Driving the Car to Counselling

A response to the Like Driving a Car Activity
created by Jennifer Lee (@jslee)

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Driving a Car – Using the Rudder !

 

As noted in the example of driving a car, we often forget what it is like to be a beginner and therefore skip steps along the way.   I teach several courses in the Career Development Practitioner Program. The counselling process  is  a prime example of a subject that could be overwhelming for a beginner were they just to dive in without any mastery of the individual components of the Counselling process. It can be a little daunting to begin to support others if one feels rudder-less.  To me, rudder-less learning is that where you know what you are supposed to know or be able to do at the end, but you have to have to devise a way to get there without knowing anything about steering the boat.  As educators, it is incumbent on us to find a way to provide a rudder.  In this case, the rudder is implementation of the “Driving a Car” analogy – for the development of skills that will help steer the student through the entire process.

There are a number of steps common to the process regardless of the particular theory or counselling “style” used. Together the steps form a foundation.

I cannot take credit for the stepped-out process we use in class – the specific text we use (Career Counselling Techniques by Kris Magnusson) lays out the process very effectively in staged processes:  Initiation; Exploration; Decision-Making; Preparation and Implementation.  We then build on those steps to complete a case study by completing a piece of the case study appropriate to the individual process, which when all processes have been completed comprises the Case study.  The Case study becomes a whole, but students hand it in in section so that students do not become overwhelmed- thus learning to master the individual pieces so that they develop an “expert blind spot”.

One a student or counsellor masters the skills required in the individual steps in a conscious manner, the whole process becomes not only automatic, but also more organic. They will be able to stop concentrating on each step of the process and let it evolve – applying the process in a way that makes sense for them as well as tailoring it to match the needs of individual clients.