Career Counselling: The Usefulness of the Career Interest Profile (CIP)

This study reports the findings from exploratory career counselling with Italian undergraduate university students using the Career Interest Profile (CIP). The participants (n = 178, females = 51.69%; mean age 22.28, SD = 1.59 years) received elective career counselling on campus. The students completed the CIP and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). Data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The CIP yielded satisfactory results with regard to trustworthiness and intercorrelations with the SDS and provides career counsellors with a useful instrument for the identification of interest profiles of Italian undergraduate university students. Participants reported being enabled to explore prospective career interest areas using career-story narratives for constructing life trajectories and enhanced development of their career stories.     

Career Counselling in the 21st Century: A Reaction Article

This article reviews the articles on career counselling in the special edition of the Journal of Psychology in Africa. A thematic analysis to the content of the articles was conducted and common themes extrapolated. The main themes were (a) the shift toward postmodern career counselling, (b) the importance of cultural sensitivity in career counselling practice and (c) adolescents career development. This is followed by a reaction comment.     

Career Indecision: A Summary of the Research and Implications for Counselling

The vocationally-indecisive individual presents a major counselling problem. The theory and research behind career indecision is discussed and a counselling approach based on identity formation is outlined. Four identity statuses — Identity Achievements, Foreclosures, Identity Diffusions, and Moratoriums — are described and counselling approaches for each are explored.     

Life Design Career Counselling with an Abandoned Adolescent: A Case Study

This article describes the value of life design counselling with an abandoned adolescent female. The participant was selected purposively from among a group of abandoned adolescent females who had expressed a need for career counselling. The life intervention comprised two 90-minute sessions per week over a period of a month. Life design data included collage, family constellation, life line, career style interview, asset map and life chapters. Following the intervention, the participant demonstrated career adaptability and an eagerness to take an active part in her evolving life story. Life design counselling has potential to meet the career counselling needs of children with neglect and abandonment experience.     

Evaluating Career Structures: An Essential Input to Effective Career Management and Counselling

Careers take place within the structures of jobs and career paths which organisations evolve over time. Career opportunities for individuals are largely determined by the factors which influence the dynamics of these structures. Simple techniques exist for picturing career structures and interpreting recent career patterns. Numerical models are well established which estimate future career opportunities. Although career patterns are changing, the effective use of internal labour markets is of increasing importance. Those involved in managing careers or counselling individuals should be better informed in this area and use information to tailor career moves and development activity to the reality of where and when career opportunities are likely to be available.     

The Use of Focussed Repertory Grids in Counselling

This article outlines the rationale for a method of cluster analysis of repertorygrid information which, unlike many existing methods of grid analysis, is convenient to interpret and is meaningful in the client's own language. An approach to grid-based interaction is described, together with five strategies for managing that interaction. To exemplify these, three case studies are quoted.     

The Use of Progressive Relaxation and Hypnosis in Counselling Secondary-School Pupils

Counselling methods involving progressive relaxation and hypnosis are sometimes regarded as being mysterious and alarmingly innovatory, particularly within the context of the secondary-school system. The implications for counselling practice of the use of such methods are considered. Some ways in which they have been used to help young people of secondary-school age are outlined. A number of illustrative case-studies are given, and a relatively unsuccessful case-study is included.     

Rehabilitation Counselling: The Development of a New Course Specialism in British Counselling

The introduction of rehabilitation counselling to the UK in 1990-initially as a diploma and now as an MSc—is described. The worldwide development of rehabilitation counselling from its beginnings in America in the 1950s is outlined, highlighting key areas of debate. Evidence of the need for rehabilitation counselling in the UK is presented, and the current course is described with reference to its integrative counselling approach and specialist areas of enquiry. The future development of rehabilitation counselling in the UK is considered, emphasising the need for this specialism as we move towards more holistic models of care.     

Counselling in general practice: A review

The development of counselling has brought enthusiastic attempts to pioneer its application to a diversity of fields. One obvious target has been primary-care and the general practitioner's surgery, where there has been an increase in demand for help with 'life-problems' and a growing reluctance to prescribe drugs of doubtful benefit. The need for both time and expertise to respond appropriately has made counsellors welcome additions to many surgery teams. However, different professions and volunteer groups compete for the role; each cites evidence of its own appropriateness, rarely acknowledging, and never assessing, the contributions of others. Hence this attempt to bring together the findings of these disparate groups to demonstrate their undoubted similarities and to assess the value of 'counselling' intervention in general practice.     

The Functioning of British Counselling Hotlines: A Pilot Study

A role-player called ten counselling hotlines and presented them with a personal problem. According to the writer's assessment, the hotlines functioned at levels varying from good to less than minimally facilitative.     

Using REBT in the Treatment of Restless Leg Syndrome: A Case-Study

This paper describes a case study of a middle-aged woman with restless leg syndrome (RLS) and the course of her treatment using rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Although the empirical support is somewhat limited, published literature suggests the potential effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating clients with RLS. This client sought treatment for chronic pain consistent with RLS which had affected her quality of life and daily functioning. She was assessed using a battery of quantitative measures. Conceptualization and treatment from an REBT perspective is discussed. The client was seen for six sessions. Treatment involved a combination of REBT disputing and cognitive restructuring techniques and behavioral interventions. Homework was given after each session. Between-meeting progress was assessed at each session using the Outcome Questionnaire and a scale measuring the client’s rational and irrational beliefs. The client reported a steady reduction in symptoms with associated improvements in sleep and daily functioning over the course of the six-session intervention. Therapeutic gains were maintained at 8-months follow-up.     

Counselling with Biofeedback: A Review

Biofeedback increasingly appears to be used as an aid to specified counselling goals. A typical counselling situation using galvanic skin reflex (skin biofeedback) is analysed. The ethical and practical challenges involved in biofeedback-aided counselling are considered.     

Counselling effectiveness: A critical discussion

Studies of counselling effectiveness are examined critically with respect to the measures they use, their methodological weaknesses, and problems of interpretation. The deficiencies of various measuring devices — including unstructured accounts, structured questionnaires, pre- and post-counselling ratings, physiological indicators, experimental investigations, and social actions effects — are discussed. Many of the experiments are criticised for poor design and over-interpretation of findings. Fundamental methodological problems are also discussed, including the extent to which the effectiveness of counselling can appropriately be examined by existing scientific methods. More knowledge of counselling processes is required before there can be any satisfactory measurement of counselling effects.     

Counselling Supervision: The British context

Counselling/psychotherapy supervision is on the verge of a professional breakthrough in Britain today. Training courses are emerging, accreditation for supervisors is in progress and a Code of Ethics for Supervisors is finalised. Yet supervision is still little understood. There are few agreed definitions and certainly no agreed tasks, roles, or even goals of supervision. Conflict still abounds about whether it is more akin to therapy than to education, about whether or not it shold be evaluative, and about what areas of counselling it should cover. Supervisors are poorly trained in supervision and areas such as the legal implications and responsibilities of supervision not clear and often not even considered important. What research has been done is confined largely to United States and few attempts have been made to apply findings to Britain, e.g. how valid in Britain is the current research on Developmental Models of supervision which outline the stages through which counsellors in training travel.

Supervision is still tied to counselling theory despite its efforts to become a discipline on its own. Most supervisors in Britain seem to apply their theory of counselling to supervision setting. However, some of the conflicts are being faced and some questions raised about the future of supervision, about the kind of relationship involved, about its relationship to counselling. This article raises some current issues in the field and asks the kinds of questions that need answering before we are able to talk about a British understanding and application of counselling supervision.     

Exploring the Use of a Self-Help Manual in Marital Counselling

A small self-help manual composed of seven exercises for married couples was produced. Married couples from a Christian community were invited to participate in the use of the manual and to work through the exercises for at least two hours per week. Seven of the couples agreed to be interviewed at the close of the project and to share their experiences, insights and observations. Five of the seven couples reported finding the manual distinctly helpful. One couple found no benefit from the exercises but were sufficiently interested to complete the project. The remaining couple regarded the exercises as largely unhelpful and expressed reservations about their use. The results of this exploratory research suggest that the use of a self-help manual such as the one produced here is beneficial to some married couples. There are, however, limitations. These limitations are explored and discussed, and suggestions for further research are presented.     

A personal view: Counselling and women

This personal view explores a number of gender issues relating to counselling and women clients. Attention is drawn to the lack of content of many training courses in the psychology, sociology and biology of women. Links are drawn between a woman's position in society and mental health. It is argued that counsellors need to be alert and sensitive to women's special needs and to avoid an emphasis on intra-psychic aspects at the expense of acknowledgment of societal pressures.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Counselling: A New Approach

This paper describes the outcome of a research and development project concerned to construct a computer aid for careers advisers and career decision-makers which differs in basic philosophy and design from others currentiy in the field. The resulting Careers Decision Aiding System (CDAS) is principally concerned with improving the quality of the decision-making strategy employed by clients by raising their awareness of the way in which their career choice is made, ratherthan with employing computer technology to attempt to match people to careers. The use of the CDAS by clients and careers advisers is illustrated by two case-studies.