Practice and research in career counseling and development—2003

Career Development Quarterly, Dec, 2004 by John C. Dagley, Shannon K. Salter

Similar concerns about professional standards and related training issues are apparent around the globe (e.g., in Australia and in the Nordic countries). Geeves, in an interview with Athanasou (b), speculated that many practitioners of career counseling in Australia have no formal training other than their own life experiences. Although there are formal postgraduate educational programs in career counseling in universities throughout the country, apparently there is a lack of uniformity in credentials for career counselors (McGregor-Bayne, McIlveen, & Bayne).

Likewise the professionalism of career counseling specialists in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) is uneven in terms of training requirements (Plant; Plant, Christiansen, Loven, Vilhjalmsdottir, & Vurorinen). Training credentials range from the graduate degrees of work psychologists and guidance teachers to bachelor's degrees in career guidance, to no training for barefoot counselors (guidance staff with no career guidance qualifications).

Supervision of career counselors. Given the relative absence of postgraduate supervision in career counseling (McMahon) and scarce presence of any career counseling supervision literature, it could be easy to surmise that the profession does not believe career counselors need supervision or, perhaps, that the work of career counseling is not sufficiently clinical, complex, or urgent in nature to warrant clinical supervision. However, without supervised practica or internships in career counseling, career counselors miss a crucial element of preprofessional training and postdegree continuing education. The quality of service is directly affected, particularly as the level of expectations and intensity increase. Patton and Goddard found high levels of psychological stress and emotional exhaustion in counselors who work with the unemployed in Australia. The exceptionally meaningful and challenging work of a professional career counselor is neither easy nor stress free. Yet for many it seems to be easy and something that anyone can do. As Holland (1973) suggested a generation ago, everyone is a vocational coach, with or without training.

Career coaching. Chung and Gfroerer made a valiant effort to identify some of the more salient practice, training, and regulatory issues surrounding the rapidly expanding field of career coaching. It is not necessarily new for people to play the role of career coach, but it is relatively new to be paid for doing so. "Career coaches and career development facilitators (CDFs) are similar because in neither case is a master's degree in counseling required" (p. 143). Yet they are different in that the nationally certified CDFs are required to demonstrate 120 training hours, or approved contact hours. Without training in counseling, assessment, and psychology, career coaches are essentially practicing counseling without a license in a totally unregulated, "unprofessional" environment.

Career development of career counselors. The working alliance of the counselor and client is an important ingredient in successful goal achievement, accounting for up to 70% of the effect size according to some researchers (Ahn & Wampold, 2001; Wampold, 2001). Others estimated much lower (12% and under) effect sizes in career counseling (Multon, Heppner, Gysbers, Zook, & Ellis-Kalton, 2001), but, on the whole, career counseling process research has seemed to suggest that the working alliance in counseling--as well as the counselor as a key variable in that alliance--is worthy of significant research inquiry. Unfortunately, career counselors have long neglected studying their own career development, just as have other counselors and therapists. That is, until Skovholt and Ronnestad (c), and their colleagues, conducted and then reported on a series of qualitative studies of the developmental process experienced by counselors from their beginning graduate school days throughout their careers. In a 2003 special issue of the Journal of Career Development (Skovholt & Ronnestad, a), Ronnestad and Skovholt presented a reformulation and condensation of three comprehensive studies: a qualitative cross-sectional and longitudinal study of 100 American counselors (Skovholt & Ronnestad, 1992), a multinational (20 countries) survey study of 5,000 therapists (Orlinsky et al., 1999), and an intensive qualitative study (Skovholt & Jennings, 2004) comprised largely of multiple interviews with 10 peer-nominated master therapists.