Chapter 8

Chapter 8 in Brown's Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development (2016) discussed a value-based multicultural approach to career counseling as well as advocating to correct problems that influence whether or not a certain group in society will have problems getting a job or not. brown discusses 8 steps of value-based multicultural career counseling and how to implement them. They are as follows:

Step 1: Assessing cultural variables
This is the task of taking note of ones cultural background and describes ways in which an individual can determine someones cultural background. This is important to note cultural differences and take them into account when dealing with clients of different cultural backgrounds. Becoming informed of different customs and beliefs will help you, as a career counselor, be more effective when counseling a client.

Step 2: Communication style and establishing the relationship
The belief of those in the dominant culture believe their communication styles are the preferred styles. This is a huge misconception. By being negligent of others cultural communication styles can cause a career counselor to come off as aggressive or disrespectful. This will cause unwanted results as a career counselor.

Step 3: Selecting a decision-making model
Determining who will make the decisions of one's career and what the expectations of the client are critical in the career counseling process. Different cultures have different family dynamics, educational opportunities, and financial resources. These differences result in different techniques in the decision making process and should be taken into account.

Step 4: The identification of career issues
Everyone who seeks career counseling has different issues that are going on in their life. Some may not even be able to meet their basic needs. The need for short-term help may be a priority before any ideal career decisions can be met.

Step 5 & 6: The establishment of culturally appropriate goals and the selection of culturally appropriate interventions
A career counselor must be prepared to be the mediator between the client and the clients reference group. The goals that these two groups see fit may differ and cause issues in the clients life. Understanding different social values and expectations will benefit the career counselor and give an outside perspective to the situation.

Step 7: The implementation and evaluation of the interventions used
The active involvement of every party within the career counseling process is very important. Each step in the process begins in the step or multiple steps that proceeds it. The understanding of this and ability to implement what the client has learned in their daily life will benefit the client tremendously.

Step 8: Advocacy
Advocating for equality in the workplace is very important in the role of a career counselor. This issue of inequality is a real problem that many individuals face on a daily basis. Letting the public know,and those who can perform real change, of the problems that most cultural minorities face will help those seeking meaningful careers in the future.

Chapter 8

In chapter 8, Brown (2016) explains how to implement the eight steps of the value based multicultural career counseling system.  Step 1 consists of assessing cultural variables. As counselors, we should be aware and sensitive towards cultural dilemmas that may present themselves within our clients. It’s important to be informed of cultural preferences and affiliations like language, customs, and relationships that could impact the counseling experience.

Step 2 looks at communication style and establishing relationships. Assumptions of preferred verbal and nonverbal communication styles can be culturally insensitive, and could negatively impact the development of a therapeutic relationship with a client. Counselors should take in consideration the cultural differences in verbal styles and values of major subgroups.

Step 3 is selecting a decision-making model. When using a career model, it’s important to understand that there may not be a single model that is used in the counseling process. Counselors should work with clients on finding an appropriate fit that may consist of multiple models that will accomplish the goals and objectives. It’s important to determine who is making the decision. Next, is to identify the decision maker’s expectations, as well as the counselors.

Step 4 is the identification of career issues. If a client is experiencing difficulty in meeting basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter; then the counselor may need to involve short-term help and resources to address these needs. A pattern of identification assessment can be utilized, and begins by asking the client to focus on one activity, and identify times when it was/ and was not enjoyable. It should be explored in more detail to identify themes.

Step 5 and 6 are the establishment of culturally appropriate goals and the selection of culturally appropriate interventions.  Culturally appropriate goals are set by the client. The counselor can then engage in the role of a translator of social values, mediator, and peacemaker that can assist each party involved with agreeing upon mutual objectives.   

Step 7 is the implementation and evaluation of the interventions used. The client would implement the identified strategies to achieve their goals. Counselors will need to transfer skills needed to incorporate the personal and contextual information gained in the assessment process, and apply it within their careers and/or lifestyle. It is important to follow up with clients through evaluations to assess for client satisfaction and the overall quality of the counselor’s work.  

Step 8 is advocacy. Advocacy is used as a way to address issues that affect job entry and any other ways that could limit and/or ostracize individuals in society. Various forms of advocacy exist including transferring skills to clients so that they can be their own advocates or encouraging clients to shadow possible occupations that they are interested in. It requires risk-taking and information, which can be acquire from the Internet. Various websites can help keep counselors and clients updated on current events and developments in the career counseling field.

 

Reference

Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development (11^thed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sassaman-Ch. 11

Chapter 11 was my favorite chapter thus far in the Brown textbook.  I totally understand that learning the theory is necessary, but I have been eager to learn about practical and tangible resources to use with students.  Because of my previous work as a college adviser, I am very familiar with the Occupational Outlook Handbook provided through the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  I’ve grown quite comfortable with the resource and have found it very valuable for personal use as well as for a tool for my students.  Brown (pg. 226) does emphasize the use of O*NET and point out some features that were unique, such as the ability to search for job by level of physical activity.  This future could be extremely useful for students with a disability.  Another positive that O*NET has that I do not think the Occupational Outlook Handbook has is the ability to take inventory measures (such as Holland code) on the website and search by career that way!  Very cool feature.  I will say though that I don’t think these features are obvious, and I think the Occupational Outlook Handbook is more polished and user friendly.  Perhaps O*NET can rebrand their site to make their amazing features more readily available to users. 

In practical use, I’ve relied on the Occupational Outlook Handbook for one main reason: salary.  In particular, salary per geographic area.  Many times, when working with student’s future earning potential is a very real concern for them, and I found this source to be very reliable to give student a basic idea of what can be expected of salary.  Also, the geographic specific feature was extremely helpful for students who wanted to stay close to home or those who had a specific destination in mind.  Since I was serving in a rural area, a lot of students were interested in staying as close as possible to home.  Unfortunately, there is just not a lot of jobs in the area.  This tool made it possible for use to see what jobs are in the area, or lose surrounding area, as well information about where the job they are interested in pursuing is hiring.  Brown does mention the deficiencies with these previously mentioned websites: the lacking of military in formation (pg. 226-227). In my previous work I assisted with the ASVAB (military entrance/aptitude exam) and their resources are not to be underestimated!  They have very helpful information about military careers, as well as civilian careers and connections between them. 

Brown, D. (2016).  Career information, career counseling, and career development, (11th ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: Pearson. 

Chapter 8

            In this weeks readings in chapter 8, I found the section “Developing Your own Theory” to be interesting. I figured that most counselors had their own way of doing things because even just talking to different counselors it is interesting to see their own way of doing something. Reading about it in the book was interesting because there were actually 11 questions that we could ask ourselves when thinking about formulating our own models. Some of these questions were helpful when I was doing my case study this week because it was like I actually had a client that I was working with. I asked myself some of these questions, especially number 9 (how do I motivate unmotivated clients.) It is not that my client is lazy, it is just that she is 50 years old and the only thing she was looking forward too was retiring and I think she felt as though it was too late to make major changes about her career path. I was trying to think of ways that I could motivate her to even look at different options based off of her interests. In Brown chapter 8, Strohmer & Newman, 1983 say that the foundation of most counselors’ “theories” probably stems from two sources: formal theory and informal theory of human functioning. I found this to be interesting because Brown says that we as students in training are left to integrate these formal theories with our personal beliefs. It was really neat having our own client and trying to pick a theory to use with our client. It was harder than I thought but after I chose a theory it was great to get to work with it. I think it was hard for me to pick a theory because I was trying to match it to my client perfectly but that is not going to be the case.

            For the second part of my blog I wanted to talk about the discussion post we did and how helpful I feel O*NET is. O*NET has so much information and most of it is all on one page and I feel after using it a lot this week, it is already easier for me to navigate around on it. I was talking to someone I know that is an OT in a school and I told her that I was using O*NET for my class and she chuckled and said she would be surprised if the teachers and counselors in the school she worked at knew what that was. That was surprising to me because it is such a great and helpful tool that counselors should be using all the time! I liked reading other peoples comments on classmates discussions about how helpful they found O*NET to be as well. It is important as future school counselors that we are comfortable with using sites like this and making sure that we spread awareness of these helpful tools.

Brown, D. (2016). Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development (11^th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Chapter 8

In the reading this week, the two chapters go hand-in-hand with each other. In chapter 2, it is outlined how professional organizations have established prohibitions against not taking race, ethnicity, and culture into consideration in counseling and psychological practice (Brown, 2016, pg. 142). In chapter 8, there are many multicultural adaptations that have been added to help guide counselors through dealing with individuals from different races and cultures. The author suggests that the best practice in doing so would be to conduct a values-based multicultural career counseling method. This method would consist of assessing cultural variable, a culturally appropriate relationship, identification of career issues, facilitation of decision-making process, establishment of culturally appropriate goals, selection of culturally appropriate interventions, the implementation and evaluation of the interventions used, and advocacy (Brown, 2016, pg. 145). As a counselor in practice, reading this was definitely something that I valued. I see a lot of students of many different races, and it is important to know exactly how treat each different student.  I especially enjoyed table 8.1 on page 147. This reminded me of multicultural counseling where we had the opportunity to learn the interpersonal techniques that were appropriate for different cultures and which ones were not. It is refreshing to see that the classes we are taking are all connected and overlap at some levels!

In chapter 2, the ethical career counseling practices were discussed. Sadly, one of the aspects of counseling that we have to worry about is liability lawsuits. By following ethical principles, counselors can avoid the dangers that accompany lawsuits. Following above all, do no harm, be competent, respect clients’ rights to choose their own directions, honor your responsibilities, make accurate public statements, respect counselors and practitioners from other professions, and advocate for clients in need counselors can definitely be well equipped for anything that they may encounter on the job (Brown, 2016, pg. 32). 

The article this week also corresponds very well with the book readings. In all cases, the reading is to enhance our knowledge on culturally appropriate career counseling methods. In the article by Byars-Winston and Foad (2006), they investigate the concept of metacognition. In terms of the article, metacognition is referred to as self-reflecting. Counselors can become more self-aware and can provide a method to uncover hidden personal assumptions they may have. Many of the skills that counselors rely on too get enhanced like flexibility and metacognition (Byars-Winston and Foad, 2006, pg. 197). 

                                                                                        References

Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development (11^thed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 978-0-13-391777-2.

Byars-Winston, A. M., & Fouad, N. A. (2006). Metacognition and Multicultural Competence: Expanding the Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling Model. The Career Development Quarterly, 54(3), 187-201. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2006.tb00151.x

Blog 8

            Chapter 8 was very interesting to read.  This chapter was about multi-cultural approaches to career counseling.  I believe this to be an appropriate topic due to the amount of diversity counselors will encounter within students.  Brown (2016) mentions “Values-Based Multicultural Career Counseling” and the eight steps a counselor should take (pg. 145).  The eight steps are (1) assessing cultural variables, (2) communication style and establishing the relationship, (3) selecting a decision-making model, (4) the identification of career issues, (5) and (6) the establishment of culturally appropriate goals and the selection of culturally appropriate interventions, (7) the implementation and evaluation of the interventions used, and (8) advocacy.  I really enjoyed reading those eight different steps because it takes into consideration the person you are working with and their culture. 

            As a counselor we need to take into account that not every one we are working will, culturally are the same.  What I, the counselor, might find to be appropriate may very well be an insult to others and vice versa.  The one step that caught my attention was step 2 the communication style and establishing the relationship.  I found this to be compelling because Brown (2016) lists figure 8.3 the different “Verbal Styles of the Major Cultural Groups in the United States” (pg. 149).  For example, in that figure Brown (2016) says that those who are culturally whit will speak in a moderate loudness and moderately rapid.  Interruption with this cultural is acceptable and they are very direct.  As compared to those of white cultural, someone in the Asian American cultural will talk soft and rather slow.  Interruption is not acceptable and they may speak very indirect.  It is important to know the differences in language because you do not want to come off as rude or disrespectful to another person’s cultural.

            I will not remember all the different languages and what’s appropriate to cultural and what’s not appropriate to cultural but I appreciate this chapter exposing me to the differences.  Being exposed to such differences will allow me, the counselor, to think twice before becoming offended with different types of language that is used also help me understand the differences amongst students.  When I think that a child’s language or verbal style is “weird” I will double think my reaction and realize this issue could be culturally based and it is no my job as a counselor to judge but to understand and accept the differences.

            

Blog 8- Chapter 2

            Chapter 2 of Brown (2016) focuses on the ethical and legal guidelines and competencies that career counselors need. In particular there are 7 ethical principles that counselors are supposed to follow. These include: do no harm, be competent, respect clients’ rights to choose their own directions, honor your responsibilities, make accurate public statements, respect counselors and practitioners from other professions, and advocate for clients in need (Brown, 2016, p. 31-32). In my undergraduate program of social work, we, also had ethical principles that we were expected to learn and implement in our practice. For the purpose of this blog, I am going to compare the two different sets of principles. In social work, there are 6 broad principles that are based on social work’s core values. The principles are: service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.

The most obvious similarity between the two sets of principles would be that of competence. Both sets have a principle that highlight that idea. It is important for both social workers and counselors to be knowledgeable in their respective fields and to a mastery level. Clients are trusting these practitioners to be able to listen to them and develop an appropriate plan accordingly. Being competent in the field will enable them to do so.

Another similarity would be the principles of advocating for clients in need and social justice. Brown (2016) defines advocacy as, “a process in which the [career development] professional assumes some or all of the responsibility for representing a client…for the purpose of improving the client’s access to resources, services, or jobs (p. 32). School counselors and social workers have to do this. In social work, the practitioner stands up for their clients and fights against the social injustices they face. For school counselors, they will need to advocate for the students.

Lastly, a similarity I noticed was that of respecting clients’ rights to choose their own directions and dignity and worth of a person. Seeing a client’s dignity and worth and looking at them as human beings will lead a counselor or social worker to allow them to make their own decisions. The workers can pass on as much knowledge as they can to their clients, but ultimately, the decisions should be left to them. Empowering our clients to do this will be incredibly beneficial to them in the long run. Even though social work and career counseling are two very different careers, it is evident that they have some similarities. Both fields work to develop relationships with their clients, gain their trust, and do everything they can to help them with what they need.

Reference:

Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development (11thed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN 978-0-13-391777-2.