Narrative potential and career counseling under quantity, quality, and mixed interventions: An emphasis on university students

Although robust evidence has been accumulating over the last decades supporting the effectiveness of career counseling in various populations, yet there are scarce conceptual or empirical studies investigating the impact of distinct approaches, such as traditional-“psychometric,” narrative, or a mixed (integrative) one. The primary aim of this paper is to make a contribution in the field, providing a synthetic overview of contemporary research findings regarding the effectiveness of narrative and mixed career counseling approaches with a special focus on university students. The recent trend of utilizing mixed approaches in career assessment and intervention is also emphasized in the article, suggesting they may have a great potential in helping young adults advance meaning-making about career and life design. Finally, a discussion of both benefits and challenges relating to narrative and mixed interventions along with recommendations for extending research in the area of assessing career interventions’ effectiveness for university students is provided.

Intervention and evaluation of the life design counseling: A case study

This article aims to explore the effectiveness of Life Design Counseling (LDC) for a high school student before choosing the subject. To evaluate LDC outcomes, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-China Form was used before and after the intervention. Two measures were used to evaluate the process of LDC: the Innovative Moments Coding System (IMCS) and Future Career Autobiography (FCA). The results show that the LDC approach produced a significant change in career adaptability. In addition, the findings demonstrate a significant narrative movement or change with the evaluation of the process. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

A systematic review on career interventions for university students: Framework, effectiveness, and outcomes

This study presents a systematic literature review about career interventions for university students exploring (1) which theoretical framework; (2) structure; (3) evaluation system; and (4) outcomes are reported. Fourteen keywords, five databases, and six eligibility criteria were defined. Among the 596 articles collected, 26 remained for meta-synthesis. Results indicated a predominance of (1) three theoretical frameworks, (2) group intervention modality, (3) pre-and post-test evaluation system, and (4) the positive development of skills in decision-making. Recommendations are presented to guide future research and practice in the field. For example, this study indicates the importance of providing updated information about the world of work within career interventions or educational programs.

Therapeutic Collaboration in Career Construction Counseling: Case Studies of an Integrative Model

The mapping of therapeutic collaboration throughout counseling deepens our understanding of how the helping relationship fosters client change. To better understand the process of career construction counseling (CCC), we analyzed the therapeutic collaboration on six successful face-to-face cases. The participants were six Portuguese adults, five women and one man, real clients of a career counseling service, and four psychologists, three female and one male trained in the career intervention model. The participants completed demographic questions and measures of career certainty, vocational identity, career indecision, and psychological functioning. The Therapeutic Collaboration Coding System was used to track collaboration throughout all interactive episodes. The clinical significance of the intervention was calculated by analyzing pre-post-test statistical differences for each case, with the Reliable Change Index and Z score. The findings evidenced a pattern of therapeutic collaboration evolution for good outcome cases. Based on this pattern, we propose a model of process-outcome evolution for the three phases of CCC.

Life Design Counseling: Theory, Methodology, Challenges, and Future Trends

With the rapid development of society and the dramatic change of environment, previous career counseling focusing on personal choice has been difficult to meet individuals’ needs. It is very meaningful and valuable to introduce the ideology of Life Design Counseling (LDC). In this mini review, we introduce and analyze the theory and methodology of LDC. This review puts forward challenges in the field of LDC, including the lack of attention to clients from multiple backgrounds and professional counselors, the lack of diversified methods in the intervention process, and the lack of diversified research. The theoretical research, practical research, and the integration of theory and practice of LDC still need to be further concerned by researchers.

In the same boat? An online group career counseling with a group of young adults in the time of COVID-19

An online group of career counseling for unemployed young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic was developed. Twelve participants were involved in online group career counseling intervention, based on the Life Design for an inclusive and sustainable future. Results indicated at post-test on increased scores on career adaptability, resilience, future orientation, and propensity to identify inclusive and sustainable actions for the future than pre-test. Overall, the online group career counseling intervention effectively promoted particular aspects of young adults' life design for an inclusive e-sustainable future.

My Career Story

My career story (MCS) comprises a self-guided autobiographical workbook designed to simulate career construction counseling. The MCS contains a series of questions from the Career Construction Interview to elicit a life-career story and reveal a life theme that are then related to a current career problem indicated by the workbook user. Reflecting on the answers to the questions aims to promote key life-design goals of adaptability, narratability, intentionality, and action. After describing its development and use, a case illustration and initial preliminary validity study of the MCS is presented. Latent semantic analysis, a method for determining meaning similarity of words and passages within bodies of text, indicated a mean agreement level of .81 between MCS life portraits constructed by participants ( N =10) and those constructed for the participants by experts in career construction counseling. The MCS shows some initial promise for self-guided career intervention to increase self-reflection and ability to tell and enact one’s career story. Future research is needed to support the validity of the MCS workbook.