Career Counseling with Special Populations

1. Career Counseling with Special Populations Dr. Jennifer Williamson Lindsey Wilson College

2. Multiculural Career Counseling • Culture can refer to many aspects of life and living • Two people from the same race could share some values, attitudes, and so on, but might also be very different in their cultural makeup. • Counselors should be alert to value orientation when working with different cultural groups

3. Multicultural Career Counseling • Cultural variability includes: • Variability of worldviews including constructs of individualism & collectivism • Time orientation • View of Human nature • Personal space • Privacy

4. Multicultural Career Counseling • Culture does have an important role in work-related values. • Differences between cultures helps us understand employee attitudes, values, behaviors, & interpersonal dynamics • Counselors must be aware of different cultural orientations when establishing rapport. • Necessary skill areas include awareness of differences, self-awareness, knowledge of client’s culture, and adaptation of counseling methods,materials, & procedures.

5. Multicultural Career Counseling • Optimal theory is multidimensional in nature and emphasizes how • Specific cultures influence and develop worldviews • The human universality of themes cut across cultures • The uniqueness of the individual is developed

6. Multicultural Career Counseling • Multicultural counseling and therapy theory (MCT) was developed because many contemporary theories of counseling do not deal adequately with the complexity of culturally diverse populations. • We must balance the focus of counseling, expand the repertoire of helping responses, identify indigenous helping roles, and develop alternatives to the conventional counseling role.

7. Multicultural Career Counseling • Immigrants have special needs that involve premigration process as well as the adjustment process in a new & different culture. • Adjustement to a new culture includes transitions of reconstructing social networks, adjusting to a new socioeconomic system, and learning a different cultural system.

8. Multicultural Career Counseling • Counselors must develop a great sensitivity to culturally diverse clients when conducting an interview. • Technique issues include: • Eye contact • Touch • Probing questions • Space & distance • Verbal style • Restrictive emotions • Confrontation • self-disclosure • Focus on self-in relation & self-in-context

9. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Women are reassessing their career priorities and looking beyond the traditional feminine working roles. • Even though women are being given great opportunities to expand their career choice, barriers to the changing role of women in the working world still exist.

10. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • In response to the women’s movement, men are reexamining their roles, beliefs, & relationships with women. • The Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, Division 51 of the American Psychological Association was formed to study gender roles & masculinity.

11. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Several Career Theorists have addressed women’s issues • Super was one of the major career development theorists who addressed career development patterns of women. • He classified them into 7 categories: stable, homemaking,conventional,stable working, double track, interrupted, unstable, and multiple trial. • Super among others viewed career development of women as different from men.

12. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Ginzberg denoted three lifestyle dimensions: • Traditional (homemaker-oriented) • Transitional (more emphasis on home than on job.) • Innovative (giving equal emphasis to job & home)

13. Zytowski (1960s) labeled vocational developmental patterns of women as: • Mild vocational • Moderate vocational • Unusual vocational (Stages similar to Ginzberg) Through vocational participation, woman can change their modal lifestyle. Patterns of vocational participation for women are determined by age at entry, the length of time that a woman works, and the type of work undertaken. Further determinants include: individual motivation, ability, environmental circumstances (such as financial need)

14. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • In the late 1970s, Sanguiliano (1978) emphasized the theme of different and special needs of women. • He suggests that a woman’s life cycle does not follow a rigid progression of developmental tasks and that attention should focus on unique paths that women take to break away from gender role stereotyping.

15. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Counselors must be aware of unique influences that shape gender role development. Cultural groups have some special needs that must be addressed and individual differences within groups must be recognized. • Each individual is influenced by a number of specific cultural and situational factors that contribute to gender stereotyping. Tentative gender boundaries are established in childhood. Gender role is intensified in adolescence. It is not certain how and to what extent gender differences remain stable among adults.

16. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • The division of labor by gender is attributed to the industrial revolution. Men became the primary breadwinners and women caregivers. In World War II women took over jobs that traditionally were reserved for men. After the war they were sent home to continue as primary caregivers. The second wave of the women’s movement paved the way for women to return to the workforce in large numbers. Currently women have made great progress but gender stereotyping has remained a deterrent for many.

17. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Some special needs of men & women are: • Gender stereotyping beliefs • Fear of feminity and restrictive emotionally restrictive emotionally among ment • Sexual harassment in the workplace • Problems for both men & women associated with achievement • Competition and self-destructive bahaviors

18. Gender Issues in Career Counseling • Counseling approaches should be free of gender role typing. Counseling strategy components include working climate, expressiveness training, dual career, & lifestyle skills.

19. Issues Facing Dual-Career Families • The family influence on career development has been a significantly relevant issue. • The family is conceptualized as a social system. • The nuclear family is the most common in the US. The extended family is the most common around the world.

20. Issues Facing Dual-Career Families • Current trends in family systems include: • increased number of single adults, • postponement of marriage, • decreased childbearing, • more female participation in the labor force, • more divorce, • more single-parent families, • more children living in poverty, • more remarriage, • increased years without children, • and more multigeneration families

21. Issues Facing Dual-Career Families • There is a typical issue within dual career families involving struggles for gender equity of household and child care tasks and of work recognition.

22. Issues Facing Dual-Career Families • Issues facing dual career couples are: • Expectations of work and family • Role Conflict • Child Care • Geographic Moves • Competition • Relationship factors • Numbers of personal factors

23. Issues Facing Dual-Career Families • Implications of career counseling include: • Illuminating underlying issues of gender equity • Couple communication • Sharing exercises • Family and career status • Conflict resolution

24. Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities • The terms used to describe people with disabilities have changed to negate stereotypes and false ideas. • Note p. 340

25. Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities • The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 • Note Box 13-1 & 13-2 P. 342-3 • The passage of ADA has focused more attention on career counseling programs designed especially to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities. • ADA is a comprehensive document that covers several subjects significant to the rights of individuals with disabilities including fair employment practices and access to public accomodations and transportation.

26. Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities • Special problems and needs of persons with disabilities include difficulty adjusting to and accepting physical disabilities, attitudinal barriers, being labeled “disabled”, lack of role models, onset of disabilities, social/interpersonal skills, self-concept, skills for independent living, and architectural barriers. • Educational programs that develop a better understanding of the special problems are needed by both employers and families.

27. Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities • State rehabilitation agencies provide numerous and varied programs for persons with disabilities. • In the case that a person receives rehabilitation services from a state agency includes the following steps: • Initial contact • Diagnostic workup • Evaluation and certification • Vocational assessment • Service planning placement • Postemployment services

28. Career Counseling for Individuals with Disabilities • Privately supported rehab agencies provide educational, work & counseling programs. Among services provided include: • Psychological testing • Vocational evaluation • Personal/social adjustment counseling • Work adjustment • Prevocational training, • Special academic instruction • Skill training • Job placement • Sheltered workshops

29. Career Counseling for Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Clients • G/L/B persons have special needs because of their sexual orientation that should be addressed in career counseling. • There are estimates of between 5 and 25 million g/l/b persons in this country. • More organizations are supporting gay and lesbian associations and networks. Many regard gay men and lesbian women as another diverse group in the workplace.

30. Career Counseling for Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Clients • Individuals with a sexual orientation of g/l/b continue to be stereotyped as to the kinds of jobs they should hold; are threatened by violence often resulting from homophobia, form a dislike for themselves through internalized homophobia; and generally receive negative feedback from a society that views heterosexuality as the only viable lifestyle.

31. Career Counseling for Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Clients • Discrimination in the workplace can involve: • Threats • Lack of Promotion • Black mail • Ostracism • Sexual harassment • Exclusion or avoidance • Termination • The Lavender Ceiling (p. 367)

32. Career Counseling for Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Clients • Sexual orientation is considered an important component of identity development. • Identity development may follow a five-stage process that varies by sex and race, sexual orientation, and other developmental factors associated with individual environment. Note p. 368 • Some clients progress through the stages at different rates. • For adolescents they face abandonment by friends, rejection by their families, suicidal ideations, & HIV infection.

33. Career Counseling for Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Clients • Unique issues g/l/b persons bring to counseling can be resolved in career counseling with some adaptations and modifications. • Six stages that can be included within career counseling models are: • Precounseling preparation • Establishing an affirmative trusting relationship • Client identification issues • Identify variables that can limit career choice • Tailored assessment • Job search strategies