| Summary: | Counseling psychologist Mark L. Savickas conducts the second of three sessions with a Caucasian female client who recently lost her job late in her career due to company downsizing and is seeking occupational guidance. In this session, the therapist retells the life story the client has given him in the first session, tying together critical elements of her early childhood with later occupational and life experiences to find multiple meanings in her story. He responds to the client's wish for concrete suggestions by providing her with a guidebook on interview questions but preserves the time in therapy for the constructive process of developing the client's story. The therapist interprets the client's childhood sense of having a handicap through a familial reaction to a hereditary trait as influencing her wish to help others so bestowed through her work in in special education and later derivatives of this educational work. He builds on her self-concept reflected in early nurturing role models and aesthetic sensibilities in opening possibilities for future careers that combine these interests. Through the use of process comments and checks with the client for her reactions to his interpretations, in which he readily corrects those that did not fit, the therapist builds the client's trust and engagement in a constructive narrative process that sets the stage for further exploration.
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