status, and intersecting identities. Context denotes the influences and interactions that make and remake the individual, such as socioeconomic status, workplace, employment market, educational institutions, geographical location, peers, political decisions, family, historical trends, media, globalization, and community groups (culture, context, and intersecting identities are discussed in more detail in the Introduction). Thus, cultural context becomes essential as the labor force in the United States becomes more diverse, with marked increases in the number of women, non-White, immigrant, and older workers (Arabandi, 2015).

This text demonstrates how postmodern career counseling can meet the needs of individuals preparing for and participating in the new world of work, which has been shaped by the digital revolution and a global economy. The models and methods presented in this book are designed for clients who live in fluid societies, work in flexible organizations, and socialize in multicultural contexts. Within these chapters, you will find theory-based models and methods that students and practitioners may use to counsel clients who have difficulty coping with career transitions, career tasks such as occupational choice, and work traumas (e.g., layoff, illness, and termination).

Purpose of the Book

We have provided practitioner-friendly resources to help counselors, career practitioners, and students provide career counseling with diverse clients. Two foundational issues underlie the need for this book: (a) update existing career assessment and intervention to respond to the occupational landscape of the 21st century, and (b) expand the multicultural scope of career counseling through career models and processes drawing upon psychological constructivist and social constructionist epistemologies.

First, as the world of work has been restructured, there remains a need to help clients build meaning, build purpose, and revise identity by augmenting traditional career counseling with psychological constructivist and social constructionist principles. As Emmett and McAuliffe (2011) noted, “Constructivist career counseling is, in fact, the most relevant approach to contemporary career counseling in the context of current socioeconomic and workplace realities” (p. 210). Twentieth-century theories that helped guide and prepare people for careers, although quite useful for their time, benefit from being supplemented with a pattern of practices that fully address the needs of today's workers.

Second, career counseling must encompass broader conceptions of multicultural career counseling. Multiculturalism has become a potent force, stimulating counselors to understand the unique beliefs and truths people from different cultural groups construct about themselves and their life experiences. The 21st century has witnessed new models of career counseling designed for multicultural contexts. This new force, rooted in constructivism and social constructionism, has gained a substantial presence in career counseling and vocational psychology. Nevertheless, some may wonder about the place of multicultural career counseling models within these epistemologies.

Many of the postmodern career counseling models and methods presented in this book are culturally based because they draw upon constructivist and social constructionist epistemologies. Essentially, postmodern approaches in counseling and therapy inherently support and advance culturally sensitive career counseling and assessment (Leong & Hartung, 2000). To insert multicultural models into postmodern paradigms such as narrative, career construction, life design, systems theory, and relational career theory appears unnecessary because multiculturalism is intrinsically present—if applied within the spirit of the epistemology. Nevertheless, counselors should be alert to infusing cultural models such as cultural theory (e.g., Stead, 2004) into career counseling models and methods that privilege the constructivist or interpersonal dimension of career counseling.

The postmodern models and methods that utilize the constructivist or interpersonal dimension of postmodern career counseling may benefit from using the guiding principles of cultural theory to critique multicultural context. Cultural theory emphasizes the importance of language, meaning making, relationship, and power relations (Stead, 2004). The models and methods in this book are based on either a psychological constructivist or social constructionist epistemology, or both, and in varying degrees. Depending on degree, they pay attention to social context, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability, age, religion/spirituality, and so on with social constructionism at the extreme. We encourage you to view these two epistemologies on a continuum and determine where the infusion of cultural models would be beneficial.

Postmodern career counseling is a philosophical and psychological framework from which to work. Career counseling becomes not so much a procedure but a philosophical framework for guiding the work of counselor and client. For example, such an expanded view reveals how clients entwine their personal narratives and identities with the stories that saturate their sociohistorical context (Savickas, 2011b). Counselors using postmodern models and methods seek to identify and give voice to the personal story, the local history, the grounded experience, and the marginalized instance. Pope (2010) suggested that “the nuances that lead to assisting adults in mastering their career issues are quite important and can be a detriment in achieving successful outcomes” (p. 731). Thus, we emphasize cultural context, relationship factors, the narrative paradigm, and qualitative assessment to help clients adapt to the changing nature of work in the 21st century. Although we provide examples of career and work issues with clients from various cultures, it is not possible to include examples from all cultures. In-depth discussion of cultures is beyond the scope of this book and can be found in other sources (e.g., Lee, 2013; Sue & Sue, 2016).

In this book, we detail the best practices of postmodern career counseling drawn from case studies and from the experiences of practitioners who apply the models and methods they present. It is important to note that postmodern career counseling is a way of thinking or a set of values, which are illustrated throughout this book as a range of possible approaches and activities that are consistent with psychological constructivist and social constructionist perspectives. In addition, we encourage graduate students, practitioners, and educators to use the models and methods as complementary to traditional career theories rather than as the sole intervention for client career and work-related concerns. The theoretical discussions in Parts I and II provide a foundation for the application chapters in Part III, but they also provide educators with a concise review of concepts and principles highlighted in career counseling courses, making this volume useful as a course text.

Unlike other books on career guidance or vocational behavior, our focus is not on research, nor do we provide a critical analysis of the epistemologies discussed. Practice precedes theory, so career theorists must stay close to practice (Savickas, 2011b). Given the alignment of constructivist and qualitative research, this book offers educators, students, and practitioners the necessary foundation to employ strategies of qualitative inquiry on postmodern career counseling. Because it emphasizes the importance of culture and context embedded in the lives of clients, qualitative research can establish a more empathic and closer connection to participants and provide a deeper understanding of their experiences (Gergen, 2015). We encourage methods of inquiry such as firsthand accounts, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, interviews, and narratives to examine the critical questions about working and career development in a postmodern era (Blustein, Kenna, Murphy, DeVoy, & DeWine, 2005). Our hope is that the procedural case study chapters in Part III provide the impetus toward further empirical inquiry.

We have avoided expressing a perspective rooted in extreme postmodern thought. We view the inclusion of postmodern career counseling as a holistic and integral approach to working with clients' career concerns. An extreme constructivist stance would say that all worldviews are arbitrary, all truth is relative and merely culture bound, and there are no universal truths (Wilber, 2000). But a diamond will cut glass, no matter what words we use for the diamond, and no matter what culture we find them in. Our view values pluralism, which embraces the partial truths contained in both the positivist and postpositivist positions (Wilber, 2000). We agree with Wilber's assertion that the goal of postmodern thought is to arrive at an inclusive, integral, and nonexclusionary embrace.

Overview of the Book

The chapters in this book discuss postmodern career counseling models and methods as ways to augment traditional approaches and enrich career counseling with diverse groups. It offers a fresh perspective. The authors have been vetted, invited, and edited to produce deep and accessible work. This handbook is divided into three parts, with an introductory chapter and a concluding chapter to bookend this material. The Introduction sets the scene for the material you will encounter in the book. Part I, Perspectives, introduces the underpinnings of postmodernism and its implications for career counseling. Part II, Principles, provides an overview of multicultural career counseling, social constructionism, and qualitative career counseling. Part III, Procedures, includes 17 chapters divided into three sections that demonstrate the process of postmodern career assessment and counseling intervention embedded in culture and context, each drawing on a client case vignette. The concluding chapter in the book offers some direction for teaching postmodern principles in career counseling.

Introduction

The introductory chapter helps counselors understand the occupational landscape of the 21st century. It provides a brief overview of postmodern career counseling and orients the reader to the message of postmodern thought for career counselors.

Part I: Perspectives

Part I addresses the underpinnings of postmodernism and its implications for career counseling. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the necessity for and underlying concepts of postmodern thought in career counseling. Busacca traces the transformation in the social organization of work during the 20th century. In particular, he discusses how societal and organizational narratives within each work era provided external guides to help workers feel secure and also how these narratives have lost credibility. The chapter includes an overview of factors responsible for precarious work and how such work has diminished the standardized job, changed the psychological contract between worker and employer, and affected people's identities. In Chapter 2, McAuliffe and Emmett discuss the call for career counseling in counselor preparation from a postmodernist perspective. This chapter also discusses five dimensions of postmodern/constructivist career counseling and presents several core qualities of counselors who work from a postmodernist stance.

Part II: Principles

Part II offers an overview of the relationship between multicultural career counseling and postmodern perspectives in career counseling, a discussion of social constructionism and discourse analysis, and a discussion of the use of qualitative career assessment in career counseling. In Chapter 3, Evans and Kelchner present the limitations of traditional multicultural models of career counseling and the scope of multicultural training. In Chapter 4, Stead and Davis focus on social constructionism in career counseling. This chapter emphasizes that knowledge is socially constructed through discourse and is contextually embedded. Also discussed are the roles of power and dominant discourses in diverse clients' presenting of problems and how these may offer a springboard for alternative narratives in the co-construction of meaning in the career counseling relationship. In Chapter 5, Wood and Scully provide an overview of qualitative career assessment and discuss the advantages and potential challenges of qualitative career assessments, followed by an examination of the utilization of qualitative career assessments by the counselor and career practitioner.

Part III: Procedures

Part III provides the perspectives of experts who apply the presented models and methods. These 17 application chapters are organized into three sections based on epistemological perspective: social constructionist, constructivist, and narrative models; variants of social constructionist, constructivist, and narrative models; and systemic and integrative models. Each chapter includes a multicultural case vignette to demonstrate the principles and practices of the given assessment or intervention procedure. A “Practical Application Guide” is included at the end of each chapter to provide a quick way for the reader to search for and review a particular postmodern career counseling model of interest.

Chapters 6 through 16 demonstrate social constructionist, constructivist and narrative-based approaches to career counseling. Informed by the narrative method, Chapter 6 explains the application of the My Career Story autobiographical workbook with an African American high school student. Chapter 7 presents an application of the My Career Chapter with a Malaysian engineer. This narrative–autobiographical approach is based in psychological constructivism. Chapters 8 and 9 cover group-based modalities. Chapter 8 looks at constructivist group career counseling with low-income, first-generation college students. The method is based on the Life Design Group model and career construction theory. Chapter 9 presents the use of early recollections in providing career counseling interventions to offenders using a group format. Chapter 10 demonstrates narrative counseling through the storied approach to career co-construction with an older female client. Chapter 11 uses the genogram as a narrative-based intervention with an economically disadvantaged client, and Chapter 12 demonstrates the use of constructivist-based Life Role Analysis with a transgender client. Chapters 13 and 14 emphasize human subjectivity, meaning making, and individuality. Chapter 13 discusses an Asian American female in relation to personal construct psychology. Consistent with the personal construct system, Chapter 14 demonstrates the use of vocational card sorts with a Latina client, and Chapter 15 explores Possible Selves Mapping with a Mexican American prospective first-generation college student. Chapter 16 is drawn from life design theory and applies the Life Design Genogram to an Italian female transitioning to the world of work in the United States.

Chapters 17 through 19 demonstrate variants of social constructionist, constructivist, and narrative models. The term variant refers to models initially derived from either psychological constructivism or social constructionism but that divert from the more common models in theory integration and application. Chapter 17 illustrates a relational cultural career assessment and provides a holistic approach for gathering information to inform career counseling interventions. This model emphasizes the centrality of culture and other forms of diversity in relationships and is based in constructivist meaning-making principles and the social constructionist perspective. Chapter 18 demonstrates the use of solution-focused career counseling, which originated from constructivist thought, with a male military veteran. Chapter 19 presents an application of the One Life Tools narrative framework with an East Asian woman, using face-to-face and Web-based interactions. The framework is based on constructivist meaning-making principles and draws from various theories and models such as narrative, positive psychology, cognitive methods, happenstance approach, and chaos theory of careers.

Chapters 20 through 22 demonstrate systemic and integrative approaches to postmodern career counseling with an emphasis on contextualism. Chapter 20 presents an application of the My System of Career Influences (MSCI) with a Black South African adult male. The MSCI is metatheoretical, based on systems theory and guided by constructivist and narrative meaning-making principles. Chapter 21 uses the action theory of career assessment with clients with chronic illness and disability. Action theory is informed by the social constructionist perspective and narrative. Informed by constructivist meaning-making principles and systems theory, Chapter 22 applies the chaos theory of careers to the case of a female African American college student.

Conclusion

The concluding chapter , by Busacca and Rehfuss, summarizes the central concepts and themes inherent in postmodern career counseling discussed throughout this book and offers teaching suggestions for counselor educators and others who teach career counseling courses.

Some Final Thoughts

Our hope is that this collection of writings invites and inspires students, practitioners, and instructors of career counseling and those in counselor education to explore, apply, and teach postmodern career counseling in the cultures and contexts in which clients' working lives are embedded. Perhaps one of the case studies in this handbook will resonate with you. Whether you are beginning your journey in the counseling field or are a seasoned practitioner, this handbook will serve as a resource when you begin the task of helping yourself and others build work and career as an integral part of life imbued with meaning and purpose.

References

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Working in America: Continuity, conflict, and change in a new economic era

(4th ed., pp. 69–87). Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

Blustein, D., Kenna, A. C., Murphy, K. A., DeVoy, J. E., & DeWine, D. B. (2005). Qualitative research in career development: Exploring the center and margins of discourse about careers and working.

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, 351–370.

Emmett, J., & McAuliffe, G. J. (2011). Teaching career development. In G. J. McAuliffe & K. Eriksen (Eds.),

Handbook of counselor preparation: Constructivist, developmental, and experiential approaches

(pp. 209–228). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Gergen, K. J. (2015).

An invitation to social construction

(3rd ed.). London, England: Sage.

Lee, C. C. (2013).

Multicultural issues in counseling: New approaches to diversity

(4th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Leong, F. T. L., & Hartung, P. J. (2000). Adapting to the changing multicultural context of career. In A. Collin & R. A. Young (Eds.),

The future of career

(pp. 212–227). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Pope, M. (2010). Career counseling with diverse adults. In J. G. Ponterotto, J. M. Casas, L. A. Suzuki, & C. M. Alexander (Eds.),

Handbook of multicultural counseling

(3rd ed., pp. 731–744). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Savickas, M. L. (2011a).

Career counseling

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Savickas, M. L. (2011b). New questions for vocational psychology: Premises, paradigms, and practices.

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, 251–258.

Stead, G. B. (2004). Culture and career psychology: A social constructionist perspective.

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Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2016).

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About the Editors

Louis A. Busacca, PhD, received his doctorate in counseling and human development from Kent State University and holds licensure as a professional counselor in Ohio and as a national certified counselor. He received special recognition as a master career counselor from the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and is certified in clinical rational hypnotherapy from the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.

He is currently an adjunct assistant professor of counseling and human services at Old Dominion University and college counselor and adjunct professor of psychology at Lakeland Community College. Prior to this, he was adjunct professor of counseling for Youngstown State University and an instructor at Northeast Ohio Medical University. Dr. Busacca has 7 years' experience as an administrator in higher education as program director for the U.S. Department of Education's TRiO Veterans Upward Bound in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Busacca was a member of the board of directors for the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). He served as president of the Ohio Career Development Association and served on several committees for CACREP and American Counseling Association. He was on the editorial board of Counselor Education and Supervision, and the Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, served asad hoc reviewer for The Career Development Quarterly, andcurrently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Counselor Practice of the Ohio Counseling Association. He is an active member of the American Counseling Association, NCDA, and Ohio Counseling Association.

Dr. Busacca's interests include postmodern paradigms in career counseling, counselor trainee development, counselor education and supervision, stress, coping and trauma, and the neurobiology of depression and anxiety. He has peer-reviewed publications in the areas of constructivist career counseling, career assessment and counseling, counselor trainee career development, and neurobiology in counselor preparation.

Mark C. Rehfuss, PhD,received his doctorate in counseling and human development from Kent State University and holds licensure as a professional clinical counselor in Ohio and as a professional counselor in Virginia. He is currently an associate professor and director of the human services distance program in the Department of Counseling and Human Services at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Dr. Rehfuss is an editorial board member of The Career Development Quarterly, the Journal of Employment Counseling, and the Virginia Counselors Journal and is an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Vocational Behavior. He has served as chair of the NCDA Research Committee and as president of the Virginia Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and is currently treasurer of the National Organization of Human Services. He has 21 years of experience in higher education administration, curriculum development, and counselor education. He has over 35 peer-reviewed publications and has delivered numerous professional presentations at international and national conferences.

Dr. Rehfuss's research interests include career counseling and guidance, narrative career interventions, counselor education and supervision, online learning, and the integration of the helping professions within family medicine.

Dr. Rehfuss is an active member of the American Counseling Association, NCDA, Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and the Virginia Counseling Association.

About the Contributors

Tina Anctil, PhD,

is department chair and an associate professor in the Department of Counselor Education at Portland State University. She is a certified rehabilitation counselor and licensed professional counselor. She directs the clinical rehabilitation counseling program and has been a practicing rehabilitation counselor for over 20 years. In her private practice, she specializes in career counseling with individuals with chronic illness and disability.

Susan R. Barclay, PhD,

is an assistant professor and coordinator of the college student personnel services and administration graduate program at the University of Central Arkansas. She received her PhD in higher education from the University of Mississippi. Susan holds the GCDF-I certification, is a licensed professional counselor, and is an approved clinical supervisor. Her research interests include student success, career transitions, and the use of career construction techniques in multiple modalities.

Pamelia E. Brott, PhD,

is an ass

ociate professor and program coordinator for school counseling in the Educational Psychology and Counseling Department at the University of Tennessee at knoxville. Her specific areas of interest are constructivist career counseling and qualitative assessments, the process of learning and becoming a counselor, and demonstrating counselor effectiveness. She has served as president of the Virginia Counselors Association and Virginia Career Development Association.

Janice A. Byrd, MEd,

is a doctoral candidate in counselor education and supervision at the University of Iowa. She is a certified school counselor and global career development facilitator. Her research focuses on promoting social justice and multicultural competency in the fields of school counseling and career counseling.

Brittan L. Davis, MEd,

is a doctoral candidate in the counseling psychology program at Cleveland State University. Her primary research interests include vocational psychology, relational cultural theory, social constructionist and postmodern feminist thought, sexual and gender transgressive minority concerns, intersectionality and identity politics, social justice, mentoring and supervisory relationships, and feminist multicultural and cross-cultural psychology.

Annamaria Di Fabio, PhD,

is a professor of psychology of guidance and career counseling and organizational psychology at the University of Florence, where she is responsible for the Research and Intervention Laboratory of Psychology for Vocational Guidance and Career Counseling. She is editor of the scientific journal

Counseling. Giornale Italiano di Ricerca e Applicazioni

[

Counseling: Italian Journal of Research and Applications

] and coeditor of the French journal

Orientation Scolaire et Professionnelle

. She is general editor of the newsletter of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance. She conducts research and intervention in the areas of counseling psychology, positive psychology, and work and organizational psychology.

Judy Emmett, PhD

, is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. She received her doctorate from Northern Illinois University. Her research and teaching have focused on constructivist career counseling and school counseling.

Kathy M. Evans, PhD,

isan associate professor and counselor education program coordinator at the University of South Carolina. She is a licensed professional counselor and a national certified counselor. She has published widely in career counseling, including her textbook

Gaining Cultural Competence in Career Counseling.

She is the 2015–2018 trustee for counselor educators and researchers for the National Career Development Association.

Rich Feller, PhD,

is a professor of counseling and career development and university distinguished teaching scholar at Colorado State University. He is a past president of the National Career Development Association and a recipient of its eminent award and fellow designation. With the help of many, he is author of numerous publications, assessment tools, and media products and programs.

Mark Franklin, MEd,

leads CareerCycles, a career management social enterprise. A Stu Conger leadership award recipient, he developed the CareerCycles narrative method of practice and has authored related articles and book chapters. His MEd in counseling psychology and BSc are from the University of Toronto. He is a Canadian certified counselor and career management fellow.

Donna M. Gibson, PhD,

is an associate professor and coordinator of the counselor education program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She also works as a part-time counselor. She earned her doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a licensed professional counselor and a national certified counselor.

Seth C. W. Hayden, PhD,

is an assistant professor of counseling at Wake Forest University. Dr. Hayden has provided career and personal counseling in community agencies, secondary school, and university settings. Dr. Hayden's research focuses on the career and personal development of military service members, veterans, and their families. In addition, he explores the connection between career and mental health issues and integrated models of clinical supervision designed to facilitate positive growth in counselors' ability to formulate interventions. Dr. Hayden is a licensed professional counselor in North Carolina and Virginia, a national certified counselor, a certified clinical mental health counselor, and an approved clinical supervisor. In addition, Dr. Hayden is the past-president of the Association for Counselors and Educators in Government (ACEG), a division of the American Counseling Association and a cochair of the research committee for the National Career Development Associationn.

Jessica A. Headley, MA,

is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Ohio and a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education and Supervision Program at the University of Akron. She has coauthored numerous publications on women's and gender issues in counseling, serves as an editorial board member for journals that publish works on gender and multiculturalism, and has held numerous leadership positions in counseling organizations at the state and national levels. Her passion for transgender issues as they relate to career development is exemplified in her scholarship, teaching, and clinical practice.

Viki P. Kelchner, PhD,

is an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida in the counselor education and school psychology department. She is a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist. Dr. Kelchner's research interest and publications focus on families, couples, and supporting at-risk youth and families through school-based family services and intervention programs.

Garrett J. McAuliffe, EdD,

is a university professor of counselor education at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He has been a career counselor. He wrote his dissertation on social learning and career decision making, for which he won the national outstanding dissertation award. He is the author of six books on topics ranging from cultural dimensions of counseling to the teaching of counseling.

Peter McIlveen, PhD,

teaches and researches career development and vocational psychology at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He is a psychologist and a member of the Australian Psychological Society's College of Counselling Psychologists and the Career Development Association of Australia.

Mary McMahon, PhD,

is a senior lecturer in the school of education at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, where she teaches career development theory and narrative career counseling. Professor McMahon has published several books, book chapters, and refereed journal articles nationally and internationally. She researches how people construct their careers across the life span and has a particular interest in the use of storytelling and qualitative career assessment in career counseling.

Rebecca E. Michel, PhD,

is an assistant professor within the division of psychology and counseling at Governors State University, where she teaches and conducts research on career development. She is a licensed clinical professional counselor. As a strengths-based educator, she is passionate about helping people discover and capitalize on their unique personal strengths to enhance educational and career success across the life span.

Delila Lashelle Owens, PhD,

is an associate professor and coordinator of school counseling at the University of Akron. She received her doctorate in counselor education from Michigan State University. Dr. Owens is a licensed school counselor in Ohio and a licensed professional counselor. She is a member of the National Career Development Association's editorial board.

Wendy Patton, PhD,

is an executive dean in the faculty of education at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Patton has taught and researched in the areas of career development and counseling for more than 20 years. She has coauthored and coedited a number of books and is currently series editor of the Career Development Series with Sense Publishers. She has published widely, with more than 150 refereed journal articles and book chapters. She serves on a number of national and international journal editorial boards.

Sneha Pitre, MA,

is a counseling psychology doctoral student at Cleveland State University. She received her MA in counseling psychology from the University of Mumbai, India. Her research interests include multicultural counseling, vocational psychology, advisory and mentoring relationship within academia, international students, and immigrant-related issues.

Varunee Faii Sangganjanavanich, PhD,

is an associate professor in the Department of Counseling at the University of Akron and a licensed professional clinical counselor with supervisor endorsement in the state of Ohio. She has authored and coauthored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and book chapters in the fields of career counseling and development and transgender counseling. She has served as an editorial board member of many peer-reviewed counseling and career development journals and has held multiple leadership positions in state and national counseling organizations.

Mark B. Scholl, PhD,

is an associate professor of counseling at Wake Forest University. He has extensive clinical experience in both career and mental health counseling. His primary research interests involve examining culturally responsive approaches to counseling and supervision, existential counseling and psychotherapy, constructivist approaches to counseling, and career counseling with the ex-offender population and individuals with disabilities. He has served as president of the Association for Humanistic Counseling, is an associate editor of the

Journal of College Counseling,

and has served as editor of the

Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development

.

Donna Schultheiss, PhD,

is a professor of counseling psychology at Cleveland State University. She received the John Holland Award for Outstanding Achievement in Career and Personality Research by Division 17 of the American Psychological Association and the award for most outstanding research contribution in

The Career Development Quarterly

.

Zachary Scully, MEd,

is a doctoral candidate in the counseling program at Old Dominion University. He has a master's in counseling and career development from Colorado State University. He is currently director of the Career and Academic Resource Center in the Darden College of Education. Previously he was the bilingual career counselor and outreach coordinator at University of Northern Colorado career services, Greeley, Colorado.

Graham B. Stead, PhD,

is the director of doctoral studies in the College of Education and Human Services at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio. His research interests are in vocational psychology, social constructionism, discourse analysis, critical psychology, cultural psychology, statistics, and meta-analysis.

Kevin B. Stoltz, PhD

, is an associate professor in the Department of Leadership Studies at the University of Central Arkansas. He is a national certified counselor and approved clinical supervisor. His research interests include career development and counseling, career assessment with early recollections, career transition, and career adaptability.

Cassandra A. Storlie, PhD,

is an assistant professor of counselor education and supervision at Kent State University. She earned her doctorate from the University of Iowa. She is a professional clinical counselor-supervisor and a national certified counselor. Her research includes career development and career counseling of marginalized populations, specifically documented and undocumented Latinos/as and those with disabilities.

Jennifer M. Taylor, PhD,

is an assistant professor of counseling psychology and counseling at West Virginia University. Her research interests include professional competence, multicultural competence, vocational psychology and career counseling, continuing professional development, mentoring, training issues, continuing education, and lifelong learning. She currently serves as vice chair of the Continuing Education Committee of the American Psychological Association.

Julia V. Taylor, MA,

is a licensed school counselor and counselor education and supervision doctoral student at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has published numerous books on relational aggression and body image that have been used by school counselors nationally.

Mark Watson, PhD,

is a distinguished professor at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. Dr. Watson teaches, researches, and practices in the field of career development, counseling, and assessment. He has coauthored and coedited a number of books and published 85 refereed journal articles and 67 book chapters. He serves on several international journal editorial boards.

Christopher Wood, PhD,

is an associate professor in the counseling program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has been involved in more than a dozen research projects totaling more than $3 million in grants that investigated the efficacy of career development interventions in Kindergarden–Grade 12 settings. Dr.Wood is currently editor of the

Professional School Counseling

journal, and he coedited the fifth and sixth editions of

A Counselor's Guide to Career Assessment Instruments.

Acknowledgments

We thank all the contributors to this project and the American Counseling Association for making this book a reality. Thank you to Dr. Mark Savickas and Dr. Paul Hartung for their generous and helpful consultations. Our editorial assistants are Charlie Loudin and Suzanne Savickas.

IntroductionPostmodern Career Counseling: A New Perspective for the 21st Century

Louis A. Busacca and Mark C. Rehfuss

“The teller of a story is primarily, none the less, the listener to it, the reader of it too.”

—Henry James

As society has moved from the high modernity of the 20th century to the postmodernity of the 21st century, existing career theories no longer adequately account for the uncertain and rapidly changing occupational structure. The nature of work and the meaning of career have been restructured and reinvented over the last three decades. Shaped by a global economy and propelled by information technology, the new social arrangement is characterized by uncertain, unpredictable, and risky employment opportunities (Kalleberg, 2009). In addition, organizational restructuring has increasingly altered the mutual expectations between employee and employer, making it difficult for workers to adapt to the changing demands of the new psychological contract (Conway & Briner, 2005). Consequently, many companies today expect their employees to take responsibility for the direction and evolution of their own career pathways (M. B. Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). As established paths and societal narratives disappear, individuals are forced to assume increased responsibility for managing their own lives, which leaves some feeling anxious, depressed, and frustrated.

The transformation that has occurred during postmodern times has made career choices more difficult. In a postmodern era, identities no longer provide meaning as they once did, making occupational commitments problematic (Richardson, 2015). Commitment to an occupational choice is difficult due to lack of stability in social structures. As suggested by Savickas et al. (2009), “Clients and counselors should not concentrate on choice in a world where there is much uncertainty and fewer choices. Instead, they should concentrate on meaning-making through intentional processes in the ongoing construction of lives” (p. 246). This requires that young people, with less external guidance, prepare for life based on their own decisions about purpose and values and that they reflect on their interests, goals, and responsibilities. Some individuals lack a stable framework and may benefit from the collaboration of counselors who understand the occupational landscape of the 21st century.

Postmodern career counseling offers a new paradigm with which to understand the diversity in people's careers and vocational behavior. Twentieth-century theories, which helped guide and prepare people for careers and were quite useful in their time, are more useful today when supplemented by a pattern of practices that fully addresses the needs of today's workers. Career counseling informed by psychological constructivism and social constructionism responds to the call to innovate the modern paradigm for career theory and intervention (Savickas, 2011a). The career models and methods presented in this book are designed for workers who live in fluid societies, work in flexible organizations, and socialize in multicultural contexts.

Precarious Work in a Postmodern Era

New social arrangements of work in the United States and in Western Europe during the last few decades have made career progression more difficult for many people. Organizational restructuring for lower costs and greater efficiencies has resulted in layoffs, unanticipated transfers, offshoring (i.e., contracting out the performance of service sector activities to businesses located beyond U.S. borders), career destabilization, and nonstandardized work contracts (Inkson & Elkin, 2008). Yet, for many people, such transformation results in what Kalleberg (2009) denoted as precarious work or “employment that is uncertain, unpredictable, and risky from the point of view of the worker” (p. 2). Standing (1999) described sources of work insecurity to include loss of a job or fear of losing a job, lack of alternative employment opportunities, and diminished freedom to obtain and maintain particular skills and to advance in a position. According to Standing, possible effects of insecurity include a sense of oppression and exploitation, demoralization, demotivation, and ill health. In the past, precarious work was often described in terms of a dual labor market, with unstable and uncertain jobs concentrated in the secondary labor market (low-skilled, low-wage jobs requiring relatively little training with high labor turnover). Today, precarious work and insecurity have spread to the primary sector of the economy (higher grade, higher status, and better paid jobs) and have become much more pervasive and generalized.

According to data from the Current Population Survey, employment in white-collar occupations accounts for more than one half of total U.S. employment. Some 9 out of 10 white-collar workers are employed in the service sector (e.g., as cooks and servers, cleaners and maintenance workers, hairdressers, child care workers, and police and firefighters), and these jobs represent about four fifths of total U.S. employment (Levine, 2005). This has resulted in a changing mix of occupations, reflected in a decline in blue-collar jobs and an increase in high- and low-wage white-collar occupations. Nevertheless, many white-collar workers also have experienced a transformation in secure employment due to organizational restructuring. Whether this uncertainty affects more white- or blue-collar workers, we face a transformation in which occupation and employment no longer serve to grade and group people to the extent or in the same way that was possible under industrialism. Our interest is in understanding the meaning of the postmodern transformation on individuals today and in presenting this as a trend to help counselors comprehend its characteristics.

Three primary features characterize the difficulty individuals encounter with precarious work. First, permanent jobs increasingly are in short supply in the United States, forcing workers to be part of a temporary workforce. For the most part, during the industrial period jobs were characterized by standardized employment contracts: Individuals worked full-time for a single employer and had opportunities to advance gradually in responsibility and pay (Kalleberg & Leicht, 2002). Today many firms are organized around a nonstandardized employment model, which is a form of flexibility that advocates for a small group of core workers in managerial positions who are augmented by an adjustable number of peripheral workers who make up a contingent, part-time, and temporary workforce (Arabandi, 2015; Kalleberg, 2009). This type of flexibility reduces vertical hierarchies while increasing horizontal management practices within an organization, providing fewer workers with an opportunity for advancement (Arabandi, 2015).

The second feature of the transformation of work arrangements describes the general decline in the average length of time workers remain with their employers. Rather than developing a stable life based on secure employment, most workers today change jobs every 5 years (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). The general assumption has been that a “career” consisted of a succession of permanent, full-time, five-days-a-week, 9-to-5 jobs, which was a value held within hierarchical societies. Now individuals can expect to occupy at least 11 jobs during their lifetime, in part because of being a displaced worker. In particular, the average person born in the later years of the baby boom in the United States (1957–1964) held an average of 11.7 jobs between age 18 and age 48, with nearly half of these jobs being held before age 25 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). Moreover, among jobs started by 40- to 48-year-olds, the Bureau reported that 32% ended in less than a year, and 69% ended in fewer than 5 years. Related to this decline in length of employment is the change in psychological contracts between employee and employer.

A salient trend confronting the contemporary workforce is the new employment relationship between workers and their employers. This has been referred to by organizational psychologists as the psychological contract (Rousseau, 1998). Long-term employment with one organization has become increasingly rare and is characterized by individuals willing to move from job to job. In the 1950s, there was a relational implicit contract (legal in the case of unions) between employee and employer. Workers traded their work hours, labor, and commitment for what was frequently a lifetime job or at least the steady income and job security geared to seniority. Today the psychological contract has been steadily replaced by the transactional explicit contract, and fewer workers can count on guaranteed job security, regardless of their occupational status (Conway & Briner, 2005). For many peripheral workers today, hiring is based in an “at-will” employment relationship, which is predominant in almost all states within the United States. An employer can terminate an at-will employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability; also an employer can change the terms of the employment relationship with no notice and no consequences (Stone, 2007). Workers increasingly feel like independent contractors, having to chart their own career paths. As a result, fewer workers now offer total loyalty to their employers.

The third primary feature involves a change in standardized work hours. Paid work is no longer based on holding a position but on producing a project (Savickas, 2011b). As workers shift from one assignment to another, work schedules change as well, and workers are expected to adjust their hours accordingly. This work role unpredictability has had subsequent effects on family, community, and leisure. Technology and flexibility have intensified work to such an extent that overwork is valued in American culture (Sweet & Meiksins, 2008). For example, if employees do not spend long hours in the office, they fear it might be interpreted as a lack of commitment to the job and might reflect negatively on their aspirations for promotion. Job insecurity and nonstandardized work contracts have heightened anxiety about job loss and unemployment, placing increased demands on workers' performance and productivity (Crowley, Tope, Chamberlain, & Hodson, 2010). These new 21st-century workplace arrangements require career interventions to help people keep pace with the changing structure of work.

The Postmodern Turn in Career Counseling

The postmodern turn in career counseling involves a fundamental change in direction that follows a logical path through its history. In response to the massive changes taking place in the world of work, by the beginning of the 21st century many of the core concepts in vocational psychology were being reexamined and broadened, and new theories were being proposed. The importance of individuals becoming more self-directed in making meaning of the role of work in their lives and managing their careers increased (Richardson, 1996). Career theories and interventions have evolved over time to keep pace with the changing needs of society.

Career counseling paradigms emanated from a perspective taken by society during particular historical periods. As suggested by Guichard (2015), the dominant theories and interventions of career counseling reflect contemporary societal, political, and economic conditions. Yet, as counselors attempted to apply these patterns of practice in their work with clients, career interventions proved insufficient as social, technological, and global changes affected people's working lives. Given the changes in work, career and vocational scholars have proposed a redefinition of the word career to fit the postmodern economy.

To understand the turn to postmodern career counseling, we need to look briefly at three major waves of career theory and intervention (see Hartung, 2013, for a discussion of the major waves). The first wave, initiated in the early 1900s, concerned matching people to jobs (Holland, 1959; Parsons, 1909; Roe, 1956). The second wave, beginning in the mid-20th century, focused on managing worker and other life roles over the life span (Super, 1957, 1980). The third wave, introduced toward the end of the first decade of the 21st century, involves career counseling models and methods with a central focus on meaning making (e.g., Savickas, 2005). The turning point for the third wave of career services was marked by a key event in the history of career counseling and vocational psychology.

In 1994, at the inaugural conference of the Society for Vocational Psychology, Arnold Spokane posed this question: Where is the counseling in career counseling? Two major paradigms for career intervention were in use in the 20th century: vocational guidance and career education. Holland's (1959) congruence theory of vocational personality types and work environments brought the matching model to its peak. Vocational guidance rests on enhancing self-knowledge, increasing occupational information, and securing occupational fit. The overriding goal of vocational guidance was to promote the adjustment outcomes of success, satisfaction, and stability (Savickas, 2011b). Career education rests on a predictable trajectory of developmental tasks. Educational methods orient students, young adults, and groups to imminent tasks of vocational development and ways to cope with them (Savickas, 2011b). The Career Maturity Inventory–Revised (Crites & Savickas, 1996) was designed to measure career attitudes and competencies (Busacca & Taber, 2002), or readiness to engage in career tasks. For example, teaching and fostering the mature attitudes and competencies required to prepare students for a career can help in the transition from high school to college or to the work world. Although useful for preparing individuals for imminent and predictable career tasks, career education cannot be expanded to address the needs of flexible organizations and fluid societies (Savickas, 2011b).

Vocational guidance and career education interventions were successful solutions to the pressing social needs of their times. Vocational guidance met a societal need in the early to mid-20th century as a result of the changes in work organization and in the scientific models within which research questions were formulated (Guichard, 2015). Career education, based on Super's (1957) theory of vocational development, emerged in the mid-20th century to address the question of how to advance a career in one hierarchical organization or profession. Career education relates to predictability, stability, and societal expectations. When Super approached the relationship between individuals and work from a developmental perspective, a new form of work organization appeared as a consequence of production automation. That is, long-standing work teams formed a functional network (Dubar, 1998), and employers offered their loyal employees a career within a hierarchical organization wherein they could climb the ladder of success.

Because developmental career theory is rooted in assumptions of stability of personal characteristics and secure jobs in bounded organizations, a career was conceptualized as a progressive sequence of stages. Concepts such as vocational identity, career planning, career development, and career stages were each used to help people advance in work environments with relatively high stability and clear career paths. Although valuable and effective for their intended purpose, these theories do not adequately account for the uncertain and rapidly changing occupational structure today—nor do they address the needs of peripheral workers (Savickas, 2011b). A focus on career counseling rather than on career development became the distinguishing feature of the postmodern move in career theory and intervention.

Career counseling, the third wave, began to distinguish itself from vocational guidance and career education primarily through the integration of a process-oriented, subjective, and emotional domain. Vocational scholars such as Miller-Tiedeman and Tiedeman (1990) began to challenge the objective views of career development evident in earlier theories. Tiedeman has been described as the first postmodern career counselor (Richmond, Savickas, Harris-Bowlsbey, Feller, & Jepsen, 2006). The subjective process of career development focuses more on the characteristics of a quality counseling relationship (Bedi, 2004; Granvold, 1996). Because emotions are embedded in all aspects of the client's experiences, the subjective nature of emotion is particularly suited to career theory and to the emphasis on intervention in psychological constructivism and social constructionism (Hartung, 2011). Emotions show prominently in motivational processes related to career counseling methods such as narrative career counseling, use of early recollections, career construction counseling, and areas of life designing. The move from individual differences and resemblance of types to individuality, uniqueness, and context has begun. The emphasis on the subjective aspects of career choice and development became known as career counseling, and it generated a paradigm shift in vocational guidance.

As a result of this shift in the career field, new theories, propositions, and discussions emerged. An identifiable collection of career counseling models infused with narrative, psychological constructivism, and social constructionism can be organized into three categories. One category contains models based in psychological constructivism, such as sociody-namic