Career Practitioner Conversations with NCDA

This episode features a conversation for National Career Development Month focused on wellness and career success. Cornelius Thomas, Co-Chair of NCDA’s annual Poetry and Art Contest hosts a discussion with Reno Palombit, Director of Career and Technical Education with Johnston County (NC) Public Schools, and Meredith Brown, Career Services Advisor at Rowan College at Burlington County in New Jersey.

The panelists share different perspectives on setting realistic expectations for work-life balance. They also emphasize that everyone learns strategies and boundaries over time and share some of the experiences, habits, and routines that have helped them to stay centered and find inspiration. The discussion includes the importance of self-care, the impact of Western culture on stress levels, and the toxicity of perfectionism.

Resources

• The 5am Club

To learn more about wellness topics, consider the following:

• HUB Course: MON004 - NCDA Monograph: The Mental Health and Career Development Nexus: A Framework for the Role and Function of Career Practitioners (3 CEs)
• Monograph: The Mental Health and Career Development Nexus: A Framework for the Role and Function of Career 
• Web page: Mental Health Resources

In this episode, Dr. Natasha Barnes, co-chair of NCDA’s Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion Committee, interviews Sterling Cruz-Herr, founder of TransClue, a trans-owned coaching, training, and consulting company. Sterling shares recent data related to gender identity and addresses the compounding effect of intersectionality on work and careers often experienced by transgender students and clients. The discussion includes mental health considerations, and the potential impact of support initiatives such as affinity groups and mentoring programs. Natasha and Sterling encourage leaders including career development professionals, to promote inclusive and equitable workplaces and practice humility as a helping skill when working with people from different cultural backgrounds. Contact Sterling Cruz-Herr at [email protected].

Resources

• Gender identity research – Pew Research Center
• U.S. Transgender Survey – National Center for Transgender Equality
• An Intimate View Into the Lives of Transgender Elders – Them.us

This episode continues our “Career Development Around the World” series. NCDA President Dr. Lakeisha Mathews and Dr. Rita Chiesa share a conversation about career development trends in Italy. Dr. Chiesa is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Italy’s University of Bologna. The discussion includes the changing aspects of career planning and goal setting related to remote work and mobility, as well as the challenge of helping students and young professionals understand the importance of informed decision making to set realistic expectations for success. Dr. Chiesa also shares highlights of her current research into how young job seekers manage career uncertainties and explores the growing integration of career coaching strategies in a variety of career development and human resource settings. 

RESOURCES

Italian Society for Vocational Guidance

Guidance Systems in Italy – EuroGuidance, European Union

Vocational And Education Training in Italy – Erasmus, European Union

In this episode, Dr. Bret Anderson shares his work developing employer-fit algorithm tools and experience with a variety of corporate cultures with NCDA's Director of Professional Development, Melissa Venable. Bret is the President of h2 Communication, LLC, which provides job readiness training, executive coaching, and frontline leadership development.

The conversation describes a current shift toward an expectation for work/life balance, led in large part by employees. The challenges of cross-generational workplaces are also addressed. Bret shares examples and observations about how different industries are reacting. The importance of understanding how all of this is impacting the individuals we are working with, along with ways to extend and augment traditional theories to meet the demands of quickly changing career development needs.

Resources

• CAP42 Employer-Fit Algorithm Assessment
• Toxic Culture is Driving the Great Resignation -  MIT Sloan Management Review
• Is Quiet Quitting Real? – GALLUP
• State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report - GALLUP
• Interview with David Larry Blustein on The Psychology of Working – eScholarship@BostonCollege

Top Predictors of Employee Turnover (Sull, Sull & Zweig, 2022):

• 10.4% - Toxic Corporate Culture
• 3.5% - Job insecurity and Reorganization
• 3.2% - High Levels of Innovation
• 2.9% - Failure to Recognize Employee Performance
• 1.8% - Poor Response to COVID-19

This episode continues our “Career Development Around the World” series. NCDA President Dr. Lakeisha Mathews hosts Alberto Puertas for a conversation about trends in career development in Latin America. A native of Peru, Alberto is an academic and career counselor, and international advising specialist at Brigham Young University. The conversation includes perspectives on similarities and differences across the globe, the ongoing need for government support, how we can validate career development work, and highlights of the work being done in Costa Rica.

Resources

• Revisita Latinoamericana de Orientacion 2015-2022
• International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance - IAEVG

This episode features a conversation between Jen Hartman and Dr. Galaxina Wright, two recent graduates of NCDA’s Counselor Educator Academy (CEA). Jen is a licensed mental health counselor at Oklahoma State University and Galaxina is an assistant professor in Nova Southeastern University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. Their conversation about integrating mental health into career counseling course, as an extension of their CEA experience, learning how to support and teach future counselors about their role in career-related counseling. The discussion includes considerations about the overlap of mental health and career counseling, the need for trauma- and grief-informed strategies, and getting buy-in from programs and students.

Jen Hartman, EdS, LPC, RPT, NCC is a licensed mental health counselor and counselor educator. Her research interests include death and non-death loss, including career loss. She serves as the doctoral student representative on the Grief Counseling Competencies Task Force for the Association of Adult Development and Aging.

Galaxina G. Wright, Ph.D. NCC is an Assistant Professor at Nova Southeastern University in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. She earned her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision at the University of Central Florida. She completed her master’s degree in Marriage, Couple & Family Counseling from Regent University, and is currently a Registered Mental Health Counseling Intern (RMHCI) for the state of Florida working towards completing her hours for licensure. She is also the current President of the Florida Career Development Association (FCDA). Connect with Galaxina on LinkedIn.

To learn more about this topic, consider the following:

• HUB Course: MON004 - NCDA Monograph: The Mental Health and Career Development Nexus: A Framework for the Role and Function of Career Practitioners (3 CEs)
• Monograph: The Mental Health and Career Development Nexus: A Framework for the Role and Function of Career 
• Web page: Mental Health Resources

References

• Evermore. (2020, September). Bereavement facts and figures. https://live-evermore.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Evermore-Bereavement-Facts-and-Figures-2020.pdf
• Trauma Research Foundation. (2021, March 23). The compassionate manager: A trauma-sensitive approach to managing in the era of COVID-19. Trauma Research Foundation Blog. https://www.traumaresearchfoundation.org/blog/the-compassionate-manager-a-trauma-sensitive-approach-to-managing-in-the-era-of-covid-19?vgo_ee=5TMzeAxoXw0Goi99RnsFm2ijpVnRvP3wvT2tMwKBwhI%3D
• Verdery, Smith-Greenaway, E., Margolis, R., & Daw, J. (2020). Tracking the reach of COVID-19 kin loss with a bereavement multiplier applied to the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 117(30), 17695–17701. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007476117
• SAMHSA Model of Wellness: https://mfpcc.samhsa.gov/ENewsArticles/Article12b_2017.aspx 

In this episode, NCDA President Lakeisha Mathews hosts Dr. Candy Ho, an educator, facilitator, and entrepreneur in Canada. Among her many current career development roles, she serves as the Board Chair for CERIC – a charitable organization advancing education and researching career counseling and career development to increase the economic and social well-being of Canadians. Their conversation addresses the challenges of working with diverse populations, including Indigenous populations, as well as the challenges of engaging people in underused career development services. Dr. Ho shares updates on efforts in Canada to recognize all forms of work, paid and unpaid and increase advocacy among career development professionals through innovative training programs.

Resources

• Lakeisha’s CareerWise article: The Future of Career Development for Career Professionals and Their Clients
•  Are Adults Making Use of Career Services in Canada? A report from the Labour Market Information Council and the Future Skills Centre
• Michelle Pidgeon’s Indigenous Wholistic Framework
• Canada’s Career Development Professional Centre
• CERIC Media Training with Keka DasGupta
• When the DEI Discussion Offends by Ashleigh-Rae Thomas: 
• NCDA - Harris Poll - Perceptions of Career Development from Working America
• United Nations - Sustainable Development Goals
• CERIC's Cannexus Conference

In this episode, NCDA President Dr. Lakeisha Mathews hosts Randa Helmi. Randa holds the CCSP credential from NCDA and is an active member of the Global Connections Committee (GCC), in addition to her work on career development initiatives in Egypt and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region. The conversation identifies similarities and differences between the career development work happening in the U.S. and Egypt, including challenges faced by students and job seekers and information about current labor market conditions. This episode kicks off our “Career Development Around the World” series.

You connect with Randa Helmi online at:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter / X 

What techniques can career coaches and counselors use to address career trauma experiences by their students and clients?

Building from Part 1 in this short series, Dr. Sharon Givens hosts a conversation that provides practical strategies for working with students and clients who have experienced career trauma. Amanda Chenkin and Rae Stout share techniques for learning how your clients may be holding any trauma through open-ended questions and a narrative approach, and reflecting what you are hearing in their words and seeing in their body language. This episode also emphasizes the importance of asking permission to pursue these conversations with clients, understanding your own level of expertise, and developing a list of mental health professionals you know well and you can refer your students and clients to. 

Amanda Chenkin is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado and Maryland and a certified career counselor; she has been in the career development field for 20 years. The last eight years have been focused on career counseling, specifically working with clients who are exploring who they are and how they want to author their story. Amanda walks alongside clients who examine and process the internal and external stories and systems that have kept them from living unapologetically. She is an active member of the American Counseling Association and NCDA. She is in private practice and owner of Choice Career Counseling based in Baltimore, MD.

Rae Stout is a licensed professional counselor at the iAmClinic in Colorado. Her clients often come to her looking to better understand themselves and how they wish to ‘show up’ in the world. She works with individuals to explore who they are, where they want to go and how they will get there. Often this looks like walking alongside clients as they untangle their authentic parts of self from internalized shame and societal pressures in order to step into their own self-authored story. Rae has 10 years of experience, specifically working with individuals around career concerns, identity work, integration, anxiety/depression and PTSD and/or CPTSD. She is also a certified career counselor, and specializes in working with career-related trauma. She is EMDR trained, and uses Narrative, Cognitive Behavioral, and Solution Focused approaches.

Resources

• EMDR Therapy
• Super's Life Career Rainbow
• Contemplative Practices

Enjoy this bonus content recorded live during session #511 at the National Career Development Association's 2023 Global Career Development Conference in Chicago!

Thanks to NCDA Past President Dr. Sharon Givens for guiding the discussion of current trends in career development work, and for the participation of the conference attendees listed below.

Rebecca Harrington - Career Specialist, College of DuPage, Ilinois 

• LinkedIn: in/rebecca-a-harrington
• You can also find Rebecca on The Career Ready Podcast from College of DuPage Career Services, and her own show, the Ghostly Podcast.

Cheryl Love - Career Counselor, University of California - Riverside, California

• NCDA Committees: Diversity Initiatives and Cultural Inclusion
• Social Justice Resources

Brian Malott - Indigenous Career Consultant, Fanshawe College, Ontario, Canada

• LinkedIn: /in/brianmalott

Marie Nicks - Career Coach Navigator and Instructor, Navigator Career Solutions, LLC

• COVID Left Us Languishing. Here’s Why We Should Care - Psychology Today