There were a few things that stuck out the most to me
when reading chapter six in the Brown book. There were several different
theories this chapter discussed, one of them was the Contextualist Theory of
Career. The line that spoke out the most to me about this theory was “the self
is created in an ongoing, goal-oriented pattern that must be understood in the
present” (Brown, 2016). I took this as that life’s experiences should not be
dwelt on. That counselors should try to understand their clients in the present
environments and help them make sense of their life. In the explanation of the
theory, Brown says that you have to start with the event and the things that
lead the person to needing career counseling. Even the word “contextual” in
contextualist, is about the precursors that lead to the event, or the
background to the person’s story. The idea of this theory is to help the client
almost “anticipate the future” (Brown, 2016).
Another thing I liked
about this chapter was that it brought back Savickas from our article from last
week. The one article I had found was talking about this theory from him.
Career Construction Theory. Savickas “believes that the construction of self
occurs primarily through reflective process…interpreting the thoughts as they
occur in context” (Brown, 2016). I liked how this theory of works with the
Contextualist Theory of Career. Savickas also believes that careers are “a work
in progress” and in his theory he gave an approach that has five-steps (Brown,
2016). The five-steps are construction, deconstruction, reconstruction,
cocunstruction, and action.
I think my favorite
theories in this chapter would have to be the chaos theories. The first one was
Complexity, Chaos, and Nonlinear Dynamics: Chaos Theory of Career Development
and Spirituality. The chaos theory was originally developed by mathematicians
and scientists to explain dynamic systems, like weather, world economies, and
the stock market (Brown, 2016). D.P. Bloch took the mathematician’s theory and
applied it career development, and had a list of eleven characteristics to
describe theory. The next chaos related theory was also by Bloch, but this time
she worked with L. Richmond and together they created the Chaos Theory and
Career Counseling. This idea was an “approach that is less rational” than the
one created by Savickas. There are “seven themes that clients may manifest
during the counseling” (Brown, 2016). The seven themes are balance, energy,
community, calling, harmony, unity, and summary. The last chaos theory in this
chapter is A Second Chaos Theory-Based Approach to Career Counseling.
I think the main reason
I like the chaos theories for two reasons. The first reason is because I like
the word chaos, and I’m biased. The second reason is because the world already
chaotic. The Egyptians had Set, who was the God of Chaos. The world may not
have a god that is primarily an agent of chaos, but that idea continued into
many other religions. Chaos has been in the world for a long time, so there
being a chaos theory for career counseling just fits in my mind. The last
theory was about Solution-Focused Career Counseling, and I connected it to
Counseling Theory and Practice I. We are currently working on an ongoing project
that involves solution-focused counseling. I enjoy that I am making connections
to other classes from this class.
Brown, D. (2016). Career information, career counseling, and career development. (11th ed., pp.
91-92). Boston, MA: Pearson.
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