Life Trajectories: Teaching Counselors How to Assist Clients With Their Working Lives

Counselors must be prepared to meet clients’ needs regarding the trauma, coping, and transitions of their working lives. The authors call for training counselors to use updated theories and techniques to conceptualize and address client career concerns in holistic practice. Authors discuss the lineage of the life design paradigm of counseling including career construction theory, the career construction interview, and narrative methods. The article provides a useful lesson plan counselor educators may implement to introduce life design and to enable counseling students to develop career intervention skills through experiential learning.