Career counselling

1. Introduction

Version followed: Career counselling is a field, not one therapy. This guide follows two published models. (a) Mark Savickas's Career Construction Counseling (CCC), as set out in his Career Construction Counseling Manual (2019, released by the author for free reproduction) and his Career Construction Interview (CCI) description; this is the main individual-counselling procedure. (b) The Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) approach of Sampson, Peterson, Reardon and Lenz (Florida State University materials, 2003, from the 2004 book Career Counseling and Services: A CIP Approach); this supplies readiness screening, levels of service, the CASVE decision cycle, the Individual Learning Plan and work on negative career thoughts. Guidance on the boundary with clinical care follows the 2024 NCDA Code of Ethics as summarised by NACE (2026). Super's life-span theory, Krumboltz's happenstance learning theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory are not covered: their primary texts are not drawn on. [source: CCC Manual; CCI Description; CIP Key Elements; CIP Core Concepts; NACE 2026]

What it is. Career counselling helps people choose, enter, change or make sense of work (study choice, job choice, career transitions, return to work, unemployment). It sits beside score-based vocational guidance (matching test results to occupations) and does not replace it. [source: CCC Manual]

How change happens: CCC. Clients tell small stories (micro-narratives) about their role models, interests, favourite story, motto and early memories. Counsellor and client weave these into a larger life story (a "life portrait") that makes the current transition meaningful and points to next steps. The client then tells this story to others and acts on it. Savickas describes the sequence as construct (tension), deconstruct (attention), reconstruct (intention) and co-construct (extension). The goals are narratability (being able to tell one's story coherently), adaptability (changing self and situation) and intentionality (shaping a career story that gives work meaning). Savickas calls CCC a counselling discourse informed by practice-based evidence, not a research-proven protocol. [source: CCC Manual; CCI Description]

How change happens: CIP. A career problem is a gap between where a person is and where they want to be. People close the gap by building self-knowledge and knowledge of options, by learning a decision process (the CASVE cycle), and by improving metacognitions: self-talk, self-awareness, and monitoring and control of their own thinking. The amount of help is matched to the person's readiness. [source: CIP Core Concepts; CIP Key Elements]

2. Framework

2a. CCC: two sessions plus follow-up [source: CCC Manual]

Format: individual. Two sessions about one week apart, then a follow-up appointment one month later to report how the plan is going. The sources cited give no session length [uncertain]; 50 to 90 minutes is a workable assumption [synthesis].
Session 1: construct. Build the working alliance (bond, goals, tasks). Ask the entry question. Assess the form and content of the transition story. Co-write goals. Then run the CCI: role models, magazines/TV/websites, current favourite story, favourite saying, three early recollections. Close by asking whether there is anything else and explaining that you will put the stories together into a larger story before the next meeting.
Between sessions: deconstruct and reconstruct (counsellor's desk work). Assess each answer and draft the life portrait (seven tasks; see 4.16).
Session 2: reconstruct and co-construct. Open by asking what has become clearer. Part one: narrate the portrait slowly, with the client revising it. Part two: action planning (intentions, strategic changes, tactical actions, alternatives, telling the story to key audiences). Close by reading back the client's original entry answer and asking whether counselling has achieved it.
Criteria for moving on. Session 1 → portrait writing: the CCI has enough material. The manual's thresholds are at least four descriptors per role model, a favourite story of at least four or five sentences, and early recollections that are specific incidents of at least four sentences, each with a feeling and a vivid image. Session 2 → ending: the client says the entry goal has been met; then book the one-month follow-up. Goal not met: the sources cited do not say what to do. Agree what is missing and add a session [synthesis].

2b. CIP: screening, levels of service, CASVE, ILP [source: CIP Key Elements; CIP Core Concepts; CIP Ch6; CIP Ch8]

Brief screen: ask why the person is seeking help. A concrete request with no apparent problems goes to self-help resources.
Comprehensive screen: if there is no concrete request and there are signs of uncertainty, confusion or disabling emotions, use a readiness measure such as the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). Judge readiness from test results and your interaction with the person, never from one score.
Readiness has two sides (CTI chapter): capability (decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety) and complexity (external conflict, i.e. balancing one's own view against significant others'). The full capability × complexity quadrant model is not drawn on here [uncertain].
Three levels of service:
- Self-help (high readiness): resource room or website; staff briefly check that needs are met.
- Brief staff-assisted (moderate readiness): self-directed work with an Individual Learning Plan (ILP), group counselling of fewer than six sessions, career courses, workshops.
- Individual case-managed (low readiness): individual counselling, group counselling of more than six sessions, small-group courses, at a slower pace to work on what makes deciding hard.
Content and process: work through the Pyramid (self-knowledge, options knowledge, decision-making skills, executive processing) and the CASVE cycle (Communication, Analysis, Synthesis, Valuing, Execution, then back to Communication), guided by a written ILP that is reviewed and revised regularly.
Criteria for moving on and ending: at the return to Communication, check whether the gap has closed, whether negative emotions and physical stress have eased, and whether the person is acting. If not, go round the cycle again.
Seven-step sequence: CIP materials name a "seven-step service delivery sequence", but the document listing the steps is not drawn on here [uncertain]. A workable equivalent [synthesis]: intake → readiness screen → define the gap and its causes → set goals → write the ILP → carry out ILP activities with regular review → final review of what was learned and how to use it next time.
Group example (published group outline, military/rehabilitation population) [source: TPC group outline]: pre-group meeting (purpose, expectations, attendance, limits of confidentiality); Session 1: rules, the Pyramid, CTI feedback, ILP introduced, homework to write group goals; Session 2: self-knowledge via Holland's RIASEC and the Self-Directed Search, homework to research occupations on O*NET and finalise ILP activities; Session 3: options knowledge, perceived employment barriers, CASVE introduced, homework to do one ILP activity and narrow to three to five occupations. Later sessions were not in the excerpt [uncertain].

2c. Choosing and combining (for a psychotherapist) [synthesis]

The presenting problem is mainly identity, meaning or a life transition ("I don't know who I am at work any more") → CCC.
The problem is mainly a stuck decision, information gaps or negative thoughts about deciding → CIP, with CTI-type screening.
Many clients need both. CCI material can feed the Analysis (self-knowledge) phase of CASVE, and CASVE can structure the action-planning part of CCC Session 2.
If screening or the narrative shows a clinical problem that blocks career work, treat it, or refer, before or alongside the career work (see 5.10).

3. Guiding principles

From CCC [source: CCC Manual; CCI Description]

Client is the expert on content, counsellor on process. Ask, don't tell; "lead from behind" with questions.
Map, not recipe. CCC is principle-driven; adapt it to each client like jazz improvisation rather than running it mechanically.
Relationship, reflection and sense-making are the core. Spend the effort on these, not on technique.
Make sense rather than interpret. Clients build the meaning; no single view is objectively right. Write the portrait in their own words.
Stay with the client's wants, not with your favourite techniques.
Show authentic care. Clients often describe it as the most moving part of counselling.
Use the client's language: their metaphors, need words and protests. Change "should/must" to "could/want".
Story becomes real only when enacted. Every course ends in concrete action and in telling the new story to people who matter.
Move from empathy to encouragement as the client moves toward action.
Realistic choice is progress, not perfection. Name constraints openly and still support agency.
Refer early when a goal is outside counselling (e.g. résumé editing), so the client does not feel rejected.
Culture shapes authority. In collectivist contexts, parental guidance may rightly carry more weight than personal role models.

From CIP [source: CIP Key Elements; CIP Ch8; CIP Core Concepts]

Assess readiness before intervening, using test results plus the conversation, not a single score.
Match help to need: the least intensive service that will work for high-readiness people, slower individual work for low-readiness people.
Teach the theory to the client. The Pyramid and CASVE give a shared language for understanding one's own decision making.
Collaborate. The ILP is written jointly.
Start small and success-oriented. Keep ILP activities few and achievable at first, then add more as confidence grows.
Challenge dysfunctional career thoughts when they block progress.
Give the client choices, e.g. a paper or computer version of an assessment.
Review homework every time, for reinforcement and accountability.
Use immediacy and appropriate self-disclosure; ask for feedback on the relationship.
Decisions are social. In Valuing, weigh effects on self, significant others, cultural group and community.

Professional boundary [source: NACE 2026, citing NCDA Code of Ethics 2024]

Practise within competence (education, training, supervised experience, credentials) and consult when unsure.
Check Capacity and Containment. Capacity: can the client engage meaningfully in exploration and planning? Containment: can you safely manage the emotions in the room? If either answer is "no" or "uncertain", consult and consider referral. A licensed psychotherapist has more scope here than a career coach. You must still decide explicitly whether you are doing career counselling, psychotherapy, or both, and agree this with the client [synthesis].

4. Intervention inventory

Part A covers Career Construction Counseling [source: CCC Manual; CCI Description unless stated]. Part B covers CIP [source: CIP materials as stated]. All example wording is my own and is labelled (illustrative), apart from a few short quoted stems with citations. The CTI and Self-Directed Search are licensed instruments; their items are not reproduced here.

Part A: Career Construction Counseling

4.1 Working alliance and entry question

Purpose / when: opening of Session 1. Agrees the bond, goals and tasks, and tells the client what kind of process this is.
Steps: (1) Explain the roles: the client is the expert on their life and content, you are the expert on process, and you will mostly ask questions. (2) Ask the entry question. (3) Ask whether there is anything more, and keep asking until the client says no. (4) Write the answer down word for word; you will read it back at the end of Session 2.
Example language: entry question "How may I be useful to you?" [source: CCC Manual]. Role statement (illustrative): "You know your life better than anyone. My job is to ask questions that help us see the pattern in it. Is there anything else you'd want from our time?"
Watch for: a goal outside counselling, such as résumé formatting or job placement. Refer it out now, not later (see 4.3). Note how the client positions themselves toward the problem: agent or bystander.

4.2 Assessing the transition narrative

Purpose / when: while the client describes why they came. Tells you how to respond before the CCI.
Steps: (1) Content: note how the client positions themselves toward the problem, how much agency they show, and how they position other people and you. (2) Form: decide which of Savickas's six forms the story takes: same old story, untold story, unstoryed emotions, changing story, empty story, conflict story. (3) Respond to the form. The manual's suggested responses include asking for more detail, asking about what is left out, empathic listening, and exploring the background. The exact pairing of each response with each form was not captured from the source [uncertain]. A practical pairing [synthesis]: same old story → ask for new details; untold story → ask about what is missing; unstoryed emotions → empathic listening until feelings can be put into words; changing story → explore the background to the change; empty story → gently invite specifics; conflict story → lay out both sides.
Example language (illustrative): "You've told me what happened. I notice you haven't said much about how it was for you. What was that like?"
Watch for: unstoryed emotions or an empty story combined with low energy or hopelessness. These may be clinical signs (see 5.10).

4.3 Co-constructing written goals

Purpose / when: after the entry question. Turns the request into goals you both agree on.
Steps: (1) Paraphrase the request. (2) Agree goals in writing in the client's words. (3) If part of the request is outside counselling, name it and refer that part out early (e.g. to a placement specialist), so it does not feel like rejection.
Example language (illustrative): "So the goal is to get a clearer direction for going back to work. The CV formatting part, our careers adviser does that well. Shall I give you her details, so we can use our time here on direction?"
Watch for: goals the client cannot own ("my parents want me to decide"). Treat these as external conflict (see 4.29 and 5.6).

4.4 Listening micro-skills used throughout

Purpose / when: all sessions.
Steps: validate protests and critiques. Follow tears to the unmet need. Use the client's metaphors. Respect silences. Explore sighs. Counter over-generalisations. Replace should/ought/must with could/prefer/want. Reinforce need words (hope, seek, desire, miss, lack). Note booster words (always, totally) to use later. Stick with what the client wants.
Example language (illustrative): "You said you 'should' stay in law. If you set 'should' aside for a moment, what would you want?" / "That sigh, what was in it?"
Watch for: the client starting to use need words and "want" language. That is a sign of growing intentionality [synthesis].

4.5 CCI: role models (self)

Purpose: reveals the self the client has built: who they are, who they want to become, and their solutions to their central problem.
Steps: (1) Ask for three people the client admired growing up, roughly ages six to nine, who are not the parents (if earlier is empty, move to middle childhood or early adolescence). (2) For each, ask what they admired and get at least four personality adjectives or nouns. Press past appearance or achievements to inner traits. (3) Ask how the client is like each model and how they differ. (4) Ask what the three have in common. (5) If a parent is named, ask for someone else. Parents can be explored afterwards with three words each.
Example language (illustrative): "When you were about six to nine, who did you look up to, apart from your parents? Real people, characters in books or on TV, anyone." / "You said she was tall and famous. What was she like as a person?"
Watch for: only physical or evaluative words ("cool", "great") → ask for more. A role model whose traits mirror the client's current problem in reverse is often the most useful [synthesis].

4.6 CCI: magazines, TV shows, websites (stage / manifest interests)

Purpose: these "vicarious environments" show the work settings where the client wants to be who they are. Savickas assesses manifest interests from these answers, not inventory scores.
Steps: (1) Ask for favourite magazines; if none, TV shows; then websites or games, whichever suits the client. Aim for about three. (2) For each, ask a motivation probe: what attracts them, what appeals. (3) Record the client's own explanation; it may differ from what you would assume.
Example language (illustrative): "What do you read, watch or scroll through regularly because you want to? What draws you to it?"
Watch for: answers about content (people, places, problems, procedures). These map directly onto RIASEC types (4.12).

4.7 CCI: current favourite story (script)

Purpose: the plot usually resembles the client's main problem, preoccupation or pain, and suggests a script for the next chapter.
Steps: (1) Ask for the favourite story from a book or film currently or right now, not of all time (all-time favourites show overarching themes rather than the current script). (2) Ask the client to tell the story in at least four or five sentences. (3) If it is unclear, ask for a second story.
Example language (illustrative): "What's your favourite story right now, from a book, film or series? Tell me the story as if I'd never heard of it."
Watch for: the protagonist's move from problem to solution. That move is the scenario you will draft later (4.13).

4.8 CCI: favourite saying or motto (advice to self)

Purpose: the client's own advice to themselves; inner wisdom for the current problem.
Steps: (1) Ask for a favourite saying or motto. (2) If there is none, ask about posters or bumper stickers they remember, then invite them to make one up. (3) If unclear, ask for a second. (4) Ask about the meaning of any tattoo the client mentions.
Example language (illustrative): "Is there a saying you like, or one you'd put on a sticker? If not, make one up now."
Watch for: the motto usually fits the portrait and tells the client what to do next. It becomes Task 6 of the portrait (4.16).

4.9 CCI: early recollections (perspective)

Purpose: places the current transition within the client's central preoccupation and life plot.
Steps: (1) Ask for three early memories from about ages three to six. (2) Each must be a specific incident (not "we always…") told in at least four sentences. (3) For each, ask what feeling goes with it and what the most vivid image is. (4) Ask the client to give each memory a headline, like a newspaper headline, containing a verb and a feeling word.
Example language (illustrative): "What's your earliest memory, one particular day or moment?… What feeling goes with it? If you froze one image from it, what would it be? If it were a news headline, what would the headline be?"
Watch for: painful content. The manual allows beginning counsellors to omit this question until they feel secure holding pain. Treat memories as the client's experience and meaning, not as historical facts to investigate; do not probe for hidden events [synthesis, consistent with trauma-informed practice]. If a traumatic memory surfaces with distress, slow down, ground the client and agree whether to set it aside for therapy (see 5.9).

4.10 Closing Session 1

Steps: ask whether there is anything else. Preview that you will put the small stories together into a larger story and share it next week.
Example language (illustrative): "Before next time I'll weave these stories into a draft portrait of you. You'll be the editor; you can change anything."

4.11 Assessing role models (between sessions)

Purpose: to name the client's self-concept.
Steps: (1) List all descriptors. (2) Note primacy: the first attribute named. (3) Note repetition: traits that recur across models are salient and stable. (4) Note complexity: the number of unique attributes. (5) Note resolved contradictions (e.g. tough and tender). (6) Ignore purely evaluative words. (7) Choose the most abstract repeated term as the core. Remember the distinction: parents' traits are taken in (heteronomous), role models' traits are taken on (chosen).
Watch for: in collectivist cultures, give parental guidance more weight.

4.12 Assessing manifest interests: RIASEC and O*NET

Purpose: turns favourite media into work settings and occupations.
Steps: (1) Classify each described environment by Holland's six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional. (2) Most clients resemble one or two types; form a two- or three-letter code. (3) Look the code up in O*NET to produce a list of matching occupations. (4) Give the list to the client in Session 2. (5) Describe interests in four sentences: people, places, problems and procedures the client prefers.
Example language (illustrative): "From your favourite shows you're drawn to places where people solve puzzles together, investigate and help. Here are occupations that share that pattern. Which jump out?"
Watch for: the client's reasons for liking something override your classification.

4.13 Assessing the favourite story (script)

Steps: (1) Identify how the plot moves the hero from problem to solution. (2) Ask what course of action that implies for the client. (3) Draft a scenario sentence linking self (4.11) and setting (4.12) to that move.

4.14 Assessing early recollections

Steps: (1) Read the first verb in each memory; it often shows the client's usual way of moving through the world. (2) Note the feeling, the headline and the interpersonal orientation (toward, away from, against others). (3) Use Arnold's story-sequence analysis: the first memory shows the core issue or where the client is stuck, the second intensifies it, the third hints at a resolution. (4) Read on three levels: perspective (how the client views the problem), preoccupation (a schema that may become an occupation), pain (a wound that may hold a new direction).
Watch for: over-interpretation. The aim is sense-making with the client, not diagnosis.

4.15 Linking problems to solutions

Purpose: shows the character arc, from passive suffering toward active mastery.
Steps: (1) Put the problem from the early memories beside the role-model traits that solve it. (2) Use parallel words from both sets (e.g. memory: "felt invisible"; models: "spoke up"). (3) Draw a diagram if it helps. (4) Connect needs (from memories), values (from role models) and interests (from media).

4.16 Writing the life portrait (seven tasks)

Purpose: a short, coherent macro-narrative in present tense, in the client's own words, without judging, analysing or explaining.
Steps (manual's tasks; stems paraphrased unless quoted):
1. Perspective (from early recollections): a sentence on what the underlying concern reminds the client of as they face this transition.
2. Self (from role models): "I am ____, ____, ____, and ____." [source: CCC Manual]
3. Character arc (memories linked to models): a sentence on what the client turned which problem into while growing up.
4. Interests: four sentences on preferred people, places, problems and procedures, plus example occupations.
5. Scenario (favourite story): if the client adopts the script from their favourite story, then they will…
6. Advice (motto): "The best advice I have for myself right now is ___." [source: CCC Manual]
7. Unify: combine Tasks 1–6 into one template-based story covering the reconstructed life story, the transition and future possibilities. Check that it shows the client as social actor, motivated agent and autobiographical author. Refine for consistent language, transitions, themes and arc.
Watch for: a portrait that sounds like you rather than the client. Replace your words with theirs.

4.17 Opening Session 2

Steps: (1) Ask what has become clearer since last time. (2) Add any new insights to the portrait. (3) Restate why the client came, using their entry answer.
Example language (illustrative): "What's become clearer since we met? … Last week you said you wanted direction for going back to work. Let's keep that in front of us."

4.18 Retelling the portrait

Purpose: the client hears their life as one coherent story and edits it into their own.
Steps: (1) Narrate the portrait slowly, pausing after each part for reactions. (2) Start with the first early memory and move through the episodes. As you go, take apart self-negating beliefs and externalise problems (the problem is something the client faces, not who they are). (3) Link each role model's traits to the difficulties in the episodes, showing how the client built the self they needed. (4) Move to interests; offer the list of fitting occupations. (5) Retell the favourite story as a script and the motto as the director's instruction for the next scene. (6) Sum up answers to five questions: who the client is, where they want to work, what they want to do, why, and how to begin. (7) Invite revisions throughout and write them in.
Example language (illustrative): "In that first memory a small girl watches from the doorway, unheard. Then you chose heroes who spoke up and organised people. You turned being unheard into helping others be heard. Does that fit? What would you change?"
Watch for: recognition ("that's me"), emotion, the client correcting wording. All are signs of engagement. Flat agreement may mean compliance; ask what doesn't fit [synthesis].

4.19 Action planning

Purpose: turns the reconstructed story into intentions and a plan. The new story gains meaning only when enacted.
Steps: (1) Return to the entry question and help the client see the difference between the old and new story. (2) Ask the client to state their intentions. (3) Co-construct a plan with strategic changes (direction) and tactical actions (next concrete steps). (4) Include alternatives. (5) Frame realistic choice as progress, not perfection, and name constraints openly.
Example language (illustrative): "Given this story, what do you intend now? … What's the first step you could take this week, and what's plan B if that door is shut?"
Watch for: steps that are vague or too big. Narrow them until the client can say when and where [synthesis].

4.20 Telling and rehearsing the story with audiences

Purpose: telling the re-authored story to valued audiences (family, friends, mentors, coaches, teachers) makes it more real and builds confidence.
Steps: (1) Ask who needs to hear the new story. (2) Rehearse telling it in session. (3) Rehearse handling likely reactions, including doubtful ones.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise. I'll be your father. Tell me what you've decided… Now, what if he says it's too risky?"
Watch for: reluctance to tell anyone. It may signal low commitment or external conflict (5.6).

4.21 Information-seeking exploration

Purpose: reality-test options.
Steps: suggest the client explore through observing, visiting, listening, talking to people in the field, writing, reading and searching online, and keep notes on what they learn.
Example language (illustrative): "Before deciding, could you spend a morning shadowing someone who does this, and jot down what energised or drained you?"

4.22 Closing Session 2 and follow-up

Steps: (1) Read the client's original entry answer aloud. (2) Ask whether counselling has achieved it. (3) If yes, end and book a follow-up one month later to report on carrying out the plan. (4) If no, agree what remains [synthesis].

Part B: Cognitive Information Processing (CIP)

4.23 Brief and comprehensive screening [source: CIP Key Elements; CIP Ch6]

Purpose: decides how much help the client needs.
Steps: (1) Brief screen: ask why they are seeking help. (2) A concrete request with no apparent problems goes to self-help. (3) If there is no concrete request and there are signs of uncertainty, confusion or disabling emotion, give a readiness measure such as the CTI. (4) Interpret the total score as a global indicator of negative career thoughts (higher = lower readiness). Use the construct scores to see which applies: decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, external conflict. (5) Decide jointly with the client how much help to use.
Example language (illustrative): "What brings you in? … Some people find decisions get tangled up with worries. This short questionnaire helps us see whether that's part of it."
Watch for: the CTI is a screen, not a diagnosis. Combine it with what you see in the conversation.

4.24 Assigning a level of service [source: CIP Key Elements]

Steps: high readiness → self-help with a brief staff check. Moderate → brief staff-assisted (ILP-guided self-direction, short groups, courses, workshops). Low → individual case-managed counselling, longer groups, slower pace.
Watch for: in private psychotherapy practice, "self-help" still means giving curated resources and a quick check-in [synthesis].

4.25 Teaching the Pyramid [source: CIP Core Concepts; CIP Ch3; TPC group outline]

Purpose: gives the client a map of what a career decision needs, so they can find their own gaps.
Steps: (1) Draw or show the pyramid. Base: self-knowledge (values, interests, skills, employment preferences, family situation) and options knowledge (occupations, training, typical daily work, how employers are classified). Middle: decision-making skills (CASVE). Top: executive processing (self-talk, self-awareness, monitoring and control). (2) Ask the client to rate where their gaps are. (3) Target activities at the gaps.
Example language (illustrative): "Good career decisions rest on knowing yourself, knowing your options, having a way to decide, and noticing how your thinking helps or hinders. Which of these feels weakest for you now?"

4.26 CASVE: Communication [source: CIP Core Concepts; CIP Ch3]

Purpose: recognise that a decision is needed: the gap.
Steps: help the client name external cues (deadlines, others' comments) and internal cues (emotions, avoidance, physical stress). Define the gap in one sentence.
Example language (illustrative): "What tells you, outside and inside, that this needs deciding now?"

4.27 CASVE: Analysis

Purpose: understand self, options and how one decides.
Steps: clarify values, interests, skills and preferences (CCI or SDS can serve here). Learn about specific options and how the world of work is structured. Reflect on the client's usual decision style and self-talk.
Example language (illustrative): "How have you made big decisions before, and how did that work?"

4.28 CASVE: Synthesis

Steps: (1) Elaboration: generate as many options as possible without judging. (2) Crystallisation: narrow to a manageable set of about three to five.
Watch for: premature narrowing (anxious clients) or endless expansion (avoidant clients) [synthesis].

4.29 CASVE: Valuing

Steps: weigh the costs and benefits of each option for self, significant others, the client's cultural group and the community or society. Rank them. Choose a tentative first and second choice.
Example language (illustrative): "For each option, what would it mean for you, for your family, for your community? Which comes out first, and which is your back-up?"
Watch for: external conflict, when others' views dominate (see 5.6).

4.30 CASVE: Execution and return to Communication

Steps: (1) Plan to carry out the first choice through preparation (education, training), reality testing (part-time, volunteer or course experience) and job-seeking steps. For employment choices this includes applications, accepting or declining offers, and planning the start [source: CIP Ch3]. (2) Return to Communication: has the gap closed, has distress eased, is the client acting? If not, go round again.

4.31 Individual Learning Plan (ILP) [source: CIP Key Elements; CIP Ch8; TPC group outline]

Purpose: structures and monitors the work, and reinforces information-seeking.
Steps: (1) Write it together: client goals, prioritised learning activities (assessments, readings, interviews, research), the purpose or outcome of each, and priority. (2) Keep early activities few and likely to succeed. (3) Review at every meeting, troubleshoot, and revise when new needs appear. (4) Add more activities as confidence grows. The FSU ILP form itself is not drawn on here [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "Let's pick one or two things you're confident you can do before next week, and write down what each will tell us."

4.32 Working with negative career thoughts: identify, challenge, alter, act [source: CIP Ch6; CIP Key Elements; CIP Ch3]

Purpose: reduce the decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety and external conflict that block progress. Draws on Beck's cognitive theory.
Steps: (1) Identify negative career thoughts, from CTI responses or as they come up in session ("teachable moments"). (2) Challenge: look at how each thought interferes with deciding. (3) Alter: write a more helpful replacement thought. (4) Act: turn it into an action plan. The CTI Workbook has five sections: total negative thoughts, the nature of the thoughts, challenging/altering/acting, improving decision-making, and using social support. Use the published workbook; do not recreate its content.
Example language (illustrative): Client: "If I choose wrong, I've wasted my life." Therapist: "How does that thought affect your deciding? … What's a version that's still true but lets you move? Maybe: 'Most choices can be adjusted; I can choose a next step, not a life.'"
Watch for: thoughts that are part of a wider depressive or anxious pattern → consider clinical treatment (5.10). Employer rejection can feel personal and feed negative self-talk [source: CIP Ch3].

4.33 RIASEC self-assessment and occupational research [source: TPC group outline; CCC Manual]

Steps: (1) Introduce Holland's six types. (2) Use a licensed self-assessment such as the Self-Directed Search, or the CCI manifest-interest method (4.12). (3) Translate past experience into codes (e.g. military skills). (4) Homework: research matching occupations on O*NET, then narrow to three to five.

4.34 Monitoring and control check-ins [source: CIP Core Concepts; CIP Ch3]

Purpose: builds the executive-processing domain: knowing when to gather more information or get help, and what task comes next.
Steps: at each meeting, ask the client to say where they are in CASVE, what they are telling themselves, what they feel, and what the next task is.
Example language (illustrative): "Where are we in the cycle now? What's the voice in your head saying about it? What's the next small task?"

4.35 Relationship feedback, choice and self-disclosure [source: CIP Ch8]

Steps: use immediacy to ask for feedback on the relationship. Use appropriate self-disclosure. Give an overview of available resources and let the client choose among formats.
Example language (illustrative): "How is this working for you so far? Anything you'd like me to do differently?"

5. Handling problems

5.1 Client cannot produce CCI material [source: CCC Manual]

No early role models: move to middle childhood or early adolescence.
No magazines: move to TV shows, then websites or games.
No motto: ask about remembered posters or bumper stickers, then invite them to make one up.
Unclear story or saying: ask for a second one.
Physical or evaluative descriptors only: ask what the person was like inside.
Silence or omissions: wait, or ask about what was left out.
Still blank after this [synthesis]: use films or characters the client liked as a teenager, or a person they admire now. Note that the blankness itself may reflect an "empty story" and can be explored gently.

5.2 Strong emotion or pain in session

[source: CCC Manual] Use empathic responses to find the meaning behind feelings. Follow tears to unmet needs. Beginners may leave out the early-recollection question until they can hold pain.
[synthesis] As a psychotherapist you can hold more, but agree explicitly whether the session stays career-focused. If a memory brings up trauma: slow down, orient the client to the present (feet on floor, name objects in the room, paced breathing), and acknowledge the memory as their experience without probing for details. Offer to work on it in therapy separately rather than in the CCI.

5.3 Client rejects or is lukewarm about the portrait [synthesis]

The manual presents the portrait as co-constructed and revised in Session 2. Treat rejection as useful editing: "Which words are wrong? What would you say instead?"
If the whole theme misses, go back to the client's own headlines and role-model words, and rebuild the arc with them in the room.
Bland agreement may be compliance. Ask what surprised them, or what they would cut.

5.4 Stuck in indecision or commitment anxiety

[source: CIP Ch6; CIP Core Concepts] Use CTI construct scores to locate the block: confusion (does not understand the process, or emotions disable it) or commitment anxiety (cannot commit). For confusion, teach the CASVE steps explicitly. For commitment anxiety, work on the thoughts (4.32) and frame the choice as tentative, with a back-up (Valuing step).
[source: CCC Manual] Frame realistic choice as progress, not perfection.
[synthesis] Use reality-testing experiments (shadowing, a short course) so commitment grows from evidence. Set a decision date. Explore what being wrong would mean to the client; perfectionism often sits under it.

5.5 Non-adherence to homework or the ILP

[source: CIP Ch8] Review homework every session. Keep early ILP tasks few and success-oriented. Let the client choose formats and resources. Use immediacy to ask how the process is working.
[synthesis] Shrink tasks until the client is confident they can do them ("on a scale of 0–10, how sure are you?"; aim for 8 or more). Ask what got in the way without blame. Repeated missed sessions or no follow-through despite support can also be a mental-health sign (5.10) [source: NACE 2026].

5.6 External conflict: family, partner or cultural pressure

[source: CIP Ch6; CIP Core Concepts] External conflict means difficulty balancing one's own view with significant others' input and taking responsibility for the decision. In Valuing, weigh effects on significant others, cultural group and community explicitly.
[source: CCC Manual] In collectivist cultures, parental guidance may legitimately weigh more. Rehearse telling the story to key audiences and handling their reactions.
[synthesis] Separate "whose decision is this?" from "whose views matter?". Consider a joint session with a family member if the client wants one. Do not push individualist solutions on a client whose values are collective.

5.7 Resistance or a ruptured alliance

[source: CCC Manual] Validate protests and critiques, and stick with the client's wants rather than your techniques.
[source: CIP Ch8] Use immediacy and invite feedback on the relationship.
[synthesis] Common rupture points are the client expecting a test result telling them what to do ("just tell me what job suits me") or feeling the CCI questions are irrelevant. Explain the rationale briefly. Offer an interest inventory alongside the narrative work (CCC sits beside guidance, not against it). Re-agree the goal.

5.8 Real-world constraints: finances, discrimination, disability, labour market [synthesis, except where noted]

[source: CCC Manual] Acknowledge constraints while supporting agency, and include alternatives in plans.
[source: TPC group outline] Address perceived employment barriers explicitly as part of options knowledge, including decisions about disclosing a disability to employers.
Separate constraints that can be changed (skills, information, networks) from those that cannot (in the short term), and plan for both. Signpost legal and advocacy resources for discrimination.

5.9 Trauma or abuse surfaces in early recollections or the life story [synthesis]

Do not use the CCI or any imagery to search for or "recover" memories. Treat what comes as the client's experience.
If distress rises: stop the question, ground the client, and close with a summary and a check of how they are. Discuss whether trauma-focused therapy (by you or a referral) should come before or alongside career work. Continue career work with the less loaded CCI questions if the client wishes.

5.10 When career counselling is not enough: referral to clinical care [source: NACE 2026, citing NCDA Code of Ethics 2024]

Capacity and Containment check: can the client engage in exploration and planning, and can you safely manage the emotions present? If either is "no" or "uncertain", consult and consider referral.
Signs: persistent sadness or numbness for about two weeks or more with changes in sleep, appetite or energy; trouble concentrating or doing routine tasks; loss of interest; recurring hopelessness, worthlessness or guilt; repeated missed appointments or little follow-through; withdrawal, flat affect or unusual irritability; statements that nothing will help. Risks such as clinical depression rise as unemployment passes about six months. Expressions of distress and willingness to seek help vary by culture.
Process: (1) Explain the reason, linked to specific observed concerns, without diagnosing. (2) Clarify that therapy and career work can go on together if the client wishes. (3) Offer concrete options (primary care, employee assistance programmes, community or campus mental-health services, directories). (4) Follow safety protocols. (5) Document in behavioural terms: recommendations, resources, the client's response, consultations, follow-up. (6) Check later whether the client connected.
For a psychotherapist [synthesis]: "referral" may mean switching your own contract from career counselling to psychotherapy. Do this explicitly, with fresh consent and a revised plan, rather than drifting.

5.11 Suicidal thoughts or self-harm [source: NACE 2026; synthesis]

Any statement about suicide, self-harm or not wanting to live calls for immediate safety action.
NACE lists US resources: 988 for suicidal thoughts without imminent danger, 911 for imminent danger. Use your local equivalents elsewhere. In online sessions, know the client's location.
[synthesis] Carry out a standard risk assessment within your licence and service protocol: current thoughts, intent, plan, access to means, protective factors. Make a collaborative safety plan, with lethal-means counselling limited to safe storage and removal, and agree follow-up. Job loss, failure and shame are known triggers, so ask directly when they are present.

5.12 Client wants you to decide for them [synthesis]

CCC holds that the client is the expert on content, and CIP aims to build the client's own decision skills [source: CCC Manual; CIP Core Concepts]. Reflect the request back, teach the CASVE steps, and offer a structured comparison (Valuing). The final choice stays the client's.

Sources

Sources:

Career Construction Counseling Manual (Savickas, 2019) — author's site; free reproduction permitted. Main source for Part A (CCC Manual).
Career Construction Interview description (Savickas) (CCI Description).
Mark Savickas, materials index (file list only).
Key Elements of the CIP Approach to Designing Career Services (Sampson, Peterson, Reardon & Lenz, 2003) (CIP Key Elements).
Core Concepts of a Cognitive Approach to Career Development and Services (Peterson, Sampson, Reardon & Lenz, 2003) (CIP Core Concepts).
Chapter 6: Using the Career Thoughts Inventory to Measure Career Choice Readiness (Sampson et al., 2003) (CIP Ch6).
Chapter 3: Helping Persons Make Employment Choices (Sampson et al., 2003) (CIP Ch3).
Chapter 8: Case Study for Individual Case-Managed Services (Sampson et al., 2003) (CIP Ch8).
FSU Career Center: CIP Theory resources (index page).
Applying CIP Career Theory… (Lenz et al., NCDA 2022 slides) (differentiated service delivery model; screening tools).
The Professional Counselor, Vol. 4 Issue 2, appendix: CIP group session outlines (TPC group outline; article title and authors not visible in the excerpt [uncertain]).
When It Is More Than Career Stress: Ethical Referral to Mental Health Services in Career Practice (Maietta & Tazzi, NACE, 2026) (NACE 2026).
Handbook of Life Design flyer (Nota & Rossier, 2015) (book description only; no procedure content).