enriching careers and lives introducing a positive, holistic,….pdfVIP

enriching careers and lives: • introducing a positive, holistic, and narrative career counseling method that bridges theory and practice Jelena Zikic Mark Franklin CareerCycles (CC) career counseling framework and method of practice integrates and builds on aspects of positive psychology. Through its holistic and narrative approach, the CC method seeks to collaboratively identify and understand clients’ career and life stories. It focuses on their strengths, desires, preferences, assets, future possibilities, and the influence others have had on their choices. The CareerCycles (CC) method of practice that we describe in this article (see Figure 1) uses career narratives as its point of departure. This constructivist model focuses on language, discourse, and theme development (Cohen Mallon, 2001) with a central task of creating career stories that individuals narrate with the guidance and encouragement of counselors. By creating their own personal career narratives, clients empower themselves to make career transitions, focus on exploring new career possibilities, and, at the same time, clarify their career and life domains. A construc- tivist approach to careers also encourages clients to construct meaning, knowledge, and experience about their lives and work (Bujold, 2004; Young Collin, 2004). We describe a unique and holistic career counseling method of practice that builds on current theoretical approaches such as constructivism (Peavy, 1995) and the nar- rative or storied approach (Brott, 2001; Cochran, 1997) while focusing on positive psychology (Fredrickson, 2009; Seligman, 2002) and happenstance (Mitchell, Levin, Krumboltz, 1999). First, the CC method’s unique emphasis on positive psychology is based on supporting ways clients can attract, rather than seek, career and life enrichment possibilities. Second, it fra