The Career Counselor (Contemporary Christian Counseling)

Personally i found that this book is helpful to me. Actually I went straight into 2 chapters the section on counselling adults and decision making, i think. The topic on "Discovering the Career within you" is very well written. It let's me rethink how I decide upon a suitable career through having good knowledge of the environment and yourself. The author gives very practical and down-to-earth guides. It helps us clear some misconceptions of calling from God to a particular vocation. I also liked the part on decision making and the "4 foundation principles for discerning guidance" . Overall, it is a good well written guide to career seekers.

Chap 1: The World of Work (the meaning of work; the purpose of work; a job provides survival; work as security; work as a source of appreciation; work as self-achievement; work as self-actualization; the role of vocational counseling) Chap 2: God's Will, Calling, and the Career Journey (pitfalls in seeking God's will: dependency, confusion and paralysis, intuition, careful planning; the call to ministry, Christian biographies as a tool, answering God's call) Chap 3: The Power of Family in Career Development (family rules; family roles, family triangles; the genogram: a tool for understanding careers and family; mapping the family structure and relationships; interpreting the impact of family themes on career development; implementing plans against family traditions; family impact on individual career development styles) Chap 4: Applying Biblical Insights to Career Counseling (applying biblical stories to the career journey: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses) Chap 5: Teenagers and Career Exploration (developmental tasks of adolescence: forming ways of thinking--from concrete to abstract; forming ways of caring -- from rules to respect; forming a faith -- from acceptance to questions; forming a path for the future -- from fantasy to reality; hazards in teenage career development: negative identity, identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, moratorium on identity; counseling strategies: pinpointing level of maturity, being prepared for egocentric attitudes, affirming their need to be separate, recognizing the limited time perspective, helping to create a coat of arms, facilitating realistic appraisal of abilities, facilitating reflection and evaluation of personal values, encouraging practical experience, providing support for immediate decisions, helping parents support their adolescents' dreams) Chap 6: Young Adults and Career Decision Making (developmental tasks of young adults: clarifying purpose, achieving competence, managing emotions, becoming autonomous, establishing identity, freeing interpersonal relationships, developing integrity; hazards in young adult career development: premature stabilization, dichotomous thinking, external locus of control; counseling strategies: pinpoint career decidedness, construct a family genogram, conduct personality, interest, and skills assessment, facilitate career information counseling groups, decrease anxiety, foster a compelling personal vision, help clientsinitiate mentoring relationships and internship experiences, help clients develop job-seeking skills) Chap 7: Midcareer Change (developmental tasks of adults in transition: achieving intimacy through establishment and self-extension, achieving generativity, achieving integrity; types of midcareer transition, motivation for midcareer transition; hazards: ambivalence toward change, job obsolescence, unfulfillment; counseling strategies: know the stages of transition, capitalize on readiness for change, examine life-