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CHAPTE R 11
Constructivist and Narrative

Approaches to Career
Development
THEORY Narrative approaches have been derived from constructivism. Constructivism is a

OU T L I N E psychological approach that has developed out of a philosophical position, post-
NARRATIVE modernism. Followers of the postmodern philosophy believe that individuals
COUNSELING construct or perceive their own reality or truth, and there is no fixed truth
COCHRAN’S (Neimeyer & Stewart, 2002). Postmodernism is a reaction to modernism, which
NARRATIVE CAREER takes a rationalist approach that emphasizes scientific proof and is a reflection of
COUNSELING
advances in technology and science. Postmodernism reflects a multiculturally
Elaborating a Career diverse world in which psychologists, counselors, philosophers, and others have
Problem
recognized that different individuals can have their own construct or view of
Composing a Life
History
what is real for them.
Related to postmodernism is constructivism. Constructivists view individuals
Eliciting a Future
Narrative as creating their own views of events and relationships in their lives. Construc-
tivist counselors attend not only to the meanings that their clients give to their
Reality Construction
own problems, but they also help clients see problems as meaningful options that
Changing a Life
Structure are no longer helpful. Constructivist counselors deal with the ways in which their
clients impose their own order on their problems and how they derive meanings
Enacting a Role
from their experiences with others.
Crystallizing a
Decision
There are two somewhat different views on constructing one s view of the
world: constructivism and social construction. Constructivist theories of counsel-
SAVICKAS’S CAREER
CONSTRUCTION ing and therapy owe their origins to the work of George Kelly (1955; Fransella,
THEORY Dalton, & Weselby, 2007). Kelly believed that personal constructs are ways that
Vocational individuals interpret and view their lives and individuals careers are a major
Personality- means of giving role clarity and meaning to their lives. This focus on how indi-
Holland’s Theory
viduals think and how they process what they learn is referred to as constructiv-
Developmental Tasks sm Social construction focuses on how interactions with others affect people
of Career Adaptability
views of the world and the actions that they take as a result of their views (Del
Dimensions of Career
Adaptability
Corso & Rehfuss, 2011; Hartung & Taber, 2008; Hartung, 2011; Young & Collin,
2004; Young, Marshall, Valach, et al., 2011). Thus, social constructionists exam-
Life Themes
ine how people fit into the world of work and how people fit the world of work
into their lives (Brott, 2005; Chen, 2006; Savickas, 2002, 2005a, 2005b, 2011a,
2011b, 2011c; Stebleton, 2010).
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3
296 Part III Special Focus Theories
Career Counseling Much of the work on constructivist approaches to career counseling has been
using the Career
Construction done since the 1980s. One reason for this is that the structure of occupations has
Interview and Theory changed since the 1970s. There was a time when individuals might spend their
whole life in one occupation and job. Now, there is less loyalty by companies to
employees, more downsizing, and more workers who are hired in a part-time
capacity or as consultants. As Savickas (2005b, 2011a) points out, the notion of
matching people with positions is no longer as attractive as it once was because
individuals are changing occupations more frequently. Rather than corporations
being managers of people s careers, individuals themselves must manage their
careers. Counselors can be helpful to clients by helping them draw meaning
from their own lives, not just by understanding an organization. In the postmod-
ern age, careers now take twists and turns that did not occur before the 1970s.
The career counselor then focuses on careers not as lifetime employment but as a
way of providing meaning to individuals.
This chapter describes two different constructivist approaches to career counsel-
ing: narrative counseling and career construction theory. Each of these ap-
proaches shares an emphasis on understanding clients values or constructs (the
way they see the world). In the narrative approach, the client is seen as an active
player in a story. Cochran s (1997) seven-episode counseling method shows how
clients can actively understand their own career story and apply this understand-
ing to actively constructing the future of their careers. Career construction theory
(Savickas 2002, 2005a, 2011a, 2012) draws from Super, Holland, and other theo-
ries to develop an integrative therapy that relies on a narrative approach to ca-
reer counseling that influences both the assessment of the client and the way in
which career counseling takes place. Savickas describes a structured approach
that is influenced by the psychotherapeutic theory of Alfred Adler, a contempo-
rary of Sigmund Freud. Cochran s and Savickas s approaches are quite different
from each other in that Cochran uses no other theories than narrative in his
method of career counseling. Savickas, on the other hand, integrates narrative
counseling with other career development theories. Savickas has been criticized
by narrative therapists as allowing theoretical ideas to get in the way of under-
standing the client s story and history. Savickas counters that criticism by show-
ing how listening to the client s story is the first priority in his theory and that he
uses theory to provide more ways of thinking about the client both to the coun-
selor and to the client. Therefore, both Cochran and Savickas provide a way of
understanding the client as well as suggestions for counseling the client.
Narrative Counseling
In narrative counseling, clients narrate, or tell about, their past and present career devel-
opment and construct their future career. Listening to clients describe their lives and
how they enact the work role helps the counselor assist the clients in future career deci-
sion making. This is an active approach that attends to how clients intentionally interact
with their world and learn about it through these interactions (Young et al., 2008;
Young, Marshall, Foulkes et al., 2011; Young, Marshall, & Valach, 2007). The narrative
Chapter 11: Constructivist and Narrative Approaches to Career Development 297
model is similar to that of a play or psychodrama, in which individuals enact their lives.
The career is seen as a story.
Brott (2001, 2005) and Cochran (1991, 1994, 1997) suggest that the metaphor of
viewing a client s career as a story is an excellent metaphor for counseling. Meaning
can be derived from these stories by attending to what clients feel is important or unim-
portant in their description of their life or career. Like stories, careers contain two im-
portant elements: action and time. The client acts or interacts with his or her
environment within a time frame.
Viewing the client s career as a story, or possibly even a novel, allows the application
of concepts from literary criticism (Jepsen, 1992). The narrator or author of the story
(the client) is referred to as the agent There is a setting in which the story occurs,
much like the background or scenery in a play. However, the setting also includes impor-
tant people such as family, friends, and colleagues at work. Like a play or a story, there is
action that is designed to reach a goal that will satisfy the needs of the agent (client). The
agent then uses an nstrument to reach the goal. Instruments can include one s abilities,
friends, family, or employers. This is similar to a novel where characters interact with
each other to achieve a goal, and action takes place as the protagonist (major character)
interacts with others in the environment (the setting) to achieve a goal. From Jepsen
point of view, problems arise when the instruments and goals do not match, the actions
and goals do not match, or the client (agent) and the goals do not match.
Savickas (2011b) looks at the role of the client (agent) from a developmental perspec-
tive as well as a constructivist perspective. From Savickas s point of view, the individual
first is an actor, then an agent, and thirdly becomes an author. As actors children per-
form roles in the family and later at school. They ct in certain ways with family mem-
bers and peers. The children develop their personality in this way by interacting with
others. As they get older, they start to set goals for themselves and to make progress in
meeting these goals. In this way, they are agents, as they regulate their own behavior.
Then they become authors of their lives. They integrate action and agency to be able to
tell their own unique stories. As authors they become aware of the story that they are
living.
When there are problems in the career story, difficulties in decision making, such as
career indecision, often occur. From a narrative perspective, indecision can be seen posi-
tively, that is, as a sign that the client is in the process of making change. Clients are
losing a sense of where they are in their story of their life, and they do not have a clear
idea of where they are going and their goals. By examining the indecision and sensing
the meaning that takes place before acting (choosing an occupation), clients can get a
fuller sense of their career pattern. Career indecision is seen as an active process, not as
something that happens to the client in a passive manner. Cochran (1991) uses the term
wavering. When clients waver back and forth, they are moving toward finding meaning
in their career path. This presents an opportunity for counselors to help clients clarify
their needs, values, and aspirations. That is, there is a pause in the story, and the coun-
selor s role is to help clients determine the future direction of their story and to clarify
the plots within the story. This may mean a change in setting (for example, another ca-
reer or job, a move to another location) and a plan of how to reach this setting or
situation
To assist clients in working with their story, both Cochran and Savickas apply an ap-
proach that is a part of Savickas s concept of life designing (Savickas et al., 2009; Savickas,
2012). This approach involves attending to the construction of stories through four
phases: constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing, and co-constructing. Construction
starts with small stories, called micronarratives. These stories help the counselor see
how clients organize their view of themselves, their identity, and their career. Listening
to a microstory, the counselor deconstructs it by listening to parts of the story that indi-
cate self-criticism and self-limitations, as well as cultural barriers. The counselor and cli-
ent then econstruct the microstory into one that has positive outcomes and in which the
values and strengths of the client are present. In co-construction, a macronarrative
emerges from many micronarratives, and the client and counselor develop a tentative
portrait of the client s life and a theme of the client s career (present and future). As a
result of co-construction, the client has a new perspective on career prospects and is
ready to face the challenges of applying for work and entering the labor force. Construct-
ing, deconstructing, reconstructing, and co-constructing apply both to the client s story-
telling and the client s discussion of goals.
Storytelling
In narrative counseling, both client and counselor learn from the client s narration of the
story. Like a story, the client s narration has a beginning, middle, and end. In the begin-
ning, the difficult or troubling situation is described. This provides the motivation for the
middle and end of the story. In the middle of the story, the client describes the obstacles
and instruments that may be used in working toward reaching a personal goal. In the
end, the counselor and client work together to develop solutions that will help to provide
contentment and to reach a goal that will satisfy the client. In using this approach, there
are some goals that are implicit in the narrative approach.
Goals of Assessment in Narrative Counseling

The counselor listens through much of the story, sorting out significant data. A guideline
is needed for the counselor to know what data are important and what data are of less
importance. In a sense, the counselor is like an editor, putting together the significant
parts of the story in order, emphasizing some, and deleting others. This story will include
an emphasis on the client s past life, the current way the client sees himself or herself,
and future plans or desires. As an editor, the counselor has several goals in assessing
the client s life patterns.
One goal in listening to a narrative is to identify a pattern in the clients lives. The
counselor focuses not on a chronology of events but on the meaning of those events.
For example, a chronology might read, Started work in a hardware store November 3,
2000. Left job April 17, 2001. In contrast, a story might read, Started job in hardware
store November 3, 2000. Liked my coworkers but not my boss. Was fired for stealing
ammunition from the ammo locker on April 17, 2001. In the brief story, much more
information is told than is implied in the chronology. The stealing and not liking the
boss connect having the job with being fired from the job. Still, there is a need for
more information. Thus, stories explain the meaning and events. This brief story would
be one of many that the counselor would listen to in attempting to identify the pattern in
an individual s life. There are likely to be many plots besides the brief one described here.
Another goal of assessment is for the client and counselor to form a sense of the cli-
nt s identity (LaPointe, 2010; Savickas, 2011c). The client s identity consists of both the
story that the client tells and the client s approach to telling the story. The client is active
in the story, and the client is the protagonist, or object, of the story. In this way, the
client s personality is formed. The counselor s view of the client s personality is the
object. The counselor learns about clients by the way they tell their story: Is it brief and
choppy? Do the clients put themselves down? Do they make excuses? In this way, the
clients concepts of themselves are the subject. Listening to clients describe their stories
and listening to the unfolding of the story helps the counselor to get a sense of who
the client is that is, the client identity or the self of identity. The process of telling
the story and shaping it to fit the client s sense of identity is referred to as the project by
Savickas (2011b). Helping the client form a sense of identity is important both in Co-
chran s seven-episode counseling method as well as Savickas s career construction
theory.
Another goal in listening to the narrative and assessing it is to learn about the client
goals for the future. When counseling is ending, the plot line should be extended beyond
the past and present into the future. To do this, counselors need to help clarify the
choices that are available to clients. Tasks are likely to include generating alternative
choices and explaining decisions to be made. Tools that may be helpful in this process
are describing occupational daydreams, writing one s future biography, and writing one
own obituary (Savickas, 1991). At this point, the focus on assessment changes to that of
counseling. Certainly, some aspects of counseling occur during the assessment phase, as
clients are learning more about themselves, their skills, interests, abilities, and desires
through the assessment phase.
Cochran’s Narrative Career Counseling

To understand the application of narrative counseling to career counseling, I will explain
Cochran s (1997) approach, which is described in his book, Career Counseling: A Narra-
tive Approach. In his book, Cochran describes seven episodes or phases in career
counseling using a narrative point of view. The first three episodes emphasize making
meaning out of the career narrative: elaborating a career problem, composing a life his-
tory, and founding a future narrative. Episodes four through six focus on enactment or
being active: constructing a reality, changing a life structure, and enacting a role. The
seventh episode refers to the crystallization of a decision. The seven episodes are listed
here:
Elaborating a career problem
2 Composing a life history
3 Eliciting a future narrative
4 Reality construction
5 Changing a life structure
6 Enacting a role
7 Crystallizing a decision
Dennis s situation is used here as an example to illustrate Cochran s narrative career
counseling approach.
A 25-year-old White man, Dennis has sought career counseling because he is dissatis-
fied with his current employment. He is an assistant manager in a grocery store where he
has worked on and off since high school. When he graduated high school at 18 years old,
Dennis entered the Navy, where he worked in radio communications. He left the Navy at
the age of 22. At first, Dennis thought joining the Navy would be fun, and he would get
a chance to see the world. However, he was not prepared for what he believed was much
routine work as a communications technician. He had some regrets about not entering
an officer s training program, but then decided he wanted to leave the Navy. After leav-
ing the Navy and returning to his home in Iowa City, Dennis went back to the super-
market where he had been employed when he was a high school student. He spends
most of his spare time racing cars and preparing them for races in the local area. He
has thought that he might want to go to college so that he can enter into a management
position in the supermarket or retail field, but he is not sure. Because narrative counsel-
ing is a thorough approach, only parts of his interaction with the counselor can be illus-
trated here.
Elaborating a Career Problem

The first step in narrative counseling is to clarify the client s concerns. The gap between
what the current situation is and what the client wants it to be is the start of counseling
(Cochran, 1985). Not only must there be a gap between the ideal and the actual, but the
client must also want to do something about this discrepancy. Also, the client should be
uncertain about how to bridge the gap. If the client were certain, then there would be no
need for counseling. To elaborate a career problem, the counselor and client work to fill
in the middle between the current reality and the future ideal.
There are a number of ways to elaborate on the problem and fill in the middle. The
counselor s interest in the client s story shows that he or she cares about the client and
the problem that the client is sharing with the counselor. Although ordinary conversa-
tion is a primary way of elaborating the career problem, there are other ways. The Voca-
tional Card Sort, described next, helps the counselor and client understand the
constructs that the client uses in viewing his own life.
The Vocational Card Sort (VCS) was developed by Tyler (1961) and then refined by
Dolliver (1967). Basically, the VCS is a group of 100 cards with the name of an occupa-
tion on one side and information about the occupation, such as a description and entry
requirements, on the other side. Some counselors have developed their own card sorts
using just occupational titles or other information. Typically, these card sorts include 60
to 100 cards. Clients are asked to sort the cards into three piles: occupations they would
consider or find acceptable, those that they would not choose, and those they are uncer-
tain about. Some counselors may use the card sort technique to choose from a group of
occupations to consider for a possible career. However, Cochran (1997) uses the card
sort to derive constructs or values for the client and counselor to consider.
In using a constructivist approach to the card sort, the counselor asks the client to first
divide the pile into accept, maybe, and reject. Then, working either with the accept or reject
pile, the counselor asks the client to divide that pile into as many piles as the client wants,
which reflects a common reason for rejection (or acceptance). When the client has divided
the cards into piles, the counselor asks what the jobs in each pile have in common. Then
the counselor asks the client, What is it about these jobs that you reject (or accept)?
When the client describes the reason for rejecting or accepting a pile of occupations,
the counselor may ask more questions or summarize what the client has said. The coun-
selor is attempting to determine the values or constructs that are important to the client.
This procedure is followed for the accept and reject piles. Cochran (1997, p. 45) gives
some examples of constructs that he has obtained as a result of using this process:
Be your own person, more individualistic
Too much conformity, too controlling

Confident in practical work with mechanics and electricity
Lack talent in artistic work

Authority and prestige, being looked up to
Restricted, being looked down on

Being able to take credit for good results
Fear of being held accountable for bad results

Using the card sort this way, the counselor and client can discuss the constructs that
were developed as a result of using this procedure. They may also want to discuss the
occupations in the accept or reject pile and how they fit with the constructs. Thus, the
client learns about jobs and also learns about himself or herself.
Another technique is that of drawing. This is an intuitive approach that usually starts
with having the individual relax or use guided meditation (Dail, 1989). The client can be
instructed to draw pictures or symbols that represent What I am, that is, a representa-
tion of the actual situation currently facing the client. Two other pictures, What I d like
to be and What hinders me, represent the middle of the story. The fourth picture,
What will overcome the obstacle, can be used to see the ending of the story that is,
how the client would like to be in the future. This approach fits closely with Cochran
(1997) narrative approach to assessment.
A technique that fits in well with the narrative approach is that of anecdotes These
are short stories that individuals tell that help the counselor understand aspects of
clients lives. The client may tell an anecdote, followed by the counselor and client
working together to see its importance and how it fits into a career pattern. In inter-
preting this story, the counselor wants to be as precise as possible and not just make
a generalization.
The following is an example of Dennis telling an anecdote to his counselor:
CL: When I get home from work at the store, my father always has some wise guy thing
to say.
CO: Oh, tell me more about that. [The counselor wants to hear this story, even though it
is short.]
CL: Well, a few days ago after I came home from work, he says to me, How are all the
rotten apples.
CO: Sounds like that had several meanings for you.
CL: Yeah. He doesn t think much of the people I work with. He hears me talk about these
40-year-old men and women who are still working in the produce or other sections,
and he doesn t think that they did much with their lives. He is also talking about one
guy, I think, who was in prison for a while and now is working at the store. On top of
all that, he likes to tease me about the quality of the vegetables and fruits themselves.
He can really be a pain.
CO: You get tired of hearing his negative comments about your work and your colleagues.
CL: I sure do. It s happened again and again. It makes me think that he has no confidence
in me, no confidence in my ability to do well in life.
CO: That really hits home for you, a real sore spot. [The counselor is aware that Dennis
has some of the same feelings himself, and it bothers him to have that theme touched
on by his father.]
CL: Yes, you know I am concerned that I am not advancing, that I am not doing more
with my life. To hear my father make comments about what I am doing sometimes
distracts me by getting me angry at him instead of working on what I need to do with
myself.
Dennis shares many other similar anecdotes with his counselor. Together, Dennis and
the counselor work to see how such incidents are woven together and fit in with a
theme.
Another technique that can be used with clients is the résumé (Toporek & Flamer,
2009). Although it might seem that the résumé should be used during one of Cochran
last episodes, not his first, the résumé can be used to identify chapters in one s working
life, with each job being a chapter. The counselor can deconstruct a résumé by looking
for vagueness or confusion in the client s discussion and see if there are feelings of weak-
ness or failure that can be discussed. The story can be co-constructed (rewritten) to sug-
gest areas of concern to be elaborated upon and explored. Also, existing strengths that
are left out of the discussion can be explored and reinforced. This method may be par-
ticularly helpful for clients with considerable work experience.
Using techniques such as the Vocational Card Sort, drawing, testing, and anecdotes,
the counselor helps clients elaborate their career problems. Cochran (1997) also suggests
that interest inventories, value inventories, and ability tests may be useful in providing
information about the client that can be integrated with information gathered from other
sources. This all helps the client prepare for the next step, which is putting together a life
history.
Composing a Life History

Exploring a client s life history has two basic intentions. The first intention, which is
similar to the first stage of trait and factor theory, is to gather information about clients
interests, values, abilities, and motives. The second intention is different from that of
most other theories: it is to attend to the way individuals select and organize their life
stories. Counselors listen to the way in which individuals describe their previous activi-
ties and the kind of people they are. Perhaps the most common way to obtain a life his-
tory is to ask individuals to describe important events in their lives and to discuss their
meaning. Often, the counselor might ask the client to present his or her history from a
third-person perspective, as if he or she is talking about someone else. However, if this is
done, it is important also to use a first-person approach, because it may add more mean-
ing to the story.
Cochran (1997) suggests several ways in which counselors can help clients add more
meaning to their stories. In telling a story, counselors can point out, when appropriate,
either positive or negative meanings for the client to help put together a pattern of ex-
periences. Cochran also suggests that counselors emphasize strengths because clients too
often dwell on their weaknesses. When clients express desires that they have for the fu-
ture, it is particularly helpful for counselors to comment on them. By emphasizing
strengths and looking toward the future, Cochran is reconstructing the client s story.
Dramatization is a method that is effective and stimulates finding meaning in a story.
In this method, the counselor becomes the narrator of the story and may refer to the
client in the third person. The counselor may do that with Dennis, for example:
There is this eight-year-old boy walking home from school. The neighborhood bully,
Wally, is looking for him and beats him up about a block from his house. Going
home should feel like a safe haven; it doesn t. He s worried about what will happen
when his father comes home. Will he get mad or criticize him? So he watches televi-
sion; he fantasizes about the cartoons and the programs he watches. He forgets him-
self, but not totally. When the commercials come on, the child worries about what
will happen with Wally tomorrow and what his father will say when he comes home
tonight.
By talking about Dennis in the third person, the counselor is emphasizing the emo-
tional aspect of this event and sets it up to be related to other events so that a pattern
can be determined. Other aspects of composing a life history deal with the continuity of
the character and the story. The counselor attends to qualities of the individual that are
likely to be found in most events. This provides a pattern or a theme for the client and
counselor to attend to. The client is the protagonist responsible for events, rather than a
passive victim.
In addition to asking clients to describe their life histories, counselors can use several
techniques to compose a life history. Five of these techniques are success experiences,
lifelines, Career-O-Grams, career genograms, and life chapters:
Success experience To develop a list of strengths, or success experiences, a counselor
asks a client to make a list of activities that were enjoyable and in which the client
felt a sense of accomplishment. Strengths include basic abilities, skills, special knowl-
edge, or character traits such as being honest. In using the list of strengths, a coun-
selor may want to keep a chart to see if the strengths are similar to or different from
each other and to find a pattern in them.
2 Lifeline In the lifeline, an individual draws a line lengthwise across a piece of paper.
The client then is asked to record important life experiences and put them in chro-
nological order on the paper. Each dot is labeled to represent a particular event. This
lifeline may include not only the events, but thoughts and emotions related to the
events. Mayo (2001) has developed an extended version of this that he calls life
story narratives. It is a thorough analysis of past, current, and possibly future events
that are critically analyzed by the individual. Mayo uses these as a part of a course in
life-span developmental psychology.
3 Career-O-Gram Rather than a single line (like the lifeline), the Career-O-Gram groups
important factors in a person s development into categories and then draws lines
from one to another to indicate where connections exist (Thorngren & Feit, 2001).
The important categories include major goal or actual job, interpersonal relationships,
significant experiences, and prevalent themes. In using the Career-O-Gram,
counselors integrate information about the individual s life experiences and then
help to clarify the decision process to take action in reaching career goals.
4 Career genogram Di Fabio (2010) developed the career genogram to elaborate on the
concept of a genogram by having clients reflect on life stories of their relatives and the
careers of their relatives. Mottos are developed for each family member, and then
an overall motto for each parental line is determined. This is combined with indivi-
duals reflections of their own aspirations and attributes. Di Fabio uses the metaphor
of a jewel case, mirror, and parchment to integrate the major parts of the career
genogram
5 Life chapters In life chapters, clients can be told to imagine that their life is a book
and that they are to come up with titles for important chapters in their life. The cli-
ents are told not to use common terms such as preschool, elementary school, and mil-
itary training. Rather, these should be titles that are distinctive to the clients. For
Dennis, the titles may be Wally the Bully, Running to Escape, My First Love,
and other titles that have meaning to him and to the counselor. Then the counselor
can ask questions about each chapter or period of Dennis s life having to do with
conflict, goals, significant influences, interests, and skills.
All of these exercises focus on the past and, to a limited extent, on current events.
Each provides a different method to help clients tell their story to gather meaning from
their life experiences.
Eliciting a Future Narrative

In constructing a future narrative, clients consider their strengths, interests, and values as
they may appear in the future. This stage focuses on evaluation of one s strengths, inter-
ests, and values. Several of the techniques that are used are an extension of those needed
when composing a life history. These include success experiences, lifelines, Career-
O-Grams, and life chapters. In the success experience exercise, clients can project what
would constitute success in their future lives. They can also examine strengths in past
events and project activities that they may best use these strengths in. For the lifeline
exercise, individuals can extend their lifeline into the future and identify experiences
that they would like to have that would make their life complete. For the Career- O-
Gram, individuals can try to predict future jobs or significant events they want to happen.
These experiences reflect current desires, strengths, and resolution of conflict.
A similar approach can be taken with the life chapter s exercise. Clients develop chap-
ter titles that represent important accomplishments for them. If clients use negative
chapter titles, they can be reworded in a positive way. For example, if Dennis has a chap-
ter entitled Not Experienced Enough to Be Promoted, this could be rephrased as
Learning Enough to Be Promoted. For Dennis, chapter titles might include Managing
the Department, Managing the Store, Managing My Father s Tantrums, and Hav-
ing a Home. These titles provide an opportunity for the counselor and client to explore
them and to attach meaning to them.
The Future Career Autobiography is similar to the Life Chapters exercise but is briefer
(Rehfuss, 2009). It includes an individual s personal and career preferences and ideas, as
well as values and choices in a narrative form. It has been used in a preliminary study as
a before and after measure in assessing the value of a career exploration course. Changes
were observed in the career autobiography that were consistent with gains in the career
choice process (Rehfuss, 2009).
A technique that often is used in eliciting a future narrative is that of guided fantasy.
Guided fantasies can be descriptive, evaluative, or some combination of each. Often,
guided fantasies represent an end point. For example, the counselor may present a fan-
tasy of an award ceremony, a retirement ceremony, or going to one s funeral. The pur-
pose of the fantasy is, in part, to help clients reflect on accomplishments that they want
to achieve. When using this procedure (Cochran, 1997, p. 88), counselors are likely to
help clients relax first, and then narrate a fantasy as the client imagines the narration,
filling in parts of the fantasy. The fantasy can also be interpreted.
In addition to guided fantasy and other exercises, Cochran (1997) recommends a
written and narrative outline. The written report is constructed in collaboration with
the client. There are five sections: mission, strengths, work needs, vulnerabilities, and
possibilities. The mission statement encapsulates the client s goals for the future. This is
followed by a list of strengths, usually in clusters reflecting the clients own expressions of
accomplishments. The work needs section reflects clients work values and focuses on
what clients need to facilitate their performance. This section is followed by one that fo-
cuses on client vulnerabilities that is, what is likely to sidetrack clients from meeting
goals. Finally, clients are presented with a list of occupational possibilities or descriptions
of relevant fields.
When clients receive the report, they are given an opportunity to read it and to ask
questions or make comments. This can be followed by the counselor s verbal description
of the report. When doing this, counselors ask questions such as, Did I portray your
values accurately? Do you think I was accurate in discussing your vulnerabilities?
Are there any vulnerabilities that you might add? In this way, the process is collabora-
tive and not limited to the counselor s impressions or views. When a written and a nar-
rative report are concluded, then the counselor and client can move into a more active
process, called actualizing the narrative. To end counseling with the written report would
be to describe goals, values, interests, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses and not proceed
further. In the three types of enactment, clients construct reality, change a life structure,
and enact a role.
Reality Construction
Action is a significant component of narrative career counseling. Whether the problem is
work adjustment or making a career decision, individuals need to enact a script; that is,
they need to try out a variety of actions. The more active the exploration, the better the
chances are for a successful outcome. Reading a description of a job is a good beginning,
but it is not as rich as talking to people within a field or interviewing them to get work
information. More active than reading is volunteer work, job visitations, discussions with
friends, spending a day on a job with a friend, and so on. There are three major purposes
to active exploration. First, it immerses the client in the real world. The client has to get
things done and check things out. Second, individuals get information from a variety
of sources and are able to evaluate the information as they talk to many sources.
Third, as individuals talk to people in a variety of occupations about those occupa-
tions, they can imagine themselves in an occupation. They now have a clearer idea
about possible occupational choices than they did when they started interviewing
and talking to people.
For Dennis, reality construction meant going beyond familiar people he knew in his
store. A friend of his worked at a large home improvement store and had arranged for
him to talk with the manager there. Banking had also been a consideration, and he
wanted to learn about customer service and being a loan officer. He arranged to talk to
the assistant manager and manager at the branch office where he had an account. Also,
he talked to his father s accountant about his work and his relationships with customers.
What was new to Dennis was the amount of activity in which he participated. Previ-
ously, he would just go home after work and watch television; occasionally, he would
call a few friends. By talking to so many different people, he developed a sense that he
had more control over the direction of his life.
Changing a Life Structure

When seeking career counseling, clients expect some type of change. Usually there is
change to the situation, oneself, or both. For work adjustment counseling, clients often
expect to make a positive change in the way they work or with whom they work. For
career decision-making counseling, clients expect to be in a new setting unlike the one
they are in currently. With change come new opportunities, such as training, salary in-
crease, or being appreciated. However, change also can bring more negative aspects, such
as fear of failing, anxiety about doing a poor job, and so forth.
When changing a life structure, a theme often emerges. Cochran (1992) calls the
theme a career project. Individuals perform many different tasks that are indirectly or
directly related to their career. They make friends, take exams, pay bills, and so forth.
These can be seen as unrelated tasks. However, there may be themes that emerge in the
way that individuals go about these tasks. If individuals feel good about the ways they
interact with others, manage their finances, and so on, then they are likely to have a
positive sense of meaning about what they do.
For Dennis, there was a certain amount of caution in which he approached activities.
He wanted to make sure that he understood what he was supposed to do at his job be-
fore he did it. More cautious than most, he might ask more questions than his cowor-
kers. With friends, he wanted to have a sense that they were interested in him and that
he could depend on them. With his finances, Dennis was careful to pay his bills on time
and not to overspend. His career project could be tentatively summarized as a caution
that suggests concern about vocational adequacy. Eliciting more events and more infor-
mation would help to clarify or alter what may be his personal theme or career project
(Valach & Young, 2009; Young, Valach, & Collin, 2002).
Enacting a Role
Trying things out, or enacting a role, is a way of trying to make one s desired goal possi-
ble. In doing so, individuals try out activities that are meaningful and enjoyable. Some-
times it is not clear which activity would be best, so individuals try several activities.
Also, some activities may not be immediately attainable. Individuals cannot start out as
successful athletes. People work toward achieving a role and may or may not meet with
Often, individuals start with a small role that develops into other opportunities for
more enactment. For example, Dennis used to work out at the YMCA after work in the
evenings. He had become friendly with the director, as they had helped some children
learn how to use equipment. The director asked him if he wanted to help organize activ-
ities for 9- to 12-year-old boys. Dennis liked the idea and did some part-time volunteer
work organizing some sports events for the boys. One evening, he was talking to the fa-
ther of one of the boys about the activities in which the boys were involved. The father
asked Dennis if he would like to help with soccer coaching on some weekends. Dennis
thought that would be fun and tried it out for a season. By enacting one role, going to
the YMCA, Dennis put himself in a position to enact other roles. He uncovered possibil-
ities that existed through his actions that he could not plan. This may or may not have a
direct impact on Dennis s later career development.
Crystallizing a Decision
Crystallization occurs when a gap between a client s career problem and the ideal or pos-
sible solutions diminishes. Sometimes crystallization takes place when clients experience
the previous six episodes. Choosing among occupations may not be a deliberate process
but rather one that comes from being active in ways described in the six previous
episodes.
Not all decisions need to focus on making a specific choice. For some individuals, ex-
ploring occupational possibilities is sufficient. For example, freshmen at college may be
in the position of exploring opportunities rather than deciding immediately on majors or
occupational alternatives. Other problems may be related to work adjustment, such as
finding ways to get along with a boss.
Cochran (1997) believes that crystallization can be facilitated in three ways: identify-
ing and eliminating obstructions, actualizing opportunities, and reflecting on career deci-
sions. Sometimes, there are internal obstructions to crystallizing a choice, such as lack of
confidence in being able to obtain a job. Other times, there are external factors, such as
pressures from parents to enter a certain occupation. Obstructions such as these repre-
sent an opportunity to start a new story and remove oneself from the old story. By actu-
alizing a choice, individuals are taking advantage of new roles and new opportunities.
Counselors can encourage clients to accept new challenges in their work. Clients often
can reflect on their experience of choosing occupations. Discussing the narrative career
counseling process is an excellent way to put career choice issues in perspective.
In crystallizing a career choice, Dennis addressed both internal and external obstruc-
tions. An external barrier for Dennis was his father s comments about the unlikelihood
of Dennis succeeding in an occupation other than his current one. Dennis also had sim-
ilar feelings, when presenting internal obstructions, which brought him to consider
whether he could handle higher level administrative abilities. When Dennis thought of
his ability in managing others at work and the types of management responsibilities
that he encountered in his interviews, he believed that he could be successful in accom-
plishing such administrative tasks. By discussing this with a counselor, Dennis could see
that much of his self-doubt came from his father s criticism, and when he was actually in
a management position, he could handle the responsibilities well. Review of the six pre-
vious episodes involved in narrative counseling helped Dennis gain a new perspective on
his career choices. He was now excited about taking college courses that would lead to a
business degree and was looking for new work that would lead to more administrative
responsibility.
Cochran s (1997) approach to narrative career counseling focuses on the client s active
role in telling his or her story. For Cochran, the counseling process includes seven
episodes. In the first three episodes, clients see meaning in their lives by actively elabo-
rating their career problems, telling stories about their lives (composing a life), and look-
ing into their future (constructing a future narrative). After telling a story about their
past and constructing stories about their future, clients then can move into the three en-
actment episodes: constructing reality, changing a life structure, and enacting a role.
With these three episodes completed, individuals then can move toward crystallizing a
decision.
Savickas’s Career Construction Theory

Whereas Cochran s view originates in psychological constructivism, Savickas views career
theory from a social constructionist point of view. He sees Holland s hexagon and
Super s stages as social constructions and is less concerned about viewing them from a
scientific point of view than from the point of view of the client. Individuals construct
their careers by giving meaning to career-related behavior. Important for Savickas
(2005a, 2005b; 2008; 2011a, 2011b) is the adaptation to the environment and events
that individuals face. It is this adaptation, rather than stages of life or maturity itself,
that are important. One s career enfolds as one makes choices and develops a narrative
or story of one s life. Career is a construction that an individual makes. One s career is
not made up of scores on inventories or tests, or opinions of employers or family. The
construction of one s career changes throughout life and is constantly developing. When
individuals tell their career stories, they are producing a narrative, which is essentially
their own view of their career. Counselors listen for this narrative as they talk to their
clients. In his theory, Savickas examines four areas of client narratives. Career construc-
tion theory is a meta-theory of these areas. A meta-theory is a comprehensive theory de-
rived from existing theories. The following sections describe the four areas of client
narratives: vocational personality, developmental tasks, dimensions of career adaptability,
and life themes.
Vocational Personality—Holland’s Theory

Holland s personality theory includes traits of an individual s abilities, needs, values, and
interests, which are described in Chapter 5. Savickas (2005a, 2005b, 2011a) believes that
Holland s theory is very useful for conducting vocational appraisals and summarizing as-
pects of individuals that describe their uniqueness and their subjective selves. As Holland
does, Savickas makes use of the three-letter code (p. 124). According to current career
construction theory, interests or personality types are clusters of socially constructed at-
titudes, interests, and abilities. In essence, they represent a person s social reputation and
self-concept. From Savickas s point of view, Holland s theory is dynamic and changing; it
does not represent stable traits. In his theory, Savickas is not interested in how an indi-
vidual s personality compares to others but in how Holland s theory helps both the client
and counselor to understand the client s story. The Holland types can be used to gener-
ate possibilities to consider and to explore. They are not used to predict the client s fu-
ture. Counselors may also use Holland s theory to explain the world of occupations to
the client (p. 132). The types become an organizing method for categorizing information
about the world of work. Not only does Holland s theory help individuals understand the
world of work, but it also helps them to connect the world of work to the individual
own vocational personality (interests, attitudes, abilities, and values). Holland s six types
are summarized briefly in the following list from the point of view of career construction
theory.
Realistic In a client s story, talking about using tools or machines in hobbies or work
or doing construction work such as plumbing or roofing are common themes for this
type. Being practical and using mechanical or physical skills, such as repairing or
farming, may also be found in the stories.
Investigative The narrative of the investigative person is likely to include enjoying
intellectual challenges or puzzles, liking to solve problems that are scientific or me-
chanical, and reading or talking about science. In their stories, clients are likely to be
interested in solving scientific problems independently.
Artistic Creative activity is an important aspect of an artistic individual s story. The
creative expression may include art, music, writing, cooking, or similar types of crea-
tive expression. Artistic individuals may have enjoyed and have shown skill in playing
music, painting, and cooking. As they tell their story, their excitement about creating
artistic products is likely to be evident.
Social In a social person s narrative, individuals are likely to discuss teaching others
or helping others with personal problems. They may also enjoy providing personal
services such as assisting others with medical problems. When faced with problems
in their stories, they are likely to enjoy talking and resolving complex or idealistic
problems.
Enterprising Making money is likely to be an important aspect of the narrative for
an enterprising person. Selling, persuading, or managing others is also likely to be a
part of his or her story.
Conventional Because conventional people prefer organizing and planning in their
work, they are likely to discuss this in their narratives as they talk about doing office
work, organizing reports, or working with numbers, such as accounting records.
In understanding career construction theory, it is helpful to note the difference, some-
times subtle, between Savickas s view of Holland s types as they relate to individual nar-
ratives and Holland s view of his personality types, which he describes as a trait and
factor theory. From Holland s perspective, his concepts should be measured and should
be related to each other using statistical analysis. Savickas concentrates on using Hol-
land s types to understand the clients narratives about how they have constructed them-
selves and built their careers.
Developmental Tasks of Career Adaptability

Throughout life, individuals must adapt to changes as they grow older, moving from
school to jobs and eventually toward retirement. Career adaptability is concerned with
how individuals construct and manage their careers. Career personality discussed in the
previous section is concerned with which career they will choose. The question that is
most likely to bring about a discussion of career adaptability is How did you decide
on that occupation? (Savickas, 2005b, p. 48). The discussion of how one deals with dif-
ficulties at school or at work concern career adaptability. Career adaptability can refer
both to dealing with issues within oneself and with issues related to society or the world
of work. In dealing with career adaptability individuals must face several developmental
tasks. In organizing developmental tasks, Savickas draws from Super s life stages (p. 238).
The stages in the life cycle include growth, exploration, establishment, management, and
disengagement. In Super s theory, Savickas s management task is referred to as the main-
tenance stage. As individuals grow older, they move up the occupational ladder. Their
stories are likely to show evidence of progress to bring about success, both financially
and in other ways. However, some individuals encounter barriers that force them to drift
or stagnate. Counselors often help individuals deal with these barriers by working with
stories that are relevant to these developmental tasks. The following sections describe the
developmental tasks from the point of view of career construction theory.
Growth Before the age of 15, individuals are dealing with stories having to do with the
school system and their families and friends. Their interests, capacities, and values are
changing. Stories often reflect these changes as interests can be more fully developed
than fantasies. Children later develop the ability to judge their own capacities. Their stor-
ies reflect their growth in relationship to issues that concern dealing with teachers, peers,
parents, and siblings.
Exploration From about 15 to 25 years of age, individuals are exploring a number of
career possibilities. Their stories concern clarification of what they may want to do, how
they learn about entry-level jobs, how they did in their part-time positions, and whether
they want more education. This turns into specifying their career direction. Talking
about their first full-time job and the type of encounters they have with superiors and
coworkers often make up stories in this developmental task.
Establishment Occurring generally between the ages of 25 and about 45 years, stories
about establishment refer to advancing in one s work. Stories are likely to concern feeling
a sense of stability on the job, knowing the basic requirements of the job, and thinking
about the job on a long-term basis. Usually as individuals move through this develop-
mental task, they become more comfortable with their job and want to be regarded by
others as an effective worker who can be relied upon. Stories toward the end of this de-
velopmental task are likely to reflect promotion and increases in pay.
Management Stories between the ages of 45 to 65 often include holding onto one
job, while at the same time learning more about what is required in the job and dealing
with new technological advancements. Individuals in this developmental task are making
innovative changes and showing others how they can improve their performance.
Disengagement Around the age of 65, but often earlier or later, individuals think
about the possibility of losing their job due to health or physical limitations. They may also
slow down their work or work part time. Thoughts of planning for their retirement and ac-
tually retiring are tasks that individuals may discuss with a counselor at this point in their life.
Although these are common developmental tasks that individuals adapt to, not all
individuals encounter these tasks at the same age, nor do they encounter all tasks.
Some individuals may choose to recycle and look for a new career, thus entering these
developmental tasks at a different age than just described. Also, as the job market no
longer provides the type of security that it once did for individuals, they are often focus-
ing more on their own career story than that of a company that they may be working for
at the present time. Although the preceding descriptions are similar to those given in
Chapter 9, Late Adolescent and Adult Career Development, the emphasis here is on
the narrative or story that the individual tells and not comparison with other individuals.
Dimensions of Career Adaptability

Savickas is concerned not only with developmental tasks of career adaptability but also
the process of adapting. Whereas Donald Super developed the psychological concept of
career maturity for adolescents (p. 209), Savickas uses adaptability as a similar psychoso-
cial concept that can be used throughout the life cycle whenever an individual makes an
occupational transition, rather than just during the adolescent s school-to-work transi-
tion. Psychosocial adaptability refers to the individual, whereas psychological (such as
career) maturity involves comparison with other individuals. For Savickas, psychosocial
career development is a process that is unique for each person and does not necessarily
move in an orderly way. This is particularly true for relatively high-turnover jobs as well
as changes in jobs as a result of technological advances and global changes in supply and
demand. For Savickas, career adaptability is a construct that shows how an individual
can deal with current developmental tasks and job crises. Career adaptability helps indi-
viduals implement their self-concept as they deal with current work and other demands.
Savickas describes the following dimensions of career adaptability, which are explained
in more detail next: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. These dimensions repre-
sent individuals readiness to cope with current work demands and to manage their de-
velopmental tasks.
Concern When individuals become concerned about their indifference or lack of ac-
tion on an issue dealing with career choice or work adjustment, they may ask themselves
if they feel that they have a future. When they are dealing with , they are likely to
plan for their future and to become aware of the necessary preparation for dealing with a
concern. Counselors can be helpful by assisting individuals in becoming more opti-
mistic about their future, seeing their future in some detail, reinforcing positive atti-
tudes toward planning, and looking at the relationship between plans and actions for
the future. Practicing planning skills can be helpful as individuals cope with concerns
about the future.
Control Individuals, at various times in their lives, may feel they have relatively little
control over their own actions and may be unaware of the need to become more decisive
and to make decisions. They may ask themselves the question, Can I control my fu-
ture? At other times, they may be able to be assertive and disciplined as they take con-
trol of their future. Counselors can help with this control by teaching assertiveness skills,
helping clients develop a method to make decisions, and supporting clients in taking re-
sponsibility for their own actions. Self-management strategies and time-management
techniques may also help in dealing with career indecision and taking control over
s own issues
Curiosity People may become curious about their future. They may start to question
their choices and wonder if what they are choosing is correct for them. This inquisitive-
ness can lead to exploration and action in making change. If individuals are willing to
explore, they may be willing to experiment with new possibilities, to inquire about new
occupational alternatives, to take risks, or to do different types of volunteer work or part-

time work. Counselors can help in dealing with the uncertainty of change by helping in-
dividuals to clarify their values, take interest inventories, and discuss possibilities for
changing majors or jobs, as well as urge exploration. This exploration can include trying
out a job, shadowing workers, reading occupational pamphlets or researching on the In-
ternet, volunteering, or taking part-time jobs. When discussing occupational possibilities,
using Holland s hexagon can be helpful in organizing job exploration.
Confidence Although individuals may be willing to explore and take steps to do so,
they sometimes lack the confidence to fully explore possibilities. They might wonder if
they can really do it. They may want to address and try to solve their problem but can
be fearful of doing so because they may be lacking in self-esteem or self-efficacy. As in-
dividuals become able to solve problems in their daily lives, they usually develop more
self-confidence. By addressing small daily problems, individuals begin to experience con-
fidence and success and the belief in their ability to address larger issues. Mistaken be-
liefs may also result in lack of confidence. Counselors can be helpful by developing a
supportive relationship with their clients so that the clients may develop self-efficacy,
self-acceptance, and self-regard. Support, encouragement, and anxiety-reduction training
may also be helpful. Clients may develop confidence not only in dealing with their cur-
rent problem but in developing coping attitudes that they can use in addressing future
problems.
As clients relate their stories, the counselor is able to assess if issues such as lack of
concern, indecisiveness, lack of curiosity, or lack of confidence are interfering with career
exploration and other career issues. Some counselors may choose to use inventories such
as Super s Career Development Inventory (Chapter 8) or Krumboltz s Career Beliefs In-
ventory (Chapter 13). Many counselors will try to understand the meaning of the stories
that clients tell by using the concepts of adaptability discussed in this section. The con-
cept of adaptability helps counselors decide if clients have sufficient concern, control, cu-
riosity, or confidence to continue to explore career choice or work adjustment. If the
client is not ready, the counselor can address the issue before continuing counseling.
Adaptability is a factor when listening for the life theme or themes that individuals ex-
press in their stories. The interaction of self (psychological personality) and society (psy-
chological adaptability) produces a story. Savickas uses the glue of a coherent and
continuous story to integrate personality type and transitional tasks by focusing on the
story s theme.
Life Themes
A major component of career construction theory is the concept of life themes, which is
derived from Adler s lifestyle concept (Savickas, 1988, 1989; Sharf, 2012). Adlerian theory
is an important aspect of career construction theory. Alfred Adler was a contemporary of
Sigmund Freud. Born in 1870, like Freud he lived near Vienna, Austria. He was influ-
enced by Freud s psychoanalytical ideas but broke off from Freud and developed practi-
cal ideas that are still in use in counseling and psychotherapy today. His concept of
lifestyle (sometimes referred to as style of life) helps to explain why individuals
make the career choices that they do. Savickas draws on several Adlerian concepts,
as explained next. Knowing a person s lifestyle provides a means of understanding
the basic themes in that person s life. Lifestyles are significant concepts that are dif-
ferent for each person, and examples help to illustrate them. In determining lifestyles,
early recollections can be used to help discover the important theme or themes for
individuals in their lives
Lifestyle According to Adler, the lifestyle is typically developed by the ages of 4 to 6.

Adler observed children interacting with each other and believed that their behavior at
that age influenced them in later life. He saw children compensating for their feelings
of inferiority and believed that the theme of inferiority and superiority was an important
concept that would play a significant role in their lifestyle. For Adler, the way individuals
live their lives now is often a reflection of their earlier lifestyles that may have already
been evident in childhood. For example, if an adult is manipulative in dealing with peo-
ple in a work situation, this is probably a style that developed in childhood.
Adlerian theory does not use a specific list of lifestyles; rather, Adlerians observe the
lifestyle in an individual by listening to their life stories, including their childhood. Mwita
(2004) gives an example of how early experiences affected Martin Luther King Jr. s per-
sonality and leadership style as he sought racial and social justice. One memory that
King describes took place when he was very young. He remembered his father being an-
gry and refusing to buy Martin shoes at a shoe store when the clerk asked him and his
father to sit in the seats for colored people. The theme of this story is an example of an
early recollection that became an important theme to King throughout his life. The role
of early recollections in developing life themes is described next.
Early Recollections For Adlerians, early recollections are a significant aspect of deter-
mining the person s lifestyle. Early recollections are the memories of the incidents that
clients recall. They are different from reports, which are incidents that other people recall
about the client when the client was young. Early recollections are important because
they have had an influence on clients lives. When obtaining early memories, counselors
often ask: Would you try to recall your earliest memories for me? Start with your earli-
est specific memory, something that happened to you that you can remember, not some-
thing that was told to you. After that memory is recalled, the client is asked to try to
recall another specific memory that happened when the client was very young. Some
counselors may ask for three or four memories; others may ask for more. For example,
Maree (2010) uses the Three Anecdotes Technique, in which clients are asked to recol-
lect three of their earliest memories to try to understand their enduring preoccupations.
Adlerians believe that early memories of events that occurred at the age of 4 or 5 are
often the most helpful because they occurred when the lifestyle was being crystallized.
When the lifestyle is being determined, early recollections are a part of the process, not
the entire process. They represent memories of the client, which may be different from
what other individuals remember about the same incident. In essence, they are part of
the story of an individual s life.
Another concept of importance to Savickas is that of the five major interrelated life
tasks described by Adler, of which work is one of the tasks.
Five Major Life Tasks In determining lifestyle, Adlerians attend to five major inter-
related tasks: self-development, spiritual development, occupation, society, and love
(Sharf, 2012). Adler stated, The person who performs useful work lives in the midst of
the developing human society and helps to advance it (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956,
p. 32). For Adler, work (occupation) was a significant life task that often reflected social
interest Social interest, another important Adlerian concept, was a significant aspect of
lifestyle because to have a complete life, one should interact positively and successfully
with others. Occupations or work are tasks that are done for other people. Adler felt
that wanting to help other people, not just manipulate them or make money from
them, was an important factor in a healthy lifestyle. The five tasks are interrelated in
that one s self-development is related to one s love relationships, to one s work, and to
the way in which one deals with society. More than most psychotherapists, Adler was
interested in work because he saw it as a reflection of both personality and life

satisfaction.
Savickas focuses on the Adlerian task of work but not to the exclusion of the other
tasks. He sees the process of career counseling as helping individuals turn thoughts or
preoccupations into an occupation that they will do, or participate in, within society.
Del Corso, Rehfuss, & Galvin (2011) emphasize that the nature of work is always chang-
ing and that it is necessary to be flexible and adaptable to changes in work. Savickas
concept of adaptability is discussed on page 308. Rather than just assess interest with
inventories, Savickas believes that counselors should help create interest by assisting cli-
ents in seeing how various occupations can be a means to express their thoughts or pre-
occupations. This way, the development of interest can lead to a resolution of career
choice issues. In essence, Savickas wants to help clients find what matters to them. The
concept of mattering is an important component of an individual s life story. The coun-
selor tries to help clients give meaning and purpose to what they do in life. Much of this
meaning comes through discussion of work and other life tasks. This meaning and pur-
pose is a reflection of life themes or life style.
Career Counseling Using the Career Construction Interview

Unlike most career counseling, the career construction model uses a structured assess-
ment interview. Called the Career Style Interview (Savickas, 1989), it provides questions
to ask clients that will help the counselor identify the lifestyle of the individual. The
counselor will look for a unity of themes. Savickas believes that the career counseling
process is one of turning a preoccupation into an occupation, as illustrated by the story
of Martin Luther King, Jr.. The Career Style Interview provides a means for doing this.
In the case that follows, the counselor assesses the vocational personality type, career
adaptability, and the life theme of the client. First, I will present the results of an abbre-
viated career style interview with Tiffany. Then I will illustrate the types of questions that
a counselor using career construction theory is likely to ask. Finally, I will show how
counseling proceeds using the career construction model to help the client take action
on the problem.
Tiffany is a 25-year-old female who graduated from college 4 years ago with a degree
in English. Her father is African American and her mother is Caucasian. She has a youn-
ger brother who is a senior in college in Chicago. She currently works as an assistant
editor for a book publishing company in Chicago. She has been dissatisfied with her ca-
reer for about 2 years. Because she has been reluctant to make changes, she has been
slightly depressed and is procrastinating about going to graduate school and changing
her career direction. As she became more and more bored with her work, she felt the
need to seek out counseling. She has considered several career possibilities, including
teaching, social work, sales, and management. Although she has reasons for considering
each, she also has reasons for rejecting them, and she feels like she is at a standstill. The
counselor conducted a Career Style Interview with Tiffany. Some of the results of this
interview are described next.
Career Style Interview with Tiffany

Three role models:
Angela Lansbury She is a wonderful actress who really puts life into her roles. She also
seems to have a wonderful effect on the other actors and actresses she works with.
Martin Luther King, Jr. He was really concerned about other people. He was so effec-
tive in making change. I admire him so much.
My Aunt Rita She is a psychologist who works with young children. She seems to have
so much energy and really cares about the kids that she works with. I like to talk to her
about her work.
Magazines:
Wired I am really interested in technology and what you can do with it to help people
communicate better.
Psychology Today ve always had an interest in psychology since high school. I guess I
got interested in this from my Aunt Rita. It really helps me understand human behavior
in an easy-to-understand way.
The New Yorker The cartoons and the stories are really creative. I wish I could draw or
write the way these people do.
Favorite television show:
Star Trek I keep watching the reruns. I like the idea of different races and cultures that
are explored. I prefer the old Star Treks which weren t so violent.
Favorite book:
The Harry Potter series ve read the whole series. I really admire the creative approach
to Harry and his friends. The stories are fun and exciting; even though I m older than a
lot of the readers, I continued to read all the books in the series.
Hobbies:
Reading I love to read fiction. Not just Harry Potter, but all kinds of stories. I like ro-
mance, science fiction, and stories with travel in them.
Being in the Big Sister Program I have been assigned two Little Sisters in Chicago. I
have enjoyed taking them places and talking to them about their problems. We have
fun together, and they seem to respect me.
Favorite sayings:
If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. My mother used to say that to me. I think it
makes me scared of change because I m afraid sometimes of doing something new that
may not work out well.
Favorite subjects in school
History and English I like to hear about what happened to people in different
countries and how countries developed the way they did. I liked the English courses be-
cause I love the stories. I like to read and to write reports about what I read. I think I
liked English in high school better than in college, maybe because it was not as
demanding.
Four early recollections with headlines:
Making a color collage
When I was about 3 years old, I remember being in preschool and painting with my
fingers on very large pieces of paper. I would paint big yellow swirls, wash my
hands; paint big red swirls, wash my hands; paint green swirls. I loved it. The colors
were so meaningful to me. They were so bright.
2 Being aware of skin color
I think that it was at Thanksgiving when my mother s family and my father s family
came over for dinner. It had never occurred to me before that my mother s family
was White, and my father s family was Black. I noticed that my mother s family
talked to each other and my father s family talked to each other, but there was not
a lot of mixing, although everyone was friendly. I may have been aware of skin color
and racial differences before then, but this memory stands out to me.
3 Helping Dad
When I was about 4, I would follow my father around the yard with my little toy
lawnmower. I really wanted to help him. I didn t know that the lawnmower didn
work. My father would always tell me how well I was doing and how he liked mow-
ing the lawn with me. He would do that at other times too; he encouraged me to do
things he did.
4 Feeling sorry for the girl who did not mix in
I remember a time when I was in kindergarten. I think I must have been about 5. We
were out in the schoolyard, and the schoolyard had a red brick wall around it.
There was a large grassy area with some of the cemented part of the playground be-
ing near the school. Anyway, I remember there was a group of maybe 10 or 15 kids
playing with a ball or something in the middle of the field. Way off, in a corner un-
der some trees, was a little girl I guess one of my classmates, but I don t remember
her as a friend. Anyway, she was standing under the tree crying or looking very sad.
I wanted to do something about her sadness.
After Tiffany completed the Career Style Interview, the counselor asked her questions
having to do with her career concerns. These questions follow Savickas (2005a).
CO: What were the circumstances during which your procrastination was labeled for the
first time?
CL: My mother gets frustrated because I never seemed to do anything about my dissatis-
faction with my publishing work.
CO: How does it feel to be undecided about future career plans?
CL: I feel nervous. And dissatisfied with myself that I m not getting anywhere, and I think
I should get somewhere.
CO: What does this feeling remind you of?
CL: Like I am on a treadmill. Like I am not getting anywhere, and I don t like it.
CO: Please tell me about an incident in which you had the same feeling.
CL: When I am at work I feel like I file, I photocopy, and I read manuscripts, over and
over again. It seems endlessly boring.
CO: What haunts you about this?
CL: Sometimes I have this idea that I will be doing this forever and ever until I finally die.
It s really an empty feeling. I dislike it very much.
CO: Tell me part of your life story that is important to your career choice.
CL: In high school, I d procrastinate. I would do math on the school bus going to school. I
would write my English papers late at night and always at the last minute. But when it
came to friends, I never procrastinated. I would talk to them on the phone, sometimes
go over to their house, anything to help. My schoolwork always came last. My mother
didn t like this.
Career Counseling Using Career Construction Theory

In both career assessment and career counseling, career construction theory focuses on
the stories that clients tell. Sometimes these are very brief stories about parts of clients
lives, and sometimes they are longer. Career construction theory states that the person
real self comes out during the narration of the stories. People will talk about things that
matter and have meaning to them. Savickas (2005a, 2005b, 2011a) suggests that counse-
lors use the same language as clients, such as favorite words or metaphors that the client
uses. Savickas views career construction theory as having the advantage of being able to
deal with personality types, such as in Holland s model; developmental tasks (Super
stages); and adaptability as they relate to the clients expressions of their narratives. Sa-
vickas uses a seven-step interpretive routine that emphasizes a career construction
framework. I will illustrate these steps by showing how a counselor would talk to Tiffany
about her Career Style Interview. The steps do not need to be sequential, but this is a
structure suggested by Savickas (2005a).
Reviewing Counseling Goals The first step is to review the client s goals. When the
client expresses what she would like to get from counseling, this gives the counselor a
perspective on how to view the client s narrative. In Tiffany s case, she would like to
make a new career choice. However, she is also concerned about her tendency to pro-
crastinate and worried that she may not follow up on her choice. This alerts the coun-
selor to attend to two issues of adaptability. Tiffany may be lacking in confidence in
making her decision and may have concerns about her ability to control herself when it
comes to being decisive and making a choice. The counselor may also attend to stories
that Tiffany tells about past decision making.
Attending to Verbs Verbs are action words. In a story, they suggest a movement or
direction or a lack of movement. Savickas attends to the first verb in the first early recol-
lection. Then he proceeds to listen to other verbs in the first recollection, moving on to
other recollections. If there is a theme, he makes note of it. The verbs will help to give a
clue as to a life theme or themes. By attending to verbs, the counselor may observe the
client telling a story that the counselor may need to hear. In the first recollection, Tiffany
uses the word remember. This suggests thoughtfulness. The second verb is paint.
This suggests a desire to create and that she has an artistic interest. In the second
recollection, the three verbs are think, noticed, and occurred. All of these sug-
gest thoughtfulness and observation. In the third recollection, the verbs follow and
help suggest connections to others and helping relationships. The helping theme is
seen again in the fourth recollection in which feeling sad for others is the most
significant action.
Examining Headlines of the Recollections The counselor asked Tiffany to come

up with a catchy headline that includes a verb for each of the recollections. These
headlines compress the story. They suggest ideas for a theme that may fit the client.
The first headline includes the verb making, which suggests productivity. The sec-
ond headline uses the phrase being aware and suggests attention to surroundings.
The last two recollections use the terms helping and feeling sorry. Both suggest
concern for others
Moving from Preoccupation to Occupation The counselor wants to understand
how Tiffany solves problems in constructing a career and how occupations will help her
master her problems. Savickas suggests that counselors focus on movement from preoc-
cupation to occupation in the analysis of stories, which will be the essence of the life
theme. The counselor then will compare Tiffany s early recollections to her role models.
Her first recollection suggests creating. Her first role model is Angela Lansbury, a famous
actress, who Tiffany associates with being creative and productive. Martin Luther King,
Jr., and Aunt Rita are both people that observe others, want to help others who are
experiencing personal or social problems, and who do something to help them the
themes that are related to Tiffany s last three early recollections. There is a suggestion
that Tiffany wants to move forward in her life and help others, a clear example of the
Adlerian concept of social interest.
Role Models as a Suggestion for a Plan The choice of role models can indicate that
these are people the client wants to be like. Thus, the client would like to lead his or her
life as the role models have. In essence, they suggest a plan for a life or career. Tiffany
comments about the three role models suggest that she wants to be productive in her life
and to make a difference. She admires her aunt s energy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
effectiveness. Both are seen as really caring for people, which is a theme important to
Tiffany. These are attributes she is not feeling in her life now but wants to move toward.
Feeling effective for Tiffany can come from helping others with their personal or social
problems.
Profiling Adaptability In career construction theory, counselors look for how clients
cope in the stories that are told to the counselor. Career adaptability concepts are useful
in understanding coping strategies. Clients adaptability may not be clear at first but may
be revealed in early recollections, other parts of the Career Style Interview, or in discus-
sion with the counselor. Tiffany has a desire to increase her confidence. She has sought
out the counselor for help because she is undecided about her life, feeling relatively lit-
tle control. The counselor is aware of this and sees her indecision as a positive sign.
She is dealing with the fear of making a change, and she needs encouragement. The
counselor will help Tiffany examine her life story and take action. Indecision is seen
here not as a weakness but as a strength. The counselor sees both current issues and
social interest represented in the role models that Tiffany has chosen. This suggests
Tiffany s willingness to gain control over her life and to work toward increasing her
confidence.
Appraising Vocational Personality In career construction theory, Holland s six

personality types are seen as a way of looking at the client s view of the story. Informa-
tion that comes from the Career Style Interview can be used to determine which types
the client most closely resembles. More questions may be asked to get information about
the six personality types. Using the Self-Directed Search (SDS) or the Strong Interest In-
ventory (SII) are also ways to get information about the client s vocational personality.
For Tiffany, Holland s Social personality seems to be the most prominent of Holland
six types. There seems to be a clear interest in helping others with personal problems
and making a difference in people s lives. Perhaps Tiffany s second Holland type would
be Artistic. There is little material that Tiffany presents at this point that suggests interest
in any of the other four types. More discussion may reveal that other types are repre-
sented in her vocational personality.
Crafting a Success Formula The steps that were just outlined provide the informa-
tion needed to make a success formula. Savickas suggests that the counselor develop a
success formula so that the counselor and the client can go over the draft together. In
his development of the success formula, Savickas draws on the work of Haldane (1975).
The focus of Haldane s work is on specifying and articulating dependable strengths.
Thus, the success formula will focus on Tiffany s strengths, which are determined by an
TABLE 11 . SUCCESS FORMULA COMPONENTS

REALISTIC INVESTIGATIVE ARTISTIC
Work with tools Solve the problems Be independent
Think with my hands Work with science Share feelings
Use mechanical ability Work with math Be sensitive
Apply physical skill Use logic Paint
Work outdoors Research ideas Play an instrument
Work with animals Figure out how things work Write
Work with nature Read Apply artistic flair
Demonstrate skill Analyze situations Decorate
Discover Design
SOCIAL ENTERPRISING CONVENTIONAL

Help others Make decisions Be part of a team
Work with people Convince others Record data
Provide a service Lead a group Type
Be outgoing and pleasant Use power Organize materials
Help children Act with enthusiasm Have a set routine
Assist the elderly Sell things Know what is expected
Teach Be the center of attention Carry out orders
Counsel Be dynamic Work with a partner
Advise Have a lot of variety
Source: Savickas, M. L. (1989). Career-style assessment and counseling. In T. Sweeney (Ed.), Adlerian
counseling: A practical approach for a new decade (3rd ed.) (pp. 289 320). Muncie, IN: Accelerated Devel-
opment Press. Reprinted by permission of Mark Savickas.
analysis of information provided in the Career Style Interview with an emphasis on vo-
cational personality. Table 11.1 lists Tiffany s strengths for each of the six Holland types.
For Tiffany, the first draft of the success formula was derived by focusing on her So-
cial and Artistic Holland types. The counselor writes:
You feel happy and successful when you help others with personal problems and pro-
vide a service to improve their lives. In doing this, you try to be sensitive and design
programs that may help people improve their lives.
After reading this, Tiffany indicates that it fits her, but she wants to figure out which
people she wants to help and how she wants to help them.
The Life Portrait The success formula is a start in drawing a more comprehensive
portrait of the client. Savickas suggests thinking about the client using the information
that has come from the Career Style Interview. In addition to thinking, the counselor
own reactions and feelings about the client can help in writing the life portrait. This por-
trait aims to highlight emotional realities and themes of the client. It will try to answer
questions such as Who am I? What is my quest? and How can I grow and flour-
ish? In the life portrait, the life theme is repeated and emphasized to make sure it fits
the client well. The life theme will bring together the very different career stories that the
client has told. Sometimes career stories have conflicting information or views. The life
portrait will try to bridge these different views and present a theme rather than a set of
disjointed ideas. The life portrait should represent the ruling passion of the client s life
(Savickas 2005a, 2011a). The client wants to make choices, and the life portrait will
help the client to decide among choices. When this is done, the client and the counselor
go over the life portrait. In the life portrait, there is a movement from symptoms to
strength that should help clients feel that they can master past problems and do some-
thing about them. The counselor is the storyteller, and the client is the editor. The client
will design a story to fit as accurately as possible. Restating the obvious can be helpful
because it is important to acknowledge all aspects of the client s life portrait. The coun-
selor is curious about the client, never certain. The counselor will ask, What am I miss-
ing? The portrait is a tentative sketch, not the counselor telling the client what he or she
thinks the life portrait is. It should represent a portrait that that client feels is accurate.
The counselor might discuss Tiffany s life portrait in this way. In this example, the life
portrait is based on the limited information provided in Tiffany s Career Style Interview
that focuses on her early recollections.
CO: Tiffany, I want to present this portrait of your life that I have come up with. It cer-
tainly is not final. I very much want your input in it, and please disagree with me if you like.
You are very concerned about others, especially people who are not allowed or are unable
to mix in with others. You want to help them when they experience distress. If you can use
your creativity as well as your concern, it will be pleasing to you. The desire to help others and
to be involved in the lives of others comes out of the wish to observe them when they interact
with you or in other situations. Even though you question your abilities, and this can inter-
fere in doing things that you really want to do, you have the desire to make these changes in
your life so that you can help others You are depressed now because, as a book editor, you
are out of the mix. You are not using your passion and feelings to put life into your work.
You feel like a little girl sitting under a tree watching others engage in life
CL: I think you have captured what is important to me. You also talk about how I am
scared. I m scared of leaving a secure job and going back to graduate school or to con-
sider losing some income if I were to become a psychologist or social worker. I guess
what I would also add is an emphasis on creativity. I like to create and still like to
paint, something I have always liked. However, that is probably less important to me
than what you have put in your life portrait of me.
CO: You seem to be giving a lot of thought to what you are going to do next.
CL: Yes. As we examine my life and what s important to me, I become even more moti-
vated to find what I want to do. Although I am still scared.
CO: I can understand being scared. You hesitate to get up and walk out from the shadow
of the tree into the full mix of life. However, now as you narrate your story, you are
developing your own strengths and resources so that you can take actions to help you.
[Savickas (2005a) uses the metaphor of the girl sitting under the tree. It is a way for the
counselor to make clear that a struggle is going on as the client tries to move in a new
direction. It is also a way of telling the client that she began to move away from the
security of the tree when she sought career counseling.]
CL: That s an interesting way of putting it. I do feel like I m making some movements to
free myself.
CO: To help you to move on, we have looked at your resources. You have the determina-
tion to figure out what you want to do. You also have demonstrated ability to work
with people and have them appreciate your efforts. Your hard work is also another
one of your abilities. [In career construction theory, Savickas emphasizes the impor-
tance of encouraging and supporting client strengths.]
CL: That is a help to me to feel more motivated to change and to take the risks that are
involved in looking at the helping professions as a possible alternative for me.
CO: Your initial reluctance to move and your lack of certainty about direction have now
turned to thinking about first steps. In fact, you may be quite skilled at helping people
in pain learn to take steps to paint their lives a brighter color. [In his work, Savickas
sees the problem as being part of the solution. It is a very positive way to view what the
client is doing and not to criticize her for being indecisive; rather, it encourages her to
take action.]
At this point, the counselor and Tiffany have come to the conclusion that staying in
her current assistant editor position is not a good solution for her and does not fit her
plot or story. She makes clear also that she has made progress in dealing with her pro-
crastination and is more excited about change. Now she wants to clarify more specifically
what type of career she wants to consider within the helping professions. She also needs
to address how much schooling she is willing to undertake to reach her objectives.
The counselor shows Tiffany two resources that she can use. First, she can use the
Occupation Finder that Holland developed to find a list of occupations that would match
different Holland codes. The other is the Occupational Outlook Handbook (2013), which
is available in print or online. The counselor asks Tiffany to look at these before their
next meeting to get an idea of which occupations might best fit into her life story.
At their next meeting, Tiffany explained to the counselor that she had looked at the
Occupation Finder to get some ideas of careers, but found the Occupational Outlook
Handbook to be most helpful. As she talked about social work, psychiatry, clinical psy-
chology, occupational therapy, and vocational rehabilitation occupations, she was quite
excited. She was able to articulate how all of these related to her vocational personality,
which was primarily social. As she compared the five occupations that most interested
her, she was able to identify aspects of occupations that did not fit her life plan as well
as those that did. For Tiffany, psychiatry and clinical psychology would require more
than six years of training in graduate school. The increased income that these fields
would offer her did not seem to be worth the investment both financially and in terms
of eagerness to get started working. Also, Tiffany had less interest in the medical settings
that are part of occupational therapy and vocational rehabilitation counseling. Social
work was becoming more and more attractive to her. She had taken action on her own
to talk to a friend of her mother s who was a social worker in the school system. Tiffany
was interested in the work that was described and the opportunity to work with children
from diverse cultural backgrounds. She and her mother s friend made a date for Tiffany
to visit her at work. The counselor was impressed with how Tiffany had overcome her
procrastination and how Tiffany was excited by possible changes. The counselor encour-
aged and reinforced Tiffany s actions to fill out her narrative in a way that felt very sat-
isfying to Tiffany.
In this case, I have tried to illustrate the importance of the client s role in career con-
struction theory. Although the counselor may have guesses about what the next chapter
will be in the client s life, that is not important. Being able to predict the client next
action or ultimate choice does not matter. What is important is that the counselor
should help the client to further the story in a way that is satisfying to the client and
helps the client become more in control of and confident about his or her ability to man-
age the future. Knowing his or her vocational personality and preferred work environ-
ments can help the client take satisfying action. The success formula and the life
portrait are means for clarifying and encouraging the client to look into ways to change
his or her life so that life tasks become more meaningful and satisfying.
Savickas makes uses of many techniques in his work. Savickas and Hartung (2012)
include many of these techniques in their My Career Story: An Autobiographical Work-
book for Life-Career Success. Other counselors have found these and similar techniques
to be helpful. For example, Severy (2008) has developed an online career counseling in-
tervention that uses narrative themes such as Narrative Themes: Early Childhood Recol-
lections, Narrative Themes: Autobiography, Significant Others: Casting Your Characters,
and several other exercises similar to ones that Savickas uses. In another study using nar-
rative techniques, Reid and West (2011) make use of assessment topics described by Sa-
vickas, such as role models, magazines, hobbies, books, and mottos. In this way,
counselors can adapt and use Savickas s narrative approach in their own work.
The Role of Assessment Instruments

Standard interest inventories, values inventories, and tests of ability and achievement
play a minor role in constructivist career counseling. Because constructivist counselors
are interested in how their clients see reality, applying inventories or tests that are used
for all individuals may not help in understanding the perceptual world of the client. In
narrative career counseling, Cochran (1997) shows how traditional tests and inventories
can be integrated with constructivist methods, such as the Vocational Card Sort (VCS),
drawing, and anecdotes, in the first episode of his model to elaborate a career problem.
Savickas (2005b) uses the Self-Directed Search (SDS) or the Strong Interest Inventory
(SII) if the client wants to use an inventory. His Career Style Interview is the major as-
sessment instrument that he uses to understand client stories. In their overview of quali-
tative career assessments, Whiston and Rahardja (2005) discuss the advantages of using a
constructivist approach. They emphasize that a constructivist approach acknowledges
that one s view of the world is constantly changing and is influenced by historical and
cultural events. Additionally, a constructivist approach is an excellent way to understand
the impact of cultural issues on clients. This last point is also made by Guichard and
Lenz (2005) in their suggestions that constructivist approaches can be used with popula-
tions from many different countries because of the constructivist emphasis on how each
client sees the world. There are several constructivist assessment methods that are not
mentioned in this chapter but have been used by constructivist counselors (Schultheiss,
2005). These include a retrospective construction of parental influence to try to under-
stand influences on the development of client career narratives. Making a videotape of a
parent and adolescent discussing a career issue and then having the parent and adoles-
cent comment on career goals and other career issues of the adolescent can be helpful
(Domene, Socholotiuk, & Young, 2011; Marshall, Young, Domene, & Zaidman-Zait,
2008).
Because constructivist and narrative career counselors are focused on understanding
the client s perception of their career problems and the constructs that they use to see
their world, constructivist counselors are cautious about using instruments that impose
a test or inventory developer s set of constructs on the client.
The Role of Occupational Information

Constructivist and narrative career counselors are concerned not only with the con-
structs that individuals use to see themselves but also with the constructs that they use
in viewing the world around them. Each of the two approaches discussed in this chapter
has similar but slightly different perspectives on integrating occupational information
into career counseling.
Cochran (1997) emphasizes the importance of action on the part of the client. After
clients tell their stories, they are involved in three enactment episodes. All three involve
active exploration and occupational research. It is not enough for the client to just read
about occupations. In the reality construction episode, clients may do volunteer work,
visit people at work, interview workers, or discuss occupations with relatives or friends.
In the changing a life structure episode, clients focus on the work that they do, studying
the effects on their lives. As clients try out new activities, their lives change, and they can
examine how they react to different occupational tasks. When enacting a role, clients live
out roles that they are interested in exploring. On page 305, an example was given of
how Dennis tried different supervisory assignments and tasks. This increased his knowl-
edge of relevant occupational information.
In career construction theory, Savickas (2005b, 2011a) integrates occupational infor-
mation into the career counseling process after the Career Style Interview has been com-
pleted. Using Holland s theory, he has clients make use of the Occupational Finder as a
bridge to occupational information. In the example with Tiffany, reference is made to the
Occupational Outlook Handbook (2013) as a source of information. However, career con-
struction counselors might also make use of the Occupational Information Network
(O*NET), the Guide for Occupational Exploration, career brochures and pamphlets, and
other occupational information. To construct a full story about one s career, it is neces-
sary to take action to find out more about occupations. Examples include networking
with friends, parents friends, former employers, and others who might be able to help
individuals find enough information about occupations so that they can see if the occu-
pation fits into the plot of their narrative.
Applying the Theories to Women

and Culturally Diverse Populations
From a constructivist point of view, culture and gender interact within the context of
client actions (Young et al., 2007; Young, Marshall, Valach et al., 2011). Thus, stories or
histories exist within a cultural context. How one views an action can have varying cul-
tural interpretations. For example, putting an arm around a coworker can be seen as
friendly encouragement or sexual harassment. One s cultural background may influence
how one interprets such an event.
Both gender and culture guide how individuals develop attitudes, skills, and values
(Cochran, 1997). For example, in North America, some cultural stereotypes suggest that
women are not as skilled as men in math. Other cultural narratives may guide certain
views, such as Asian individuals prefer science to all other fields. Cochran cautions that
cultural narratives are only one aspect of what individuals learn. Some cultural systems
are closely related to vocational expectations. For example, caste systems in India often
were linked with certain types of occupations, whether they are custodial, small business,
or other occupations.
Constructivist approaches to career counseling provide an open way of viewing the
client. The focus is on how the client sees the world. Thus the counselor is careful to
observe that his or her own cultural views do not obstruct the understanding of the cli-
nt s narrative. In examining career theory from an international perspective, Guichard
and Lenz (2005) show how a constructivist viewpoint can be an asset in dealing with
many diverse cultural attitudes and traditions regarding work by valuing individual nar-
ratives. In working with gifted female adolescents, the use of constructivist techniques
such as the Vocational Card Sort, lifelines, and similar techniques are suggested as a
way to help gifted female adolescents examine their life stories and consider new actions
(Maxwell, 2007). For mothers who are reentering the work force, constructivist ap-
proaches can be helpful in exploring new career paths (Locke & Gibbons, 2008). Cuzzo-
crea (2011) studied youth in England and Italy. In England, young people were
concerned about working and see themselves as workers, whereas in Italy, young people
see themselves as uncommitted and unsure for a longer time than youth in England.
Studying aboriginal people in Canada, Young et al. (2007) focused on the action of fam-
ilies as they construct projects about their adolescents. Young (2009) has also described
the Canadian culture as a field of action or activity that is changing and complex. For
example, Young observed the effectiveness of the talking circle, a group of people
whom the adolescent and his or her family have selected to help with development into
adulthood.
Young and colleagues have studied the career project in adolescents. They see
project as a series of actions that adolescents and their parents take that is related to the
adolescents choice of career (Young et al., 2001, 2006, 2007). Young et al. (2001) studied
20 pairs (each pair included one adolescent and one parent) for 6 months by videotaping
two parent adolescent conversations for each pair. They found that the career projects
were related to four other significant projects: the relationship, identity, parenting, and
culture. Young, Valach, Ball, Turkel, and Wong (2003) then studied 6 of the parent
adolescent pairs who were Chinese Canadian. They found that the career project of these
pairs was closely related to other projects, especially the cultural project. The career proj-
ect of the Chinese Canadian pairs were mainly determined by the parent and accepted
by the adolescent, both in terms of the adolescent s interests and future goals. Typically,
Chinese Canadian parents saw the need to structure career goals and to take actions that
would help to achieve these goals. In another study of pairs of 19 parents and adoles-
cents, career development goals and actions were found to vary as to how important
they were in the parent adolescent relationships (Young et al., 2006). Projects involving
career exploration were common with mother son groups, whereas conflict and avoiding
conflict was more common in mother daughter projects (Domene, Arim, & Young,
2007). In another study of 10 mother daughter pairs and 8 mother son pairs, working
toward developing a successful adulthood, mother daughter pairs were usually more
active in experiencing these projects and had less conflict than mother son pairs
(Domene et al., 2011). These findings emphasize the importance of culture and family
relationships in the development of career goals as well as the role of parents in the con-
struction of career projects.
Constructivist and narrative career counselors attend to cultural components of stor-
ies, as well as stories about culture. Such constructs can help counselors understand the
value systems of their clients. Each client s story, whether referring to gender, culture, or
some other topic, provides a way of perceiving that client s construction of reality.
Counselor Issues
Because the focus of constructivist and narrative approaches to career counseling is on
understanding the way clients view reality, it is important for counselors to be aware of
their own construction of reality and its relationship to significant constructs of clients.
For example, if the prestige of an occupation is irrelevant to the counselor but is relevant
to the client, it is important that the counselor s values do not interfere with the client
valuing of prestige.
There are some differences in counselor issues between the two approaches discussed
in this chapter. When using the narrative approach to career counseling, counselors are
focused on the client s story. When listening to the client s history, counselors may
be reminded of their own history and see differences between the two. Seeing these
differences can be advantageous or disadvantageous to the counselor depending on how

they affect the counselor s perception of the clients stories. In Savickas career construc
tion theory, there is a specific structure for dealing with clients. This can put the coun-
selor in a directive role in which the counselor asks questions that fit a structure.
Therefore, it is helpful, as Savickas does, to be a respectful audience by continually asking
the client to comment on counselor understandings and story summaries, such as the
counselor s presentation of the success formula and life portrait that has been developed
for the client. By seeing the client as the author of the narrative plot, the counselor as
audience tries to avoid adding pieces to the client s story that do not fit the client.
Summary
This chapter has focused on two different approaches to maturity. Adler s theory of counseling and psychother-
constructivist career counseling. Both narrative career apy is the source of the concept of life themes. The
counseling and career construction theory have in com- assessment method that is used is called the Career
mon their attention to clients perceptions of reality. Style Interview. It includes questions about role mod-
The narrative approach to career counseling views els, favorite magazines and television shows, books,
the client s story as the focus of career counseling. In hobbies, favorite sayings, and school subjects. Early re-
this approach, the client is seen as an active player, collections about past events are also important aspects
someone responsible for making changes in his or her of the Career Style Interview. Seven techniques for dis-
environment. Cochran describes seven episodes that cussing vocational personality, career adaptability, and
counselors use in working with clients. The first three life themes are described in the chapter. All are based
episodes involve the construction of career narratives: on understanding the client s narrative, or story, and
elaborating a career problem, composing a life, and on helping the client act on a career choice.
founding a future narrative. The next three episodes Both approaches provide different ways of viewing
emphasize enactment: constructing a reality, changing the career counseling process. A significant feature of
a life structure, and enacting a role. The final episode is these approaches is specific assessment and career
crystallizing a career decision. counseling techniques for counselors to use to help cli-
Career construction theory is a meta-theory that ents construct their reality. Differences between the two
makes use of other theories in understanding the client. approaches tend to focus on ways of assessing clients
Holland s theory is used in listening to the client perceptions of their value or construct systems and
vocational personality. Super s stage theory (p. 238) is whether or not to integrate other career theories into
used as a basis for Savickas s transitional tasks, which the counseling process. Cochran s narrative approach
include career adaptability. The dimensions of career does not make use of other theories, but Savickas
(psychosocial) adaptability for dealing with transitions reer construction theory does integrate concepts from
are a significant modification of Super s view of career other theories.
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CHAPTE R 11

Constructivist and Narrative

THEORY Narrative approaches have been derived from constructivism. Constructivism is a

Goals of Assessment in Narrative Counseling

Cochran’s Narrative Career Counseling

Elaborating a Career Problem

Too much conformity, too controlling

Lack talent in artistic work

Restricted, being looked down on

Fear of being held accountable for bad results

Composing a Life History

Eliciting a Future Narrative

Changing a Life Structure

Savickas’s Career Construction Theory

Vocational Personality—Holland’s Theory

Developmental Tasks of Career Adaptability

Dimensions of Career Adaptability

occupational alternatives, to take risks, or to do different types of volunteer work or part-

Lifestyle According to Adler, the lifestyle is typically developed by the ages of 4 to 6.

interested in work because he saw it as a reflection of both personality and life

Career Counseling Using the Career Construction Interview

Career Style Interview with Tiffany

Career Counseling Using Career Construction Theory

Examining Headlines of the Recollections The counselor asked Tiffany to come

Appraising Vocational Personality In career construction theory, Holland s six

TABLE 11 . SUCCESS FORMULA COMPONENTS

SOCIAL ENTERPRISING CONVENTIONAL

The Role of Assessment Instruments

The Role of Occupational Information

Applying the Theories to Women

differences can be advantageous or disadvantageous to the counselor depending on how

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