Summary
Career counseling is vital since it helps people understand their employment options, future, and life decisions. Source of livelihood is one of the most critical aspects of adulthood, and someone can find it to be stressful, especially when not given proper psychotherapy. A professional counselor can be helpful in choosing the right path to a job and when it is frustrating and disappointing. The experts can be social workers, life coaches, therapists, or volunteers from the business world who are mainly trained to provide work-related information resources. The profession can help anyone who wishes to change occupation or investigate how to become more satisfied with the current one (Cardoso et al., 2016). This paper provides a case scenario and a verbatim word transcript of a counseling session using a humanistic approach based on the made-up situation.
Case Scenario
Faith is a teacher and a mother of two kids. She finds her work no longer satisfactory, and it is becoming her source of unhappiness each day. This brings many questions to her about whether she should continue with her teaching career. She has some life conflicts in addition to being not satisfied with her work, and it seems that Faith is not passionate about her profession. She lives in California and has been working as a secondary teacher for the past ten years now.
Faith is disturbed since her fifteen-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has brought some misunderstanding on treatment options between Faith and her husband. Faith has also been doing her bachelor’s degree in secondary education, and right now, she cannot afford her school fees since her daughter needs medical attention. She also mentions that her husband does not have a stable job, and most of the family responsibilities are on her. The whole situation makes her feel unappreciated for her work and not enjoy what she does.
Faith’s life seems to be headed in the wrong direction owing to the challenges she is faced with both at home and at work. She is stressed and confused, making her friends and colleagues advise her to seek career guidance and counseling. During the session, Faith mentioned experiencing work overload that makes her feel a burden to be responsible but with less freedom and satisfaction. She also finds it challenging to work with her students’ parents since they do not involve themselves in their children’s assessments and activities. Faith has been grappling with her worsening situation for a long time now and is headed into a depression.
Word Transcript
Counselor: Hello. Good morning, please come into my office. Kindly have a seat.
Faith: Good morning. Thank you so much.
Counselor: You are welcome.
Faith: Well, it is a good day, and I decided to visit you.
Counselor: Please feel free and tell me your story.
Faith: I am a secondary teacher by profession, and I have been working for the past ten years. I have been experiencing dissatisfaction with my work and growing unhappiness with my career. To make the situation worse, one of my daughters was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am unsure whether to continue with my teaching or explore a new career field entirely since I am experiencing work overload.
Counselor: Thank you for the story. Do you have your personal or career goal? Think about them and tell me if you have achieved any.
Faith: Yes, I have goals, though I have not been working towards achieving them.
Counselor: I am glad that you have goals, and it would be good if you recall why you set the targets in the first place. I see you as an achiever, but some issues seem to be dragging you back. Where do you want to be in the next five years? How does it feel like living an unhappy life? I am also a victim to be having a daughter diagnosed with cancer, and it took me a long time to embrace the fact and move on. Please take your time to understand what you are going through at a deeper length. Changing your career at this time might not be the best decision. Instead, it might be hectic to start the whole learning process. Change your attitude towards work and adjust to the new policies. I know you are in a difficult situation right now, but I want you to embrace it and keep fighting.
Faith: How did you embrace your difficult times?
Counselor: Every time I experienced challenging situations, I never allowed myself to give up.
Faith: Thank you so much for the session. I feel motivated.
Counselor: You are welcome. Do not forget to be always positive no matter how hard it gets.
Different counseling theories are best suited for specific situations, and in the case scenario and transcript above, Faith will most probably overcome the challenges if she heeds the advice. Humanistic therapy is worth a trial for someone seeking ways to make their life more fulfilling regardless of their mental health condition (Cardoso et al., 2016). Having a rapport with the clients should be considered every time a counseling session is taking place. This will help the clients to be more comfortable and willing to share their current situation. With professional help, people make the right career choices, do their best, and achieve a lot.
Reference
Cardoso, P., Gonçalves, M. M., Duarte, M. E., Silva, J. R., & Alves, D. (2016). Life design counseling outcome and process: A case study with an adolescent. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 93, 58–66. Web.