Career Counseling

The happy conclusion of my own long search for The Right Work (see About Tina) has left me with a special interest in career development. The career counseling that I do is one part coaching, and nine parts insight therapy. I focus on helping people get to know themselves well enough to connect to their bliss, so they can forge a career path rather than follow one.

My career counseling is very different from the traditional assess-and-suggest model, in which interests and traits are assessed and matched with likely job choices. I don't use formal or written assessment instruments.

The following points illustrate my beliefs and thus my approach to career counseling.

You and your career are inseparable. Rather than being an object for you to control or manipulate, your career is an aspect of your self and your behavior. When you're at your best, your career is infused with energy and good things tend to happen through your work. On the other hand, personal unhappiness has a way of obscuring your career path.

Your career difficulties are a reflection of your personal difficulties, rather than a cause of them. We think if we could just get into the right job or career, we would finally be happy and all would be well. But more often than not, career problems reflect deep-seated issues at play in our lives. For example, how pervasive are your feelings about change, your sense of dissatisfaction, your level of activity vs. passivity? In the phrase made famous by Jon Kabat Zinn, "Wherever you go, there you are."

Forward movement occurs when obstacles are removed. Growth is a natural, automatic process. Consider plants, children or even clutter; all things that can grow, tend to do so. Only an obstacle will interfere with that process. Once the obstacle is removed, growth resumes. So the question should not be, "How do I get moving in my career?" but rather, "What's stopping me from moving forward in my career?"

Traditional career counseling doesn't typically address internal obstacles to career fulfillment; psycho-therapeutic career counseling can and does. Internal obstacles are addressed when they are illuminated, acknowledged, and examined. This is the work of my whole-person, psychotherapy-based career counseling. (See also the Individual Therapy page.)

If you are in transition after job loss, you might want to drop in on my free drop-in Job Loss Support Group on a Tuesday evening.

If you're looking for a boost of career inspiration, consider attending a lively and informative free talk, "Do the Work You Were Born to Do." Details and registration on the Free Events page.

To make an appointment for a complimentary initial consultation, you can use the Contact page or call me at 544.6179, area code 503.