Constructivist Approaches For Career Counselors

Constructivist theory offers alternative approaches to career development and counseling. Based on holistic approach, constructivism emphasizes the self-organizing principles underlying human experience. The decision to use a constructivist framework for career counseling resulted from the observation that youth often were not lacking career information; instead, they did not feel empowered or motivated to put the information to use. In a number of cases, feelings ranging from disempowerment to apathy, were due to a lack of knowledge about self in relation to the world of work. Consequently, it was concluded that a counseling approach, which empowers clients to adopt proactive, mindful stances about their worklife, needed to be developed. Therefore, a focus was developed that would assist clients in understanding how their self-organizing principles shape their world view and influence and direct the choices they make.