Applications of Motivational Interviewing in Career Counseling

Abstract

The Protean and Boundaryless career paradigms are calling for new ways to provide career counseling to clients. Career counselors need methods for facilitating client’s career transition across all stages of career development. This facilitation requires career counselors to be armed with methods for promoting client’s autonomy, responding to client resistance, and addressing client’s self-efficacy. In this article, career counseling is introduced with a Motivational Interviewing (MI) approach. First, an overview of career transition is presented. Then an application of MI as a component of the career counseling process is reviewed along with seven distinct counseling processes: (a) establishing the therapeutic relationship, (b) client assessment, (c) developing discrepancies, (d) rolling with resistance, (e) addressing client self-efficacy, (f) establishing empathy, and (g) transition/termination. Additionally, the article discusses the theoretical tenets, empirical support, and applications of MI for career counselors.