Post One

I enjoyed the first class exercise and found my driving home thinking about objective versus subjective perspectives relating to career development. I like to think that I have learned a great deal about myself during my journey through graduate school. I was not acutely aware that my initial instinct is toward the objective. I consider my experiences, social situations and institutions very influential to my career choice and development. When I think about it, I suppose that I ultimately think of myself as someone who responds to stimuli or situations, rather than thinking about the responses I elicit. In reflecting about my career choice, I immediately thought about educational experiences that impacted how I considered myself as a student and social experiences that gave evidence that I could maybe work closely with other people. My thoughts about my inner world would be a secondary response. Interesting – because I am sure this impacts how I approach others and discovering information about them. I am excited to learn about the theories and find out which one stands out to me.

In answer to the question in our small group assignment considering if career counseling interventions and common mental health counseling interventions are similar, overlapping or disparate – I think they are similar / overlapping – depending on the nature of the career counseling request. Brown (2012) says, “that the process of career counseling involves establishing rapport, assessing the nature of the problem, goal setting, intervention, and termination” (p. 16). That sounds just like mental health counseling. Education, guidance, and activities that increase self-awareness sound very similar to mental health counseling also.

I appreciated how Chapter 1 in Brown (2012) began with discussion of globalization and social justice in the realm of career counseling. I am at the point in graduate school where courses are beginning to dovetail together. The course content in Multicultural Counseling is extremely important to me. In my opinion, supporting social justice and being aware of social injustice seems is an essential component of being an effective counselor in any arena. I am very excited to be in another course that advocates a social justice perspective. I appreciated how Brown says that a government must provide an infrastructure of education, healthcare, and social network for its citizens to take advantage of the global economy. That includes the United States. Many of our citizens do not have equal access and simply cannot apply the old adage, “people can choose to better themselves” (Brown, 2012, p. 7). As I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking about a book I read in the Social Psychology course, Social Animal by David Brooks. Brooks (2011) says that there just is not one root to poverty. Poverty is akin to weeds – you think you’ve pulled the weed but it has insidious roots that just sprout two more weeds (Brooks, 2011). We just can name one source. We need to consider social systems that create disparity – and those roots are just as menacing. We have a responsibility to be politically aware.

I met my friend Kim during my first job after graduating from Penn State. She was a graduate of Millersville. I was a case manager and she was a counselor in a local Youth Development Center. I remember talking about our college experiences. I admired Kim’s intelligence and wit. So I was surprised to hear her describe difficulty in obtaining her degree. She told me how she wasn’t sure she “could make it”, and that she just didn’t know how to study. She spent hours on her course work and wasn’t succeeding. She had to ask for assistance and things improved after that. Kim attended a local city school district throughout high school. The district did not have enough funds to provide recent editions of textbooks or even enough textbooks for each student. Resources were not available to adequately prepare Kim for college, even though she had the intelligence and internal resources to get there. I attended a local suburban school district and rarely struggled with the work. I was more prepared. We don’t all start from the same place. Thank goodness Kim had the perseverance to accomplish her goals – I would have never met her and the field would lack an excellent counselor.

References:

Brooks, D. (2011). Social Animal. New York: Random House.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10^th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.