"This book brings together eminent global theorists and practitioners to share their views on the evolution of career counselling in recent decades. Multiple changes of a fundamental and complex nature, as well as related challenges in the world of work, have necessitated career counselling to undergo such an evolution. The authors examine the future nature and scope of new directions in the field of career counselling psychology and they critically reflect on, as well as promote the predominant theoretical and conceptual framework of the field of career counselling. The latest models and methods in and for the 21st century are explored and teased out, including Mark Savickas’ proposal to shift the focus in interventions from conceptualising the self as content to seeing the self as a process. This approach is in keeping with the notion of career as a story and consistent with leading theories such as Jean Guichard’s self-construction framework and the life design paradigm. The authors deliver an avant garde text that is easy to read and use without diluting the conceptual and terminological complexities of the field.
The book is an invaluable resource for new, emerging and experienced researchers, academics, scholars, researchers, psychologists, social workers, teachers and clients:
• It merges what is known about the field with emerging approaches.
• It gives an overview of theoretical paradigms that can be applied to a changing world of work.
• It makes a critical analysis of germane questions such as “What does the future hold for the field of career counselling and how can challenges be turned into opportunities?” and “How can different paradigms, approaches and strategies be harnessed to promote clients’ career-life wellbeing and resilience?”.
• It facilitates an understanding of the skills necessary to deal with career-related transitions, challenges and barriers to help people acquire transferable career-life skills and career(-choice) readiness.
• It examines the importance of career adaptability and how people can develop this vital 21st century (survival) competency.
• It challenges career counsellors to grasp and acquire skills to promote and advocate social justice agendas.
• It promotes and demonstrates the exciting and promising notion of dialogue writing to enhance the dialogical work of the career counsellor and client.
Individually and collectively, the authors team up to blend retrospect and prospect, and they make a concerted effort to convert 21st century challenges and frontiers in career counselling into opportunities, hurt into hope, hopelessness into inspiration."
