SCOPE: A Comprehensive-Sequential Approach to Career Counseling

SCOPE is a comprehensive career-counseling program presently in operation at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey. It consists of a basic program plus a cluster of supplemental, optional exercises. The basic program has a sequence of four career-planning phases, one of which applies to each undergraduate year. Efforts are made to process students systematically through the entire basic program. An individual checklist kept for each participating student provides an internal mechanism for program evaluation and modification. Early results suggest effectiveness and positive student reactions.     

A Stage Approach to Career Counseling With Christian Women

Almost 75% of married women ages 25–54 years are in the labor force in the United States. Many are in occupations that are below their potential or are not personally satisfying. Lack of role satisfaction can result in depression, but the career issues of women in treatment are often ignored. Christian women may be particularly vulnerable to role dissatisfaction. The authors offer a stage model for assessment of Christian women who present with symptoms of depression, in hopes of addressing issues of role satisfaction from work and lessening depressive symptoms.     

Relationship Between a Feminist Approach to Career Counseling and Career Self-Efficacy Beliefs

To determine whether liberal feminist and conventional approaches to career counseling might differentially affect women's career self-efficacy beliefs, 40 college women heard audiotapes of career counseling and provided ratings of their own career self-efficacy. Analysis supported the suggestion that a feminist approach to career counseling can have a significantly more positive effect on career self-efficacy than a conventional approach. This was true for ratings on the category of nontraditional careers as well as for overall career self-efficacy ratings.     

A Relational Approach to Career Counseling: Theoretical Integration and Practical Application

This article reviews the current status of career theory in practice and presents a theoretical overview of relational theory and its logical extension to the career domain. Despite the emergence of literature regarding the interconnectedness of career progress and the quality of relationships in one's life (e.g., D. L. Blustein, 2001; D. L. Blustein, M. S. Prezioso, & D. E. P. Schultheiss, 1995; D. E. P. Schultheiss, H. M. Kress, A. J. Manzi, & J. M. Glasscock, 2001), counseling practice is limited by the absence of a meaningful approach to intervene in clients' relational and career worlds. The relational career counseling approach moves counseling toward a contextually based relational perspective to facilitating career progress. This approach is illustrated with a case example.     

Client-Centered Reflections on Career Decision Making

This article offers some reflections about the career decision-making process that are congruent with client-centered philosophy.     

Marriage Counseling: A Christian Approach to Counseling Couples

An approach to marriage counseling aimed at Christian couples is described. The theoretical bases of the approach are cognitive behavioral therapy and structural and strategic marital therapies. Techniques are drawn from various schools of marriage therapy. Shared Christian values between counselor and clients are used to promote increased marital commitment, marital satisfaction, and personal spiritual growth. Marital satisfaction might be increased through helping the couple increase their intimacy, enhance their communication, improve their conflict management, and forgive each other for past and present hurts.     

A Model for Individual Career Counseling

The focus of the article is on a visual model for individual career counseling. The model takes into account psychological, social, and economic factors and describes decision making as a journey with four discernible stages.     

Linking Career Counseling to Personality Disorders

This article relates personality disorders to career development issues and counseling interventions. Case examples suggesting career-focused treatment interventions for dependent, borderline, obsessive-compulsive, and passive-aggressive personality disorders are presented.     

A Case for Uncertainty in Career Counseling

This article suggests that an important aspect of the career decision-making process is the awareness that uncertainty (i.e., “1 don't know”) is normal, natural, and most likely unavoidable. The essential message of this article is that it is as useful, and even vocationally mature, to be both certain and uncertain about making a career decision.     

The Evolution of Trait-and-Factor Career Counseling: A Person × Environment Fit Approach

This article illustrates how the trait-and-factor model of career counseling has evolved into a person × environment fit approach. Criticisms of the original model are presented and then rebutted by clarifying misconceptions and noting advances in theory and practice. Specifically, theoretical advances include the addition of dynamic assumptions underlying the model and the development of mature theories of career choice and adjustment. Counseling advances include use of more comprehensive diagnostic schemes, explication of the counseling process, and a more sophisticated understanding of counselor and client interactions. Finally, the role of differential diagnosis, problem-solving interventions, and psychometric information within this approach are clarified.     

A Constructive Approach to Counseling and Psychotherapy Supervision

Clinical supervision is central to the successful training and ongoing professional development of counselors and psychotherapists. Although clinical supervision shares much in common with psychotherapy, it is a distinct activity from psychotherapy that requires its own distinct theories and techniques (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014). In this article, an approach to clinical supervision (which I refer to as constructive clinical supervision) that is grounded in constructivist principles of learning, growth, and development is presented. In addition to outlining the key constructivist principles that have influenced this approach, I also provide supervision strategies that can be used to facilitate critical self-reflection in supervisees, which includes establishing a solid relationship, asking reflective questions, and implementing reflective-based activities. Additionally, guidelines for conducting supervisee assessment and evaluation in ways consistent with constructivist thinking are described.     

Career Counseling With Couples

As an outgrowth of the developmental and systemic trends characterizing career counseling in recent years, the role of the family has been highlighted. Nonetheless, inadequate attention has been given to incorporating family members in the career counseling setting with adult clients. This article explores a career counseling paradigm that takes into account the couple dynamics active in the adult's career choice process. Unique elements of the conjoint model, such as couple career assessment, along with directions for further study, are offered.     

Puzzling Your Career: A Self-Responsibility,Self-Acceptance Approach to Career Planning

Puzzling Your Career is a career planning approach that identifies and resolves unrealistic client expectations by focusing on self-acceptance and self-responsibility.