Client-centred practice

Sometimes when I have students who are new to the field of career development, I can sense that there is something different about the questions they ask, or in the approach they take to career development. I often have to stop and consider before I realise where the gap lies is between their thinking and mine. They take an organisational-focus to career development: I take an individual one.

Professional dieticians in Canada define client-centred practice as "The use of collaborative and partnership approaches where the client's own experiences and knowledge are central and carry authority within the client-professional partnership. In this approach mutual respect, trust and shared objectives are fundamental" (MacLellan, 2005, p. 3). I think this Canadian definition, despite being in a completely different field, fits very well with career development: our client carries the experience, knowledge and authority within the client-practitioner relationship (MacLellan, 2005).

It was Carl Rodgers who first suggested centring our focus on the client in the late 1930s (Law et al., 1995), as we now automatically do today in client-centred practice (Bassot, 2021). We practitioners also use reflective practice alongside supervision and continuing professional development to ensure that our practice is sound and continues to be so (Van Manen, 1977). As reflective practitioners, we create a practitioner-client relationship based in trust, concern, and professionalism (Law et al., 1995). We could say that "Client-centredness is a philosophy of practice built on concepts that reflect changes in the attitudes and beliefs of clients" being accompanied by their career practitioners (p. 251).

To a practitioner, the practice of career development is about walking with the client, seeking out "their wishes and aspirations" (Gough, 2017, p. 37), not merely plugging the client into task-oriented services such as CV writing, interview coaching, and placement in order to "meet[...] the needs of employers and government policy" (p. 37). The objective of the service is to help the client to bring their own goals to life. Our work, our focus, our loyalty is not with an organisation. It remains with the client.

This becomes a tricky aspect of navigation when we consider who is paying for the service. My reminder to self is always that our loyalty belongs to the person we sit with; the person we listen to;. They are the focus of our service.

The service is not being done TO them; the service is being done BY them. They drive the process. Autonomy must lie with the client - as our "Clients are experts about their [own] occupational function. Only they can truly understand the experiences of their daily lives, express their needs and make choices about their  occupations" (Law et al., 1995, p. 251). It becomes clear that our loyalty is then not to the payer: it is to the recipient of the service.

Our job is to clarify priorities; assist with the intervention and process to enable the client to achieve their outcome (Law et al., 1995). 

Sam

References:

Bassot, B. (2021). Chapter 23: Client-Centred Career Development Practice: A Critical Review. In P. J. Robertson, T. Hooley, P. McCash, (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Career Development (pp. 325-336). Oxford University Press.

Law, M., Baptiste, S., & Mills, J. (1995). Client-centred practice: what does it mean and does it make a difference?. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62(5), 250-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/000841749506200504

Gough, J. P. (2017). Professional identity: the case of careers guidance practitioners in England. [Doctoral thesis, University of Warwick]. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/103855/1/WRAP_Theses_Gough_2017.pdf

MacLellan, D. L. (2005). Client-centred nutrition counselling: an exploratory study. [Doctoral thesis, University of Saskatchewan]. https://harvest.usask.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/3f041f33-00cd-44af-aa85-a5fa0f5bc540/content

Van Manen, M. (1977). Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical. Curriculum Inquiry, 6(3), 205–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1977.11075533