Until
the first day of class, I had not considered career guidance to be an aspect of
Clinical Psychology. In fact,
until the overview of the syllabus I was under the false impression that the
course was about how I could expect to develop in my own chosen career. I have very little knowledge of career
guidance and I was never a consumer of the service. After the first chapter of the text, I feel quite skeptical
of the topic. There lacked a clear
exhibit of the foundational theories that propel the need to improve career
education and provide more access to career guidance. In chapter one of Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development the authors
layout significant events in the history of career guidance and education (Brown, 2012). Publications like the Dictionary of
Occupational Titles in the 1930s cataloged available fields, professions,
and job descriptions for the first time but I just can’t seem to grasp why this
is so important!
Intuitively
I understand that a person’s daily working life can have a monumental effect on
mental health. I have personally
experienced depression triggered by an awful working experience. For two years I had been working with a
difficult client with whom boundaries were difficult to maintain due to his
approved treatment hours and the duality of working in both the school and home.
An adult suffering psychologically
because of a job can be helped with improved coping skills, alternative
cognitions, or motivation to find a new position. Guidance should come from a professional who is
knowledgeable about a variety of careers and educational requirements. Gender, culture, race, and education
all have the possibility of influencing the jobs available to a client. Therefore, the professional should be
trained to conceptualize how those personal factors manifest to bring about the
client’s unique circumstances. The
relevance of career guidance to an adult who is experiencing turmoil at
work. High school students are
especially primed for career guidance as they get closer to graduation and
making educational decisions for the future, but its application to elementary
school curriculum is not as obvious.
Is
there any evidence that children who receive career education early in their
schooling are more satisfied with their job in adulthood? Is the goal of career education to
expose children to a variety of available professions or to teach job
skills? Can it be shown that the
career information provided in elementary school is retained years later? None of these queries were granted a
satisfactory answer in the text and I feel they need to be answered for career
education to be perceived as necessary and effective.
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
