Invigorate Your Practice With the Psychology of Working: Fresh Ideas for a New Era in Career Practice

TITLE:  “Invigorate Your Practice With the Psychology

of Working: Fresh Ideas for a New Era in Career

Practice”

PRESENTER: Dr. David Blustein - International career

development author, presenter, professor & advocate

(Boston College)

The Great Recession has impacted the entire career development process, affecting clients from K-12 education straight through retirement.  All the bets about a secure, predictable work life are off - people face dramatic changes in all aspects of work, education, training, community life, and relationships.  These daunting changes call for new perspectives and new practices. 

Participants will learn about an innovative and effective perspective for helping clients through career development and career counseling  - ‘the psychology of working’ - which moves beyond the notion of “career” to include the experiences of all workers, as well as those who are unemployed and underemployed, those who are engaged in caregiving, new immigrants, and others who make up the Canadian mosaic.  This presentation will provide an overview of the psychology of working (Blustein, 2006) with a specific focus on providing the participants with new skills to invigorate their practices and new ideas to engage in advocacy.

For the most part, career counseling theories and practices have focused on developing interventions for clients with some degree of choice in their educational and work lives. The major focus of the presentation will be on developing interventions for clients with less than optimal levels of choice with respect to their career plans. In addition, the presentation will explore ways of integrating career counseling with mental health counseling, which is increasingly needed as clients face stress across the major domains of their lives.    Furthermore, the presentation will infuse the psychology-of-working perspective into traditional career choice and development theories and practices.  As such, the participants who work with clients who have the wonderful opportunity of choosing their life plan also will learn new ideas and new interventions to enhance their work. 

The participants will learn evidence-based skills designed to help clients manage the stress of the recession, challenges of immigration, explore new work options, build their skills, work through the anguish of unemployment and underemployment, and expand their relational and networking resources.

The presentation will blend lecture, small group discussion, live demonstrations, and role plays, thereby providing the participants with new skills that will expand their competence to provide inclusive counseling practice. 

The participants will learn:

1. Transformative ideas about work, career, mental health, and social change
2. The relational theory of working and its applications to a wide range of career interventions
3. New counseling skills based on the psychology of working perspective (e.g., building relational support networks; identifying transferable skills; enhancing critical consciousness; helping clients  to enhance their options via skill development; helping immigrants to adjust to the Canadian work context)
4. Skills in helping unemployed and underemployed clients
5. Integrative interventions for counselors who are trained to blend mental health and career counseling.
6. How to engage in social advocacy to enhance opportunities for dignified work 

8:00-9:00              Registration and coffee

9:00-10:15            Introduction to the psychology of

                             working; Experiential activities

10:15-10:30         Break

10:30-12               Relational theory of working;  New

                             counseling and intervention strategies

12-1                      Lunch

1:00-2:30              Unemployment and mental health;

                             Skill development and demonstrations

2:30-2:45              Break

2:45-4                   Moving forward - Role plays; Q & A

David L. Blustein is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, and is the author of the book entitled “The Psychology of Working: A New Perspective for Career Development, Counseling, and Public Policy”, which is currently in its third printing.   Dr. Blustein is also well known for delivering professional development training throughout the United States and Europe, and is the Director of Career Development Services for Child and Family Psychological Services in Norwood, Massachusetts, where he sees clients presenting with work-based and mental health issues.

Dr. Blustein has also published an extensive array of journal articles and book chapters in career development, work-based transitions, the exploration process, the interface between work and interpersonal functioning, and the psychology of working.  As a Fellow of Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and the National Career Development Association, he has received the ‘John Holland Award’ for Outstanding Achievement in Personality and Career Research and the Extended Research Award by the American Counseling Association.