What can I expect?

The last article I posted dealt with the most frequent question I receive: “Am I a good candidate for your services?”

The next most frequent question I receive is “What can I expect from the services offered at the Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic?”

While there is a brief process overview located on our FAQ, I wanted to give a bit more detail concerning what each session looks like.

Overall, there are five meetings with a counselor and one meeting for assessments.  The meetings with the counselor last for approximately 50 to 60 minutes, and the meeting for the assessments lasts for approximately three to four hours.  Overall, our services generally last from six to eight weeks depending on the time it takes to score assessments and scheduling.

The first meeting with the counselor is known as an intake session.  During this session you and the counselor meet to discuss the initial forms.  These forms focus on an individual’s current and past educational, professional, and personal narratives.  This session is also designed to help a client ensure that these services feel right for him/her.

The second meeting, known as the assessment session, takes place with our qualified Psychometrist.  The tests administered include the California Psychological Inventory, the Strong Interest Inventory, the Minnesota Abilities Estimation Questionnaire, and the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire.  These assessments cover a range of personality traits, interests, and work values. 

The next three meetings are known as interpretation meetings.  During these meetings, counselors present the information from the assessments.  While the scores of the assessments are important, the counselors present the information in a more beneficial manner. Instead of just giving the scores, the counselors help the clients understand why and how the information from the assessments is important and what it tells them.  While the information gathered by the assessments is important to discuss, the information may lead to bigger conversations during the session.

The last meeting is titled the integration meeting in which all of the information that has been discussed throughout the prior sessions comes together into a more solidified picture.  This session can also be used as a time to discuss any other questions an individual may have.

During this last session, clients will receive a summary report, which details all of an individual's assessment results as well as what was covered within the sessions. Additionally, the summary report includes goals and next steps to take towards those goals. The summary report is the client's hard record of what the counseling process looked like, so they can look back it as often as they would like.

Am I a good candidate for your services?

This is the most frequent question I receive when talking to someone about our services, and what we do here at the Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic.  While it is best to look at everyone’s situation individually, there are some general guidelines as to whether or not you will receive the most benefit from enrolling in our services.

The first step is to ask yourself (and the first question I ask): What are you looking for in terms of services?

Are you looking for general career direction? An opportunity to learn and potentially discover more about yourself? A chance to speak with a counselor about your career path as of now?

These are some of the services we can provide to you.

If you’re looking for resume building, placement services, or a helping hand with improving various skills related to the workforce (internet skills, interview skills, etc.). While we do not focus on these services, we can refer you to places in the Twin Cities area that may be able to accommodate you.

We also receive several questions related to age.  We don’t impose an age restriction, and we’ve seen clients from early adulthood to those who are of retirement age.  Many parents may call and ask if our services will be beneficial for their child.  It is not uncommon for us to see recent graduates and other young adults looking for guidance.  However, it is important to note that many colleges and universities will offer similar services that may be lower in price and/or may be more appropriate or convenient. 

Similarly, alumni services may be able to direct you to a service within the university or college you graduated from.

We encourage you to investigate all options before deciding on our services.

*The Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic provides a wide range of services, but not all of the services related to career counseling.  It’s important to recognize what we do and what we don’t do to ensure that our services are best for you.   

The FAQ on our blog offers some other general information about our clinic and our services.  If you have any questions about whether or not you would be a good fit for our services, please feel free to send us an email at ccac@umn.edu.   

The Minnesota Ability Estimation Questionnaire

What sorts of tools do we use here at the Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic?

The question above has been posed numerous times, and this brief article will be an overview of one such tool.

The Minnesota Ability Estimation Questionnaire (MAEQ) is a questionnaire in which an individual estimates their ability level compared to the population.  These estimations are made on a 6-point scale, and each number on the scale represents a percentage of the population.

Questions are posed as such:  “How much ability do you have to: ________”

Bottom 10%	Bottom 33%	Middle 33%	Top 33%	Top 10%	Top 1%
2	3	4	5	6	7

For each question, the individual is asked to circle one of the responses.  If I were to circle “5” that would mean I estimate myself to be in the top 33% of the population for that ability.

The abilities the individual rates range greatly and cover topics including math, dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and more.  While the topics cover a wide variety of abilities, no performance or task completion is required.  The Minnesota Ability Estimation Questionnaire is only rating objects based on your belief.

Overall, the MAEQ is composed of 45 questions.  Each of these questions is formatted in the manner detailed above.   

These estimations are used in a portion of the counseling at the Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic to investigate how your estimations compare with your actual scores.

*The Minnesota Ability Estimation Questionnaire is a survey in which you estimate your ability against the population. 

Solution-Focused Therapy

How can therapy help an individual reach a goal?

Different techniques utilized in therapy can lead to different outcomes.  Likewise, different therapies can focus on utilizing different techniques. 

Solution-Focused therapy, as it sounds, attempts to work with the person to find a solution instead of focusing on the issues that may have initially prompted an individual to seek therapy.

When a counselor and client work together using Solution-Focused therapy, the aim of the therapy session(s) is to imagine an ideal future and determine steps to achieve that goal. 

In this portion of the counseling, the client and counselor look back at past experiences and work together to find which aspects of the client’s current life s/he would like to change or improve and which aspects the client would like to remain as constant or similar as possible.   

In order to identify the steps toward an ideal future, the client and counselor must first investigate the client’s current abilities, skills, and resources the client has or may have access to.  Identification of these may help the counselor and client arrive at what sort of steps need to be taken first.

This type of therapy may be found in several settings, including career and personal counseling.

Solution-Focused therapy works toward creating a realistic plan to help the client get to where s/he would like to be by investigating previous experiences to determine ideals. 

Happy Holidays!

All of us here at the Career Counseling and Assessment Clinic wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Career Counseling and Personal Counseling

How intertwined are career and personal counseling?

Some counselors and researchers have argued that these types of counseling should be completely separate and the required training and agencies should be separate.

However, others believe differently.  John Krumboltz, a researcher and professor at Stanford University, argues that career and personal counseling are related, and it is important for counselors to recognize this.

While some clients present issues that can be strictly related to the career or personal realm, many issues are related to both.  Without recognizing that problems can influence both the career and personal realm, there is the potential for a client to not receive the best quality of counseling. 

One of the main points of discussion within the article is that problems related to careers often have an emotional aspect, which has an effect on an individual’s personal life as well.  Krumboltz discusses that the emotional effects of career problems can have an impact comparable to stressful personal events.

Many counselors today recognize that an individual’s life cannot be separated neatly into a career and a personal life, and this is beneficial to both parties.  The counselors are able to better understand the client, and the client is able to express the entire picture and receive better counseling.

Within the process of counseling, the intake session* is often a time counselors ask questions pertaining to an individual’s personal life.  These questions are asked to get a better understanding of the whole situation.

While personal and career counseling are titled differently, it is important to recognize that career decisions and problems have an impact on an individual’s personal life and vice versa. 

*Intake session – The first session of counseling in which a large amount of background information is gathered in addition to information relevant to the current issue(s).

Krumboltz, J. D. (1993). Integrating career and personal counseling. The Career Development      Quarterly, 42(2), 143-148.