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The previous chapter provided an overview of prominent career development theories that have been influential in career counselling practice. The move towards constructivist approaches and narrative career counselling, as well as calls for combined qualitative and quantitative approaches, are highlighted in this chapter. This chapter begins with an overview of narrative approaches to counselling and, more specifically, narrative approaches to career counselling. The Systems Theory Framework (STF; McMahon &

Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon, 1997, 1999, 2006a, b) of career development and the story telling approach to career counselling (McMahon, 2006; McMahon & Watson, 2010, 2012c, 2013) is then elaborated on. The STF is an example of a career development theory that is consistent with the constructivist worldview that provides the theoretical base for the story telling approach.

Overview of the Development of Narrative Counselling Approaches Before proceeding with this section, it is important to note that for the purpose of this study, the terms narrative counselling and narrative therapy will be used interchangeably.

The initial developers of narrative therapy were Michael White, a social worker and counsellor, and David Epston, a former anthropologist and family therapist (White &

Epston, 1990). Narrative therapy emerged out of family therapy but a wide range of professionals and perspectives has influenced its development. Early proponents who informed the work of White and Epston included: an anthropologist, Gregory Bateson (1972); an ethnographer, Jerome Bruner (1987); a philosopher, Jacques Derrida (1982);

psychologists, Dan McAdams (1985), George Kelly (1955, 1991), Michel Foucault 1961, 1984), Theodor Sarbin (1986); and Erving Goffman (1959); and sociologists (Payne, 2000;

White, 1989, 1997). Narrative therapy has therefore evolved from a synthesis of diverse

influences and has subsequently spread into various disciplines. A few of these diverse influences will be mentioned below.

The narrative approach became influential in psychology in the last decades of the twentieth century. Theodor Sarbin introduced the term 'narrative psychology' in 1986 and asserted that human behaviour could be described through stories. The first

comprehensive theory of psychotherapy along constructivist or narrative lines, the theory of personal constructs, however, had first emerged in 1955 and was developed by George Kelly. Kelly postulated that clients' sense of self and social worlds are provisional constructions that might be lived out differently if viewed from alternative perspectives.

According to Kelly, individuals give meaning and significance to events, and select similarities and differences from their life experiences that describe those events. The mental structures used to interpret and predict these events were termed personal constructs (Kelly).

Michel Foucault's (1961, 1984) perspectives were influential in the further development of narrative therapy. Foucault explored how the labelling language of the community influenced and exercised power over individuals in society. Foucault claimed that there was a direct correlation between knowledge and power. His analysis of power and knowledge provided a framework for consideration of the broader socio-political context of individuals' lives and relationships (White & Epston, 1990). Bateson's (1972)

perspectives contributed to the progression of narrative approaches by offering

perspectives on the subjective nature of reality. Bateson contended that individuals cannot know the world directly; instead, they interpret it through their pre-existing frameworks or filters. In other words, Bateson believed that individuals' interpretations of events were determined by how these events fit in with patterns of events that were already known or familiar to them.

Jacques Derrida's (1982) notion of construction was used to externalise the dominant problem-saturated descriptions of an individual's life, with the intention of listening for spaces, gaps, hidden meanings, or conflicting stories, in order to explore the influence that these problems have on the individual's life. According to Derrida, separating problem saturated descriptions from the dominant story enables individuals to identify what Goffman (1959) termed unique outcomes. In 1985, McAdams developed a theoretical framework and a coding system for interpreting life narratives in the personological tradition. This framework assumed a close relationship between life story and personal identity. McAdams proposed that "identity is the storied self" (p. 385). Bruner (1987) explored a narrative kind of knowing and empirically presented how individuals construct their worlds through the narratives they tell and share. Bruner noticed that the knowledge that individuals have is born of their own experiences but that the understandings of these experiences come about through the telling of these experiences in the form of stories. He argued that it is through these stories that individuals encounter meaning. What

particularly influenced White's (1989, 1997) work was Bruner's insight that these life stories or narratives about self could never fully encompass the richness of the lived experience, yet remained the individual's only way of making sense of their lived

experiences. Bruner's major contribution was recognising that narratives were not merely descriptive of lived experiences but have real effects in shaping lives and experiences (Monk, 1996).

Several philosophical positions (i.e., logical positivism, constructivism, and social constructionism) have influenced the development of the narrative turn in knowledge creation. It is against this backdrop that the basic premise, characteristics and process of narrative therapy will be elaborated on next.

Narrative Approaches to Counselling Basic Premise

The central tenet which drives narrative therapy is that individuals' lives are based on stories and these stories are created out of life experience (Madsen, 2007). Gortner (2001) postulates that narrative therapy is a collaborative language systems approach where language and conversation are core concepts. According to Gortner, meaning is created through stories or language, as well as interaction with others. Morgan (2000, 2002) describes narrative therapy as a non-blaming approach that focuses on externalising

clients' problems. In collaboration with the counsellor, clients reframe problem stories and create alternative stories by exploring their values, attitudes, competencies, perceptions, and goals (Morgan).

The Role of the Therapist

Narrative therapy regards each client, problem, and session as unique. Thus, there is no reliance on preconceived knowledge or across-the-board techniques (Gortner, 2001). The therapist has a tentative, curious attitude, and tries to learn about and understand the client and their unique story as they choose to tell it. Narrative therapists do not regard

themselves as experts, but rather regard individuals as the experts of their own lives. The client is therefore regarded as skilful and a competent individual who has numerous beliefs, values, commitments, and abilities that they can draw on when faced with problems (Morgan, 2002).

Language

Individuals use language to construct their identity and careers (Savickas, 2013).

Language enables thinking and meaning making. As individuals reflect on experiences and actions with others, language provides the holding environment for the self-awareness that emerges in the construction of identity. According to Savickas, the self is built from

the outside in, not from the inside out and is therefore co-constructed through interpersonal processes, using language as the tool.

Stories

Individuals interpret life through stories that they tell themselves or share with others.

According to White (1995), stories represent what individuals remember and think about events. Stories also shape the structure of life and have the power to alter behaviour and either produce or solve problems. Moreover, the stories through which life is seen are powerful motivators and determinants of behaviour, outlook, and attitudes (Galvin, 1997).

Thick Versus Thin Stories

Individuals often have thin stories or descriptions of their life events, actions, or identities. These stories can be created either by the storyteller or by others (Morgan, 2002). Thin descriptions may hide strengths or richer accounts of individuals' lives that may have been neglected. Morgan believes that thin descriptions develop when

individuals do not allow space for the complexities and contradictions of life, or within themselves. Thin descriptions may give rise to thin conclusions or labels of problems, and an understanding of the self that lacks depth.

Meaning Making

When narrative therapists refer to meaning making they refer to the idea that

individuals create their own reality and take meaning from it, as well as to the notion that meaning is socially constructed (Kazdin, 2000). Kazdin maintains that the meanings that individuals' experiences create are seldom created in isolation, with the result that elements of others in the understanding of self are often present. Those others who inform

individuals' meanings do so through what Kazdin referred to as the dominant culture.

Individuals therefore make sense of their lives through both the cultural narratives that

they are born into, and the personal narratives that they construct in relation to those which are dominant in their culture (White & Epston, 1990).

Modernist western culture is predominantly individualistic. Individualism emphasises the person as an individual, while overlooking the extent to which each individual is inextricably part of a social world (Galvin, 1997). This individualistic perspective is in contradiction to the concept of Ubuntu which is the core of the traditional African collectivist worldview (Tutu, 1999, 2004). Ubuntu refers to interconnectedness and wholeness and emphasises that individuals cannot exist in isolation, independent of their social relationships (Tutu, 2004). Instead, individuals are part of the social whole and fulfil a critical function in the healthy functioning of the whole (Mogoro, 1998). The group, family, community, tribe, nation, and universe all define the individual by the complex dynamic interrelationships that the individual establishes and maintains. In line with this, narrative therapists such as White and Epston (1990) and Freedman and Combs (1996), recognise the connectedness between an individual and the community. They are therefore attentive to the social dimension and to the ways in which the community's narratives interweave with the individual's life (Galvin).

Externalising the Problem

Within the narrative framework, White and Epston (1990) state that problems occur when individuals are situated in stories that others have about them and their relationships, and when those stories are dominant to the extent that they do not allow sufficient space for the performance of the individual's preferred stories. Alternatively, a problem can occur when an individual "actively participates in the performance of stories that they find unhelpful and unsatisfying and that these stories do not sufficiently encapsulate the

individual's lived experience or are significantly contradicted by important aspects of the person's lived experience" (p. 14).

White (1986) proposed that individuals should see their problems as not residing within themselves, but as external to themselves and constantly seeking to intrude on their lives.

This way of viewing a problem can have a powerfully therapeutic effect as it frees the individual from the notion that the problem is intrinsically part of them (Carey & Russell, 2002; White, 1995). In externalising conversations, the client experiences an identity that is distinct or separate from the problem and the problem is therefore disempowered.

Furthermore, problems are understood to have been socially constructed and created over time. After externalising, the therapist proceeds with an explanation of the relationship between the client and his/her problems to help the client discover how the problem has been affecting the client and how long it has lasted. The therapist also finds out about how the problem operates or encroaches on the individual’s life and identity. Externalising the problem is often also spoken of as deconstructing the problem (Derrida, 1982; White, 2007).

Finding Unique Outcomes

White and Epston (1990) used Goffman (1959) term unique outcomes to describe incidents and events in an individual's life that stood out in positive contrast to the dominant narrative that was causing the problem. Having externalised the problem, the therapist and client typically look for unique outcomes in the client's life. Unique outcomes may be overlooked because thin stories often focus on the obvious dominant theme. In the narrative approach, therapists are attentive to diversifications from the norm, or for aspects of the client's life that contradict the dominant narrative, and for empowering the client. Therapists work with their clients to trace a history of unique outcomes that can be placed at the forefront of the client's awareness and match the client's abilities for re-creating these unique outcomes in new stories that can lead to changes in future behaviour or actions (Morgan, 2000). In sum, the therapist or counsellor then co-constructs a new

narrative of the client's life based on these unique outcomes. This new narrative can be woven together into a narrative that opposes against the dominant story of the client.

Clients can then choose to see themselves in terms of this thick story rather than the old, thin story as previously told and lived.

The Alternative Story

Alternative stories refer to different stories about the same lived experience as told by the individual whose life is being narrated. Alternative stories open up avenues for preferred stories. Preferred stories can only become available once alternative stories are recognised and identified as preferable to the original narratives (Sieberhagen, 2002;

White, 1995). Clients are encouraged to re-author their own lives according to the alternative and preferred stories of identity and preferred ways of life (Morgan, 2002).

Finding alternative and preferred stories is necessary in narrative therapy because the meanings that a client ascribes to the first original narrative mostly consisted of what narrative therapists call thin descriptions (White, 2007).

Personal Agency

Narrative therapy also highlights personal agency. Personal agency refers to clients’

abilities to shape their own lives and to have the capacity to influence developments in their lives to the extent of bringing about preferred outcomes (White & Epston, 1990).

In sum, the narrative therapy process entails defining the problem, externalising the problem, deconstructing old stories, re-authoring new stories, and creating alternative stories that enable clients to perform new meanings and bring about desired possibilities.

The following section will focus more specifically on narrative approaches to career counselling as they pertain to the present study.

Narrative Approaches to Career Counselling

Early signs of a narrative turn within the field of career psychology are evident according to Collin and Young (1986), Richardson (1993) and Savickas (1993). This approach has gained popularity with career theorists and counsellors because of its ability to accommodate the needs of a diverse client base and to understand individuals' careers holistically (Collin & Young, 2000; Rehfuss, 2009; Severy, 2002). Cochran (1997) wrote the first book titled Career Counselling: A Narrative Approach which was seminal in the field. Narrative approaches have been embraced by career theorists and counsellors such as Amundson (1998, 2003, 2006, 2009), Brott (2001, 2004, 2005), Bujold (2004),

McMahon and Patton (2006), Mkhize (2005), Mkhize and Frizelle (2000), Peavy (1997, 2001, 2004), and Savickas (2013).

Prominent examples of narrative approaches to career counselling include: Amundson’s (2009) active engagement; Cochran’s (1997) narrative career counselling; McMahon and Watson’s (2010, 2012c, 2013) storytelling approach; Peavy’s (1997) sociodynamic approach; Pryor and Bright’s (2011, 2012) chaos theory; Savickas et al.’s (2009) life designing; and Savickas' (2013) counselling model for career construction. Similarities in these approaches are that they value holism, personal agency, meaning making, and story, and place greater emphasis on individuals as active agents in their career development.

The process of narrative career counselling is also collaborative rather than expert driven (Mahoney, 2004; Maree, 2007, 2010; McMahon & Patton, 2006; McMahon & Watson, 2012c, 2013). McIlveen (2008) asserts that the ideas and methods of narrative career counselling are not well articulated, are nascent and still evolving. As a result, providing a definitive summary of its features poses a challenge. There are, however, significant features that distinguish the narrative approach from traditional approaches to career counselling. These features will be elaborated on next.

The Counselling Relationship

Central to narrative approaches is the quality of the counselling relationship and an emphasis on listening to clients' stories. Through listening to clients' stories, counsellors are able to absorb the client's' understanding of the meaning of events, and how the client feels or thinks about those events (Maree & Beck, 2004). Career counsellors using narrative approaches are therefore viewed as facilitators in a meaning making process that elicits links between stories. Career counsellors operating from this position therefore offer fewer directives and information. The client, on the other hand, is expected to adopt a more active role in the process as opposed to being a passive recipient of expert

knowledge (McMahon & Patton, 2006).

McMahon and Patton surmise that a shift in emphasis from the logical positivist worldview to the constructivist worldview has far-ranging implications for the way career counsellors work. A fundamental goal of constructivist counselling is to understand the way a client organises and makes sense of his or her experience over time. Thus, an active role of the individual is emphasised in the counselling process rather than the passive one implied earlier in logical positivist approaches. The client and counsellor work

collaboratively, focusing on holistic approaches to career development, where the subjective experiences and feelings of the client are valued (McMahon & Patton).

Constructivist counselling can therefore provide a perspective from which one can conceptualise changing notions of careers in a postmodern society. These changing notions include the importance of individuals becoming more self-directed in making meaning of the place of work in their lives and in managing their careers.

Furthermore, individuals learn to construct meaning using language and through dialogue with the career counsellor and significant others. Language is fundamental to creating meaning and knowledge. Thus, knowledge is shaped through dialogue between

the client and career counsellor, a process that incorporates the construction of reality.

This contrasts with the traditional role of the career counsellor as the expert who solved clients' problems and provided advice (Savickas, 2013).

McMahon and Patton (2006) contrast the implications of these two different

worldviews of logical positivism and constructivism for career counselling in Table 1.

Table 1

Implications of the Logical Positivist and Constructivist Worldviews on Career Counselling

Elements of career counselling Logical positivist worldview Constructivist worldview

Role of client Passive responder Active participant

Role of the counsellor Expert Interested, curious, and tentative enquirer

Respectful listener Tentative observer Nature of the relationship Counsellor dominated

Counsellor knows best

Place of career assessment Used as starting point Objective

Feelings as well as facts are valued

Use of career information Emphasis on facts provided by expert counsellor

Emphasis on information-seeking process Client becomes information gatherer Nature of change Sequential or linear

Emphasis on outcome or Language is critical to understanding and the creation of knowledge Wholes and parts Focus on traits such as

personality, ability or interests

Little attention has been given to context Work and life viewed as separate

Holistic approach – subjective experiences and feelings valued Context is important

Work and life is viewed as a whole Counselling process Counsellor dominated

Sequential expression of an objective outcome such as a career title

Counsellor enters the client’s life-space through dialogue

Expectation of client driven change

(Source: McMahon, Adams, and Lim, 2002, p. 23, adapted from McMahon and Patton, 2006)

Career is Personal

Several authors such as Anderson and Niles (1995), Krumboltz (1993), Bedi (2004) and McMahon and Patton (2002), have contended that the distinction between career

counselling and personal counselling is inappropriate. Narrative career counselling does not operate on the assumption that personal issues lie outside the range of what makes up an individual's career. The narrative approach aims to construct a holistic understanding of an individual's life, and how his or her career is inherently part of a broader life story (McMahon & Watson, 2008).

Emotion

While traditional career development theories have been criticised for their lack of inclusion of emotion (Brown & Lent, 2005; Kidd, 1998, 2004; Meijers, 1998, 2003), narrative approaches regard emotion as an intrinsic and explicit part of the process of career development (Young & Valach, 2000; Young, Valach, Brown, & Collin, 2002).

With narrative career counselling's emphasis on identity, subjective career, and meaning, clients' emotions are brought into the framework of the discussion and the client's feelings are positioned within his or her story.

Action or Agency

Despite the fact that narrative career counselling approaches focus on language, they do

Despite the fact that narrative career counselling approaches focus on language, they do