Transcript Talking with a shared purpose: applying a narrative

Talking with a shared purpose:
applying a narrative approach to
career guidance interviews
Hazel Reid
Centre for Career & Personal
Development
Developing narrative thinking
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What is it?
Why is it worth considering?
What are the benefits?
What are the limitations?
Could it fit within existing models?
Would it work in a range of contexts?
How do I do it?
Constructivist and Narrative
approaches
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Post-modern, post-structuralist and all that
stuff!
The move from 20th to 21st century
thinking – a focus on meaning
Established approaches found ‘wanting’
Familiar or a new way of thinking?
Development within counselling
And career counselling
Why is it worth considering?
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Stories are about events, patterns, insights into how we
construct a view of ourselves in the past, present and
future
Deeper understanding, better exploration, action that is
likely to be more useful for the individual
Resonates with a multicultural approach – sensitive to
the importance of the individual’s world view / frame of
reference
Guidance is not a neutral activity - helps us to consider
aspects of power
It’s also interesting, exciting, motivating and engaging –
for both parties.
Potential benefits
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Collaborative approach
Can avoid taking a deficit
view of the person
Places meaning in the
foreground
Recognises the
importance of context
‘Back swing’ (Amundson) works towards a ‘better’
story
Moves from identifying
the problem, exploring
interests and options to
agreed action (sound
familiar?)
The reality-test of career/life
narrative work with a
‘client’ needs to recognise
that action occurs in an
interactive world. It is this
acknowledgment of the
need for negotiating
action that moves a
narrative approach out of
the trap of a backward
looking past.
Possible limitations
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Abstract and esoteric – unconnected to the dayto-day realities of practice?
Too focused on understanding?
Too dependent on therapeutic counselling?
Sounds expensive – time?
You say the approach is ‘interesting, exciting,
motivating and engaging’, but how do I do it?
Fit with existing models
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Egan’s approach is
outdated?
Don’t throw out the baby
with the bath water!
The 3 stage model has a
simplicity that has some
elegance
A framework – recognise
its limitations
Established career theory
continues to have
relevance within an
integrated approach
And a range of contexts?
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Work with young people
Adults
Cultural groups
‘Challenging clients’
In response to the changing
practical and political context,
constructivist approaches offer new
perspectives for career
interventions, including working in
holistic settings
Sometimes it will work, sometimes it
won’t!
Narrative thinking – applied to
careers interviews
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Dangers of the cookbook approach
Mining counselling approaches
A different way of thinking about the ‘client’
The practitioner needs the kind of respectful
curiosity that asks: What other voices are
present in those stories? How does the client
position themselves through the meaning they
place on their experiences?
Externalising conversations: naming the problem
More than one way to tell a story & what about
an audience?
How?
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Listen to the story and understand what the
person is saying about their situation, their
difficulty – ask ‘how’ rather than ‘why’ questions
Respond in ways that build and maintain rapport
to encourage continuation of the dialogue –
search for the detail
Ask the kinds of open questions that draw out
more information
And with ‘challenging clients’
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Don’t look for blame, but externalise the problem and
separate the person from the problem – name the
problem, start with ‘it’ until a name is found that fits:
‘Trouble’ is an example of naming the problem in order
to give ‘it’ an identity separate from the person
Help clients to move on and build alternative ‘career’
stories that will make managing the present easier whilst
working together to make positive changes
The techniques and skills to achieve this have much in
common with those used in solution focused work.
Narrative thinking applied to
interviews – SFBT strategies
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Seeking exceptions
Scaling
Building on strengths
Questions about a
possible future
Using the miracle
question
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One step at a time
Doing something different
Compliments
Even when ‘career’
decisions are not needed
immediately, the person
can play with an idea for
a dream future.
Accessible literature for applying
narrative thinking to practice
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Winslade, J., & Monk, G.
(1999) Narrative counseling in
schools: powerful and brief,
Thousand Oaks, California:
Corwin Press Inc
McMahon, M., & Patton, W.
(2006) (eds) Career
counselling: Constructivist
approaches. Oxon: Routledge.
A way forward – from talking to
doing?
An invitation to participate
in a collaborative project.
Creating, applying, adapting
and evaluating a narrative
‘model’ for career
guidance interviewing.
[email protected]