Jenny Howland is the Head of Careers and Counselling at Westminster School, South Australia
For career counselling to be most effective it needs to take into consideration the whole person, not just an individual’s interests, abilities and personality. Of course, these things are essential in order to give good advice but it is also important to understand what ‘makes a person tick’. A person’s moods, feelings, spirituality, physical fitness and mental agility all need to be considered in giving career advice.
In a world where the only constant is change, we need to be able to assist clients to develop life skills that enable them not just to accept positive change but to embrace it — to see it as exciting and challenging. This will assist them to find success and fulfilment in their career journey. We want our clients to find happiness, but also to understand that life is a series of ‘ups’ and ‘downs’, and that we need to be able to enjoy the ups and learn from the downs. This is why I believe that ‘marrying’ the roles of career counsellor and personal counsellor can be the edifying approach for both the client and practitioner.
Counselling should therefore have a holistic approach; it could be said that such counselling is life coaching. Life coaching helps individuals to determine and achieve their personal goals. It aims to impart skills and attitudes that will assist individuals to experience success and to be happy and fulfilled. Holistic counselling addresses the whole being, rather than just focusing on a particular physical, mental, spiritual or emotional state.
One of the benefits of holistic counselling is that it helps clients to develop self-empowerment. We need to assist clients to:
- be able to take responsibility for themselves and their own learning
- set goals — short, medium and long term
- accept themselves, ‘warts and all’, and find the courage to deal with issues and make changes in their lives when the need arises
- serve others and practice random acts of kindness
- have a healthy lifestyle (eating well, sleeping well, maintaining balance and taking time out for recreation)
- develop good communication skills
- utilise the power of positive thinking
- never give up even when the going gets tough, instead seeing problems as challenges that can be conquered
- make wise decisions in lifestyle choices, considering issues relating to substance abuse
- take calculated risks and learn from mistakes
- develop time management skills
- manage stress — a small amount is motivating, while too much can lead to illness
- have a positive set of values — honesty, integrity and reliability
- think, think and think again!
I believe that the most important force in our lives is motivation and a positive emotional quotient (EQ). Without these, an individual will not fulfil his or her potential. A formula I share with my students is P = (K+S+IQ)(M+EQ). In this formula, performance is a function of an individual’s knowledge, skills and IQ all multiplied by motivation and EQ. No matter how much knowledge or skills we have, or how high our IQ, without motivation and a positive EQ it will not amount to much.
Finding a career is a life journey — it is expected that we will have a number of different jobs in a lifetime and even the same job will change over time with changes in technology, new research and enlightenment. Success depends on how we can handle change; the better our life skills, the more equipped we will be to handle it.
To get to know someone fully takes time and this is why I love my role in a school where it is possible to see students develop over time. At Westminster, I am both personal and career counsellor and I also teach a subject called ‘Careers’, which embraces all those factors that I believe can lead an individual to fulfil his or her potential.
I encourage students to dream dreams and find their passion but also to be realistic — this involves having a back-up plan and not putting ‘all their eggs in one basket’. I also encourage them to be human beings, not just human doings — to stop and smell the roses, to acknowledge their spiritual domain and to enjoy their life and their careers.
And remember, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!
By Jenny Howland
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