Case Studies
Both E and K, college students in the early adult stage of life (see
Chapter Two), are involved in individual and joint action, in proj-
ects, and to some extent in career. Both the client and the counselor
can and will look at these systems of action from the perspectives of
the client’s manifest behavior, internal processes, and meaning, and
will address one or more of the levels of action organization, that is,
goals, steps to realize goals, and specific behavioral elements that
contribute to the steps. Thus we consider this approach broad and
inclusive—counseling E and K will involve more strategies than can
be discussed here. However, understanding these cases from an ac-
tion perspective is a critical step in using and applying appropriate
strategies and techniques.
These cases seem to require that some type of initial occupa-
tional decision be addressed, although this is more tacit in the case
of K than of E. Sometimes clients assume that there is a critical one-
time occupational decision to which prior education should be tai-
lored. College students making this assumption sometimes want to
use a firm occupational decision as a motivator for their studies.
These assumptions are not new, but they may not be as valid as they
once were.
We need to recognize at the outset that both cases are con-
structions. The data distinctly represent E and K, but the data were
abstracted from larger data sets and assembled by a counselor. In
some ways, these cases represent a negotiated construction or ex-
change between the client and the counselor, as well as a construc-
tion for the purposes of providing these case analyses. Each action
in the process, such as taking the tests, talking to the counselor, and
writing the case study, contextualizes the material.
As we described earlier, the counseling itself can be considered
a joint project between the client and the counselor, with the coun-
selor drawing the client into a project that is characterized by goal,
task, and bond (Meara & Patton, 1994).
A CONTEXTUALIST EXPLANATION OF CAREER 237