Last post......

Can't really believe that this is the last post! Initially I was sceptical about the blog page, but I have found it to be extremley helpful and it has helped me to become more of a reflective student.

I'm sure I'm in the same boat as a lot of people when I say that I'm not sure where I'll be working yet. Ideally, I would love to set up on my own in the community and feel like I was really making a difference....something like 'Adult community link' or the mobile bus unit, rapid response service, which was a great idea! It's just difficult to do these things without the financial backing or security.

Anyway, as many of you know I went for an 'interview' with a University Careers Service this past week. It was a two stage process and initally there were wanting us to simply come in, do a 5 min pitch, answer questions on it and then leave! After the process I reflected on what had happened and what kind of people they were looking for as careers advisers. Obviously people with a lot of business accumen that can present and perform confidently....What about the 'careers advice part?' But that got me thinking, what does 'Careers advice' mean at an HE level these days? This is maybe something we haven't discussed so much on the course, that might have been useful.....Seems to me that the two key words for HE Careers services are 'employability' and 'enterprise'. If this is the case, then I would say that future students of the QCG course definitely need teaching/discussion/essay writing on these key terms.

Careers Guidance and Mental Health

Have just completed my final placement and discovered that I seemed to be reflecting on what I had experienced quite a lot, so thought I would share a few of my thoughts.....

The placement was a mental health charity aimed at helping people with mental health issues, who are ready for work, making those steps back into employment. I really didn't know much about mental health issues and found it very interesting. At least 1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lives. In fact, there was a piece on the lunch time news today highlighting that a lot more men are suffering from depression, in this recession, due to unemployment and lower incomes.

On reflection, I really think it would be a good idea to have a 'mental health awareness' training session as part of our course as there definitely seems to be a link between satisfying employment and good mental health. As careers advisers of the future (!!) I strongly believe that we are going to come accross people with mental health issues in all areas of careers advice work and therefore it would be good for us to have an understanding and sensitivity of their particular needs and concerns.

Mixed messages!

This is going to be a bit of a mixed post, as there are several different things I want to reflect on....

Firstly, did anyone see the very interesting programme on 'Island communities' last night (Sunday 9-10pm)? The presenter was trying to discover what makes the 'sense of community' and belonging on an island, different to the mainland. He concluded that the boundary of water seems to make all the difference. Quite similar to my undergrad dissertation for anthropology that I commented on in my last post.

Placement has been interesting. I tried to ask about any career development theories used and the answer was 'Oh, we are very person-centred here.' (Whatever that's meant to mean??) I have to do a presentation this week at the team meeting on possible new ideas to be used in some of the guidance interviews and when I suggested 'life-maps' or 'narratives', the co-presenter said 'Oh, yes we can tell everyone about these new ideas, but they will never get the go ahead, as they are too time consuming!' Not the most encouraging of responses but I'll still try and give those ideas a plug.

Finally, I was struck this week by a comment on a job description for a post I'm applying for which stated how the careers advice given would be measured! It said that the careers advice would be measured by 'structure, currency and relevance'.......intriguing!

Community psychology

Have been reflecting on the community psychology lectures recently, as I'm from a small (200 people) community on the West Coast, where I'm currently writing from! Our house is in the centre of the village and as our family have been here for over 30 years everyone knows all our comings and goings! The +points of living in a small community are: my parent's only lock the doors at night, otherwise the front door is always open, even when no-one is here! Dad leaves the keys in the ignition of both cars and all the car doors unlocked! You feel safe when you go for a walk by yourself. Children can play outside freely. The -points of living in a small community are: everyone knows your business and if you're not Scottish you will never be completely accepted (my English father has been here for over 30 years, but is still considered an 'incomer'.)

For my undergrad anthropology degree my dissertation title was 'A broken identity - perceptions of an island community'. I remember that one of the observations that I made was, that when visitors (tourists) visited the island they all say 'Hello' to each other and to locals, but then if you took those same people and they passed each other on the streets of Glasgow would they still be greeting one another? What is it that makes people greet and acknowledge each other in rural communities but not in cities?

The idea of belonging to a collective making us stronger and individualism making us weak and powerless is an interesting one. Having lived and worked in Japan for almost 5 years I experienced the effects of 'group culture' first hand. Certainly, if you were part of 'the group' then they looked after you in every respect. However, if you're views differed slightly then you were shuned, out of the group and probably bullied. An old Japanese proverb says 'The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.' Bullying pervades the whole society from a very young to elderly age. I witnessed physical and psychological bullying at all levels. Indeed, the pressure of having to conform to the group and 'fit in' is also immense and sadly, possibly as a result, Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world. Rather than the group standing together to resist the state, the Japanese government use the 'group culture' very powerfully to control society and ensure that they are continuing to produce 'perfect Japanese citizens'. I literally saw the 13 year olds in schools getting 'their personality/individualisation' hammered out of them until they conformed to 'the norm'.

So, I'm beginning to wonder, is it still a risky mistake to think of careers in terms of individuals? I would agree that feelings of 'identity' and 'community' seem to be locked in a permanent battle and that in times of uncetainty we possibly do depend more on the community. Therefore, the whole area of 'community guidance' is something that needs to be looked at more, especially in a time of economic downturn. Finally, making use of older people 'who have lived' is a great idea and one that should definitely be considered in the field of community guidance.

Narratives of the soul!

I have to say that 'narrative in guidance' is something that I had not considered before, but I can see how it would be a very useful tool in a career counselling session. As has been said in class and in the articles that we have read 'everyone has a story to tell.' What I find fasinating is that every story is different....each story is unique, just as each individual is a unique 'self' with their own individual story to tell. I'm sure this technique would be particularly useful for those people that come in that really have no idea what they want to do and who have time to consider their situation from a 'holistic' point of view.


It would be very interesting to see the use of 'narrative in guidance' in practice. I wonder if any of us will see it on placement in a couple of weeks? It would also be good, if we had a talk from a practitioner who is using this in their work at the moment.....then we could here about it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, rather than just theorizing about it....I wonder if there are any out there?

The different types of narratives, mentioned by Goncalves (1995) are also interesting. I particularly like his idea of the star friendship and the idea that sometimes the paths of our lives, overlap with others, for a reason and a purpose.....that may even become part of some other grander narrative.

Self-characterisation and the repertory grid!

As someone who doesn't like maths, I have to say that I was very sceptical about the repertory grid, but after experimenting with it in class yesterday I found I really liked it and realised that it could be a very useful tool in the guidance process.

Kelly's idea of self-characterisation is simple but very effective. It seems amazing to me that an organisation like Careers Scotland have not taken this idea on already. Rather than asking clients to fill out the 'diagnostic card' when they come in, they should give them just 7 mins or so to fill in a self characterisation sheet (like we did) and thereby give the adviser a much more solid basis to work from....maybe it would help the advisers to feel less 'scared' when an adult came in looking for guidance! If they felt this idea wouldn't work so well with young people then maybe they could just trial it for the adults......

I like the way that Kelly's PCP approach is very focused on the person and their agenda. As Kelly says, constructs are personal and it is therefore vital for the careers adviser to know more about the person's constructs in order to be able to understand how they see the world. Rather than 'diagnose client's', it seems to me a much better idea to start from the person's perception.

Humanism, Existentialism and Career Guidance....

Initally I couldn't understand what the point of the lectures on humanism and existentialism were and what they had to do with career guidance, although they were interesting and I enjoyed the discussion that they provoked! However, after going away and considering it I realised that this lecture has everything to do with career guidance.

From what I have understood, I think that the aim of the lecture was to take us right back to the beginning, so to speak, and force us to consider questions and issues relating to how we view human beings (the people that we are trying to guide and provide counselling to). For me, I suppose it comes right down to whether we believe what the Bible says about God's creation of and purpose for humankind, this seems to be the crux of the matter and the pivot on which the whole debate of humanism and existentialism is revolving. It could be argued that whether you believe God has created humans or not will reflect how you view people and your world view in general.

After re-reading some of the slides on humanist psychology I do agree with some of the precepts, for example each human has a nature and a potential within that they can actualise and an acorn if provided with appropriate nurturing can grow in positive ways, we see examples of this all the time when we look at the different outcomes of good and 'bad' parenting, of course there are always exceptions. Finally, I agree with the statement that humans develop in a positive and constructive manner, if a climate of respect and trust is established.

If we agree with the views of existentialism, however, that our clients are searching for meaning in a meaningless world and the counsellor holds that view too - then I think it would be very difficult to help and 'advise' the client on their career path, when really everything is meaningless....we could be forgiven for asking, what is the point?