The first stage of your counseling is known as the initiation stage. This stage is useful for deciding between the different fields to follow. What better way to explore career options than to meet with someone who works in the field? It involves meeting with people in different positions or industries that interest you and asking them questions about their work. This is also the first step in starting to build a professional network.
To help you at this stage, pick up a package at the Career Center on Field Research and Informational Interviews. The answers are valuable for considering how your current or future career plans meet your needs and wants. This powerful book analyzes the practical aspects of deciding and securing a new career and the importance of working with and supporting clients. The counselor evaluates the answers to understand how far along the client is on the path to a new professional decision.
The Professional Action Plan worksheet helps users identify objectives, turn them into a series of action steps, and commit to working to achieve them. Of course, enrolling in a clinical mental health master's program on campus could interfere with your own career. Provide the client with the professional advice evaluation worksheet and then review and collate the answers to identify how to improve the support provided. This comprehensive book on modern professional development includes theories, evaluations, resources and planning tools for use with clients.
These techniques, counseling activities, and worksheets help professional counselors work with their clients to change or develop a career according to their needs and desires. This stage requires researching the companies and organizations you want to work for and determining if your friends, family, or the Career Center have any clues about the subject. Once recognized, the client can identify the skills and qualities they want to use in a future workplace and design their professional career accordingly. Specialized professional counselors are available who provide professional advice on making professional decisions, how to deal with change, finding work and identifying learning opportunities (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 201. Career counseling can also help clients accept that change is often out of their control and is not the result of poor performance).
By understanding past successes and achievements, reflecting on where the client is now, and evaluating their professional aspirations, it is possible to formulate a plan for what success means to them. Expand your career options and earn your degree in a comfortable and flexible format that fits your busy life. We have many tools, worksheets and exercises available to help you or your client in your future professional changes and in the creation of your role profile.