Blog 14

Blog 14

Even though Brown posits that Gysber’s (1984) goals would be more attainable that Herr’s (1974), I felt much more of a connection (that sounds a little too romantic; maybe call it optimism?) about Herr’s goals. I believe that narrowing down guidance programs to specific objectives (Brown, 2012) is a fantastic idea. In previous chapters a lot of times guidance programs are narrowed down by age group or level of schooling, but I think, building off of this goal, someone could even create guidance programs that were specific to a certain type of job. This way, similar to having a group of same-age high school students work through the stress of applying to college, clients could see how quickly others are moving along in the process toward their goal and be motivated or weeded out. That sounds a bit dismal, I see that now that I’ve typed it out, but I feel like similar-interest groups working together could create a positive camaraderie or a competitive spirit which, in some fields, is necessary to know exists.

I was a little confused on Herr’s second step, so perhaps someone could provide some clarification here. When I think of a counselor acting as an agent of change, it seems like a very active catalyst-esque role to play. I’m wondering why Herr would describe this as an indirect process from counselor to client. I can agree that I think counselors work best when they let the client explore their own ideas with subtle guidance, it was just the “agent of change” (2012, pg. 374) terminology that threw me.

I really appreciated the goal of counseling being about prevention instead of remediation (Brown, 2012, pg. 374) because I feel like that it a crucial part of what we have been learning about this entire semester. Back in August I was a little skeptical of implementing genograms into elementary schools and acting as if middle school students should have an idea what they want to do for a career, but after learning about all of our life span theorists, I can see that it is almost crucial to begin working with younger students to develop their ideas of diversity about sex-typed careers and breaking the mold of their parents’ jobs so they can feel that they can work toward their goal without being restricted. It would be much more difficult to work with these children 30 years from now when they are stuck in their schemas about what jobs they can and cannot accomplish.

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