Theoretical background
Metaphors were initially associated with the figurative aspect of language and
communication. Since it was considered property of poets and politicians, the method
was not put to use in psychological research and practice, due to a low level of credibility
and doubtful scientific value. A series of creative and flexible models were however
reconsidered when scientific positivism was overcome, and metaphor adopted as an
efficient evaluation and intervention technique in various fields of counselling.
Metaphor use in career counselling is more recent and seems to have at least two major
effects: one on the conceptualisation of the career counselling process, and the other on
the development itself of the process. Regarding the conceptualisation of the counselling
process, “the metaphor battle” has led to the dethronement of the more classical metaphor
match (Holland, 1997). The latter meant the overlap of personal and vocational
characteristics, considering the career counselling process as having as main purpose
identifying the right career for a person. It gave way to metaphors such as: “lack of
frontiers” (Arthur; Rousseau, 1996), “self-determined apprenticeship” (Arthur; Inkson;
Pringle, 1999) that increased the importance of fast and creative adaptation to changes in
the social and professional environment. The purpose of counselling is thus considered to
be the development of a proactive attitude regarding one’s career, which requires
flexibility and positive opportunity management.
Changes in the career counselling conceptualisation process have a direct correspondent
in the way it unfolds. The counselling process has become collaborative, oriented towards
the exploration of the particular significance of one’s career or what we call “subjective
career” (Gattiker; Larwood, 1986). Next to other techniques used in career counselling
(narration, exercises of prompted imagery, graphic career representation, card sorting,
etc.) metaphors can engage counsellors and clients in a creative approach to career
exploration, making use of their potential of complex understanding career-related
phenomena.
In view of economic, social and cultural transformations marking the present age, the
quest for the rightful meaning and personal career exploration, as well as its relation to
other segments of life, become important dimensions of the counselling process (Peavy,
1997; Savickas, 2000, 2001). Perceptions, emotions and personal values that are related
to one’s career (“subjective career”) tend to be the most important vector to which a
person relates, both to evaluate its current performance and to fix subsequent career-
related expectations (Collins; Young, 1986). Using metaphors in counselling can help
reduce the distance between theory and practice (Amundson, 1997) and seize individual
aspects of the process.