Abstract
I remember the stories that my grandfather used to tell me about growing up during the war years. He was only 13 when he left primary school to become an apprentice carpenter, not because he had a particular predisposition for woodwork, but because money was tight and he loathed school with a passion. He, like many of his family and friends, took on what little work was available, and in the majority of cases it was an occupation they would have for life.
In recent times there has been a significant shift in the way we conceptualise careers, and it is a shift that is ongoing and filled with relative uncertainty. While careers were once seen to be fixed and reliable, it is now anticipated that people will experience a number of career changes in their lifetime, often in different roles across an array of sectors of the workforce. Thus comes the need for a new paradigm in career counselling theory, both relevant to the rapidly changing world of work and supportive of workers whose sense of self is disrupted by the turbulent transformation inherent within today's job market.
Acclaimed career development scholar Mark Savickas responds to the call for a newer, more interactive framework of career development theory for the 21st century in his latest publication entitled Career Counseling. This most recent addition to the ‘Theories of Psychotherapy Series’ sees Savickas propose a new paradigm for career development theory known as narrative counselling — a type of intervention he believes better able to meet the needs of today's workers confronted with a fragmented and volatile job market. He begins by painting a picture of the changing world of work, before neatly drawing together significant contributions to the field of career development theory over the past 60 years. By acknowledging and then bracketing to one side the important work of theorists like Holland and Super, Savickas is able to propose a framework for career counselling that stresses a stable sense of self through personal narratives and stories. He notes that new methodology cannot merely serve as a replacement or addition to existing theory, but must ‘be based in biographicity and identity work, with an accompanying intervention model concentrated on employability, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and lifelong learning’ (p. 12). As such, he outlines a narrative approach to career counselling that provides coherence, purpose and consistency in the face of transformation and restructuring of the labour market — factors that threaten to overwhelm the stable sense of self that he sees as most important to preserve. Indeed, as mobile workers risk confusion and fragmentation by moving from project to project and back again, ‘they must let go of what they did but not who they are’ (p. 37).
Savickas is not the first theorist to adopt a narrative approach to career counselling, but his point of departure from existing theory is to move beyond a discourse that serves to reshape oneself to fit into the world of work. Instead, the emphasis is on selecting projects that complement overarching goals and recurring career themes in the life of that individual. In short, his approach seeks to understand the driving forces behind an array of choices that build a career, and takes as its foundation the premise that people mould their careers by imposing meaning on vocational behaviour. Three significant benefits are cited and include increased comprehension, coherence and continuity: factors that foster a broader vocabulary of self to narrate life experiences and career stories.
Where Savickas is most successful, however, is in the thorough detail of the framework, providing helpful and precise counselling techniques in order to construct binding career narratives. There are specific questions for career counsellors to ask that help to elicit a well-rounded narrative from the client, with personal anecdotes throughout that reinforce the framework at every stage. Furthermore, Savickas reveals methods for assessing career stories, before considering ways of coming to solutions for current dilemmas in the client's life. By adopting a narrative approach, the self that is constructed becomes what Savickas terms ‘a resource for living’ (p. 83), a role model that can provide tentative solutions to current predicaments. It is important to note that this intervention has the capacity to empower the client, who becomes a kind of author by experimenting with the role model figure through various tests and scenarios.
Most pleasing is that a concise and articulate style has been employed and maintained throughout. Chapters are sequenced logically and guide readers through different stages of the strategy to cement understanding before advancing. Readers may also refer to the comprehensive glossary for language specific to the discipline. Interestingly, Savickas’ DVD of the same name is designed to be watched in conjunction with the book and serves as a very suitable companion, exemplifying narrative counselling during a therapy session with a critical commentary by the author. While Career Counseling will be an essential tool for all career development practitioners eager to keep up to date with advances in the field, I suggest that schoolteachers who are interested in assisting their students to build careers will find the book highly beneficial. I am confident that Savickas’ theory of narrative counselling will serve as a very strong foundation for emerging research this decade and beyond.