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Story crafting: strategies for facilitating narrative career counselling

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Abstract

Narrative career counselling is a growing force in career guidance and counselling that offers a direction for the field to respond to the needs of increasingly diverse client groups. In this article, we review established and emerging approaches to narrative career counselling, then focus on the emerging story telling approach. We offer examples of how career counsellors may facilitate narrative career counselling through three levels of story crafting questions, as well as mapping and scaffolding, which are illustrated by a case example.

Résumé

L’élaboration d’histoires : stratégies visant à faciliter le conseil en orientation narratif. Le conseil en orientation narratif est une force croissante dans l’orientation professionnelle et le conseil. Il offre la possibilité au domaine de répondre aux besoins de groupes de clients de plus en plus divers. Dans cet article, nous passons en revue les approches narratives du conseil en orientation qu’elles soient établies ou émergentes, puis nous nous concentrons sur l’approche émergeante par l’élaboration d’histoires. Nous proposons des exemples de la façon dont les conseillers en orientation peuvent faciliter le conseil en orientation narratif au travers de trois niveaux de questions sur l’élaboration d’histoires, de même que la cartographie et « l’échafaudage » , qui sont illustrées par un exemple de cas.

Zusammenfassung

Geschichtenkonstruktion: Strategien zur Ermöglichung von narrativer Berufsberatung. Narrative Berufsberatung ist ein wachsender Trend in Berufsorientierung und –beratung, welche dem Bereich einen Weg bietet, den Bedürfnissen von zunehmend vielfältigen Klientengruppen zu entsprechen. In diesem Artikel besprechen wir etablierte und aufkommende Ansätze der narrativen Berufsberatung und konzentrieren uns dann auf den aufkommenden Ansatz des Geschichtenerzählens. Wir bieten Beispiele dafür, wie Beratungspersonen narrative Berufsberatung durch drei Ebenen von Fragen zur Geschichtenkonstruktion ermöglichen können, sowie durch Mapping und Gerüstbau, die mit einem Fallbeispiel veranschaulicht werden.

Resumen

La artesanía del cuento: Estrategias para facilitar la orientación profesional narrativa. La orientación profesional narrativa es una fuerza creciente en el asesoramiento de carrera y consejería que ofrece una dirección en este campo para responder a las necesidades de grupos de clientes cada vez mas diversos. En este artículo hacemos una revisión de enfoques establecidos y emergentes en la orientación profesional narrativa. A continuación, nos centramos en el enfoque de la narración de historia emergente. Ofrecemos ejemplos de cómo los asesores profesionales pueden facilitar la orientación profesional narrativa a través de tres niveles de preguntas de la artesanía del cuento, así como mapas y plataformas, que se ilustran por medio del ejemplo de un caso.

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Acknowledgments

Mark Watson would like to acknowledge the financial support of the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

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Correspondence to Mary McMahon.

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McMahon, M., Watson, M. Story crafting: strategies for facilitating narrative career counselling. Int J Educ Vocat Guidance 12, 211–224 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-012-9228-5

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