CASE STUDY
Danielle is a 36-year-old African American female who has lived in cities all of her life. She grew up in Detroit. Then when she finished high school, she moved to Georgia to attend college. Then, when she finished her undergraduate degree, she moved to Houston for graduate school. After completing her MA, she took a job e in Dallas, where she lived for 10 years before moving to San Antonio, Texas.
She entered career counseling because she needed help in identifying a viable career option. She has been unemployed for the past year. Danielle possesses a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in landscape architecture. During her intake interview, Danielle reported feeling dissatisfied with her previous job. Most recently, she had been employed as a landscape architect and reported enjoying the creative aspects of her work. She also mentioned, however, that she had experienced difficulty in getting along with her supervisor and that was a pattern for her in her previous employment situations. She also reported a strong dislike for structured work environments. She related that she experienced a high level of anxiety when confronted with challenging tasks. Danielle also noted that she was typically very sensitive to criticism. Her hobbies included photography, computer-aided design work, and reading in the areas of human potential, spirituality, and psychology.
An additional factor concerning Dannielle’s situation at the time she entered career counseling was that she and her husband were in the process of divorcing. The divorce proceedings were focused on the issues of child support and custody relative to Danielle’s 6-year-old son.
Danielle’s father was employed as an engineer and her mother was a clinical psychologist (both retired). Danielle has a 28-year-old sister currently working as a homemaker. At the time she entered counseling, Danielle’s parents were serving as her sole source of financial support. Despite this financial assistance, Danielle stated that she felt that she never receive from her parents “what she needed.” She perceives her parents as being somewhat distant and her father as being somewhat critical. Her father was especially not supportive of Danielle’s artistic abilities and emphasized the importance of developing scientific skills and knowledge. Both parents were anxious for her to return to work.
She has taken the Strong Interest Inventory and reports her RIASEC code as ARC and her Myers-Briggs Type Indicator preference code as INFJ.
CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Write out a plan for how you would conduct career counseling sessions with Danielle.
Identify which Career Theory you are relying on in establishing your plan and how you will incorporate various aspects of the information in the scenario toward helping your client.
Note that regardless of the strategy used, you may incorporate the results of the assessments (for example, incorporating the RIASEC code into your process using whichever theory you choose).
