Important Events in Career Counseling: Client and Counselor Descriptions

The authors used a content analysis system to classify career-counseling participants' responses to questions about the helpfulness of their recently completed counseling experiences. Both clients and counselors most frequently identified client gains associated with self-exploration and with emotional support as most helpful. Members of both groups frequently identified ineffective counselor-selected activities as least helpful. Clients rated their experiences as significantly more effective than did their counselors. The authors discuss implications of these results for the validity of the content analysis system and the nature and practice of career counseling. Counselors have rarely studied how career counseling actually "works." Meir (1991) suggested that researchers respond to this state-of affairs by placing a "greater focus on what takes place in career counseling sessions" (p. 154). Swanson (1995) concluded that "although we know a great deal about the effectiveness of career interventions in general . . . we know almost nothing about the career counseling process" (p. 217) and recommended the nature of that process as a focus for future research. The results of a small group of empirical studies account for much of what we do know. For example, Holland, Magoon, and Spokane (1981) reported that positive career counseling outcomes were related to cognitive rehearsals of clients' career aspirations and the provision to clients of occupational information, social support, and cognitive structure. Heppner, Mutton, Gysbers, Ellis, and Zook (1998) reported a positive relationship between career counselor confidence in establishing therapeutic relationships and client confidence in coping with career transitions. Heppner and Hendricks (1995) reported that both an indecisive client and an undecided client attached substantial importance to aspects of their respective counseling relationships. Anderson and Niles (1995) reported that clients devoted considerable attention to noncareer concerns during career counseling sessions. In a process and outcome case study, Kirschner, Hoffman, and Hill (1994) reported that a single counselor gave information and set limits more frequently during career counseling than during personal counseling. In the current study, we asked participants to explain what they valued most from their career counseling experiences. The study addressed two research questions: What aspects of career counseling do clients and counselors identify as most important and helpful (to clients) and how do their respective identifications compare? What aspects of career counseling do these same clients and counselors identify as least helpful (to clients) and how do their respective identifications compare? METHOD Participants Participants were counselors and clients at a community counseling center sponsored by a counselor education program at a medium-size university during the period from 1993 to 1997. The center served as a training site for advanced graduate students and as a source of cost-free counseling services for adults. Upon termination, clients and career counselors at the center who had completed at least four counseling sessions together were asked about their experiences. Thirty-three counselors participated in the study as part of an advanced practicum experience. Each counselor had completed one 3semester-hour course in career counseling theories and techniques and a beginning practicum. All counselors were trained in Holland's ( 1985) theory and Super's career development assessment and counseling model (Super, Osborne, Brown, Walsh, & Niles, 1992). Aspects of the data collection method differed among each of three participant groups (Groups 1, 2, 3). We decided to offer anonymity to clients in Groups 2 and 3 to minimize the potential threat to response validity posed by clients' concerns for their counselors' performance evaluations. …