Rogerian versus Eganian career practice

In the beginning of client-centred career practice, there was Carl Rogers (Feltham & Horton, 2006). What I take out of the Rogerian approach to career development is my client is the focus and has my "unconditional positive regard" (p. 73); my job is to listen, and to 'mirror' my understanding back to the client; and I must be my authentic self in the space. Three of the "'necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change' [...are] (1) be yourself, (2) trust the client, and (3) listen. Collectively, they prescribe a quality of openness to experience - [i.e. the practitioner]’s own experience and the client’s. They demand at least tentative trust" (p. 66). 

This latter point is particularly important in career practice, and - in our domain, or unless we are also a trained counsellor - the discussion should stay on the side of workplace wellness, if we will; not illness. If we find ourselves straying into areas of grief, loss, or unwellness, we should refer on. Feltham and Horton note that "The remaining three conditions were that client and therapist be in psychological contact, that the client is in 'a state of incongruence' [which could be unwellness], and hence potentially motivated for therapy, and that the client perceives, to some degree, the presence of the other conditions" (2006, p. 66).

I am not invisible in the process, but I am 'behind the camera', so to speak. The client is foregrounded, like the image accompanying this post. My aim is often to make the client think deeply about what they want, and then work with them to consider what comes next. I help them take their first step: and they may only need me for that. I think of Rogerian client-centred therapy as a relational approach to career practice. 

The risks are that we have too much hui and not enough do-ey. It is always nice to talk about ourselves, but we are on the side of wellness, so should get to action at some point!

In the 1960s, springing from Rogerian, client-centred practice, Gerard Egan began working on a more pragmatic approach to career development, focused on managing client problems. This is framed as a "practical model for doing counselling" (Egan, 1975, p. v; emphasis added). Eganian practice takes a more change-oriented approach, often drawing on practitioner - helper - knowledge, tools and techniques at different times within the counselling process, and "emphasizes [the] clients' resourcefulness, resilience and capacity for constructive change" (Feltham & Horton, 2006, p. 334). Eganian practice "is relentless in incorporating new approaches, optimistic in its emphasis on the innate potential of human beings to move forward, to work with and resolve intrapersonal and interpersonal problems" (Jenkins, 2000, p. 163). There are lots of acronyms and frameworks to improve the process.

While I am feeling my way a little on this, I see Eganian practice as having a dual focus: one is on meeting client outcomes and goals; the other is on using/inventorying the career practitioner skills-bank. And as a result, this model - despite focusing on client change/action and therefore being transformational - feels more transactional and task-oriented. A bit prescriptive. There is more of a sense of haste, about the derived action, and getting the client to their next gig. 

The risks are that the client may not have reflected deeply enough, talked out the what-ifs, the exploration may have been too superficial as a result, and - as a result - the client may have made expedient decisions. 

Two approaches. Both serve their purpose.

Sam

References:

Feltham, C., & Horton, I. E. (Eds.). (2006). The SAGE Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Jenkins, P. (2000). Gerard Egan's Skilled Helper Model. In S. Palmer, R. Woolfe (Eds.), Integrative and Eclectic Counselling and Psychotherapy (pp. 163-164). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446280409.n9