what do i believe guidance to be??

I believe guidance to be an informal process were yourself and the client talk through or brainstorm through various ideas or problems that they may have. We then help them to understand and solve them.

In some cases, guidance can be a more complexed process depending on the clients background etc, But i definetly feel 'informal' 'relaxed' and working through ideas together is what makes up a guidance session.

For me i would love to through structure out the window and just go on my own instincts and develop my own way of working within a guidance setting. I feel there is so much empathise on structure that when i go into an interview i am constantly thinking ' am i sticking to the structure'?? ' am i going off course'?? ' whats the next stage in my structure'??

It confuses me and distracts me from the interview itself. So whats the need for such a thing??

Well that i do know... but just get abit annoyed with the whole thing. Its all about confidence and building up a good knowledge to be able to fly solo. I think my problem is i want to run before i can walk!!

Sympathy v's Empathy

Empathy is a feeling different from sympathy. When one is sympathetic, one implies pity but maintains distance from another person’s feelings. Empathy is more a sense that one can truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings. It implies feeling with a person, rather than feeling sorry for a person.

Empathy is a translation of the German term Einfühlung, meaning to feel as one with. It implies sharing the load, or “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes,” in order to appropriately understand that person’s perspective.

When speaking about this in class today i took myself back to a situation i was in on my last placement. I was taken out to a clients home with the careers adviosr, the client had developed a brain injury through an illness which she contracted later in her life. The client was back in employment and seemed to be coping remarkably well with what had happend.....well thats what i was lead to belive anyway.
The client turned to me and said ' I want to die, i dont want to live anymore, i have nothing to live for'

The client directly said this to myself and the careers advisor also turned in my direction for some 'sympathy' or 'empathy' advice or really just something to say to take away the akwaredness of the situation.

I was shaking inside cause the clinet seemed genuiely stable and happy...but clearly wasn't 100% . What i then said to the clinet was ' I am sorry you are feeling like this, i cant begin to fully understand what you have been through, and why you feel this way, im not going to sit here and tell you i do, cause it would be wrong, so really i cant comment on this.

The client didnt say anything back to me nor did the careers advisor, but i feel if i had said anything it wouldnt have been real or genuine answers as i dont know enough about her illness or the depression stage which she was clearly going through at this point. I didnt want to come across as fake and molly cuddling the situation.

Once outside the house the careers advisor told me i had said the right thing in that situation. I didnt know the client that well, i had however read her notes before hand....but didnt want to mention this to her due to the confidentiality part.

Not sure if i really did do the right thing here, but we all learn from these encounteres in life and hopefully take on board and do differently next time.

I did however feel a great deal of sympathy for her and the family and i did want to empathise with her too but really the conditions of her illness were too great and i would only be
Patronising her and probably making the situation worse than better.

Interviewing structures!!

I feel myself i struggle with interviewing structures and how to go about using them in my interviews.


I see myself as a more creative person so therefore would like to use this to my advantage. In my last S4 interviews i created my own interview structure which bascially consisted of mindmapping.


Myself and the pupil worked our way through a series of mind mapping questions to explore their ideas on future careers. This was something that was visual to them, they could be as creatvie as they wanted to be and at the same time they were learning new ways of researching careers and ideas.



I think the way in which guidance is taught should be different and unquie depending on the client and the careers advisor conducting the interview. We are all individuals and all have special touches and techniques we can bring to the table to make every interview a memorable experience.

Is there any point in careers guidance???

24th March CENTIGRADE INTERVIEWS!!

The centigrade interviews i think went okay, the set up within the library wasn't so scary as the small office type rooms we were in last time. I felt the interviews this time were more informal and really just a casual chat with the pupil. With having the centigrade booklet in front of me did calm my nerves and contributed a great deal to my structure and interview.

One thing that was picked up on was that fact that us the interviewers spoke too much!!......speaking for myself that is... the assessors told me i didnt let the pupil speak and that i perhaps took over the interview. In this case i do agree but to be honest i found it really difficult to find a balance with me and the pupil speaking equally.

I felt i had to explain the certigrade booklet, the reasons behind it and how to go about using it. This of course took up some of my interviewing time. Then after that really just going through some of the choices given to the pupil.

I personally would like to have shadowed an actual centigrade interview conducted by Alan or Pete. This i would have found useful when doing my own, i dont feel there was enough emphasis on the centrigrades and how to actually go about doing them.......i felt it was ' heres the book, read over it and take what you think from it' end off!!!!

Maybe i am totally wrong on this but this is just my point of view and how i personally thought about the interviews.

Challenging......is this the wrong term to be using??

The term Challenging was looked at in a different light today. Some feel it is intimidating the client into thinking we are correct and we know better than them.

Challenging does come across as if you are taking the client on and wanting them to preform for you right then and there. Instead of the term challenging i would replace it with 'Exploring', this seems alot friendlier and not such a scary prospect.

Exploring is something you and the client can do together.

todays lecture.. on Construct's

Todays lecture was kind of interesting although i still am alittle unsure about the whole element and constructs thing. I dont really see the point in it to be perfectly honest.

Okay i thought the Repertory Grid was a reasonable way to go about guidance. But me being a 24 year old person found it quite a complicated way to go about guidance. I see it more of a constructive tool to use but i think you really need to understand it first before introducing it to a client. You also have to believe in it, other wise you are just fooling yourself and the client.

A question asked today was ' Whats the opposite of Blue'?

My answer to that was White???? Hhhmmmm maybe because i was thinking of the Scottish flag...blue, white and red. Who knows.

I found the whole construct bit interesting when we were referring to Bottles of wine ; ) but in all honesty the grids were not that clear to me and i would maybe struggle to present that to a client.

Carl Rogers - person centred guidance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HarEcd4bt-s

READINGS

Lecture today....found it quite difficult to take in : (

Christianity....from the web

Christianity is the world's biggest religion, with about 2.1 billion followers worldwide. It is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ who lived in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.
For ease of navigation, we include as Christian any group that sincerely regards itself as Christian, and whose beliefs are based on the teaching of Jesus.

HUMANISM.....this is from the web as i didnt understand the meaning!

Humanism
Humanism is the view that we can make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values and that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves. We choose to take responsibility for our actions and work with others for the common good.
What humanists believe
Humanism is an approach to life based on humanity and reason – humanists recognise that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone and that the ams of morality should be human welfare, happiness and fulfillment. Our decisions are based on the available evidence and our assessment of the outcomes of our actions, not on any dogma or sacred text.
Humanism is a naturalistic view, encompassing atheism and agnosticism as responses to theistic claims, but is an active and ethical philosophy far greater than these reactions to religion.
Humanists believe in individual rights and freedoms, but believe that individual responsibility, social cooperation and mutual respect are just as important.
Humanists believe that people can and will continue to find solutions to the world's problems, so that quality of life can be improved for everyone.
Humanists are positive, gaining inspiration from our lives, art and culture, and a rich natural world.
Humanists believe that we have only one life, it is our responsibility to make it a good life, and to live it to the full.

CONFIDENTIALITY!!

Okay today we touched upon confidentiality and whether it is a good or bad thing and is it really nessessary?

I personally feel there is too much of an emphasis on this issue when meeting with clients. When observing Careers Scotland the advisors always stated at the very start of an interview or meeting ' that everything is confidentual and nothing goes outside this room'

The clients didnt seem in the least bit interested to be perfectly honest and didnt question it once. I feel you could quite happliy conduct an interview without mentioning these terms and conditions. For instance when you go to the doctors or hospital they dont say to you when you sit down' oh everything we dicuss is confidentual' we take it for granted and assume everything said will be between you and the advisor. So why the need in a careers environment???

Is there real and genuine people???

When are we being a real person?

Is there real and genuine people in society?

These are deep questions to ask ourselves and i would like to think i am a real and genuine person....but maybe these can cross over and genuine and real can sometimes= false and fake??

How does a client know when you are being genuine and real? Do they take this for granted when seeing you or can they tell at some point in the interview you are just fobbing them off??

But does fobbing off mean you are being complely fake and false......Hhhhm im am starting to ramble and to be honest dont quite know where i am going with this so may come back to this question.

todays lecture.....mind bloggling!!

I do feel i agree with Grants views on science and how it doesnt make sense and doesnt contribute to anything. From what i can see science has brought about certain ways of thinking and doing but has some how along the way caused problems to which they are only now trying to resolve. .......will come back to this one as i need to research more into it.

Also another small topic touched upon which got me thinking.....how people in society try to disappear and become invisable?? How can this be?
For example anorexia..... this to me is not a way to become invisable by becoming wafer thin and skeleton like is only attracting MORE attention to yourself. I can not fully understand how a human being can put their body through that so i cant comment entirly. People will notice a change in their apperance whether they have an eating disorder or even put on weight. We as humans can see with our eyes and think with our brains so can then see if something is different or not correct.

But to me people cant disappear, even when dead your spirit lives on in other people and you will always be remembered on anniversarys, birthdays or christmases as a mark of respect.

Even people who maybe did not have any family and lived a sheltered life.....still have
Acquaintances who they have met at some point in their lives even if just in passing.