Career Counseling Over the Lifespan

Abstract

Career counseling over the lifespan has more than an occupational focus, it deals with the person’s entire being with a vision that includes one’s lifespan. Career counseling takes into consideration character development, character skills, life roles, individual life and work history, goals, and obstacles. A career counselor not only assists a client with a career plan, but also with a life plan. This paper focuses on two categories of career counseling. The first focus is the history of career counseling as a field of study with the emphasis on when and why career counseling began (1800s as a study of how the shape of one’s head relates to vocational choice), who and what influenced it (Sizer, Parsons, and Davis), and how it has changed (from an individual/community vocational view to an individual/world lifespan view). The second focus is on the application of career counseling by researching two leaders, John Holland’s and Donald Super’s, contributions to career counseling, their theories and assessments and on the biblical aspects of career counseling and how each theory relates to the Bible.

Career Counseling Over the Lifespan

Seeking the services of a career counselor can provide many benefits. One can gain a deeper understanding of him/herself, gain information on education and careers, gain sills in decision-making, gain support in conducting a job search or applying to higher education, and gain support coping with career transitions (NCDA, “Why Seek Career Counseling, 2007). How a career counselor provides services depends on his or her theoretical approach to career counseling.

Documented career counseling dates back to the mid 1800s with forward thinkers such as Nelson Sizer, ...

... middle of paper ...

...lopment theory. The Career Development

Quarterly, 45(3), 288-292. doi: 11393794)

Pope, M. (2009). Jesse Buttrick Davis (1871-1955): Pioneer of vocational guidance in the

schools. The Career Development Quarterly, 57(3), 248-258.

Pope, M. (2000, Mar). A brief history of career counseling in the United States. The Career

Development Quarterly, 48(3), 194-211. doi: 52191543.

Savickas, M. (2009). Pioneers of the vocational guidance movement: A centennial

celebration. The Career Development Quarterly, 57(3), 194-198. doi: 1668526651.

Savickas, M L. (1994, Sep). Donald Edwin Super: the career of a planful explorer

The Career Development Quarterly. Alexandria: Vol. 43(1), 4-26.

Weinrach, S. G. (1996). The phychological and vocational interest patterns of Donald

Super and John Holland. Journal of Counseling and Development : JCD, 75(1), 5-16. doi: 10560445.