Tag Archives: Career & Employment Counseling

Career & Employment Counseling

Voice of Experience: Building a career path

By Gregory K. Moffatt April 27, 2023

Hand arranging wood block stacking as step stair

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I started my career in 1983. Over the years, I’ve applied my skills in many areas. Here are a few: I have worked in private practice; consulted with businesses and schools; wrote more than a dozen books; consulted with authors, actors and directors; wrote regular columns for various publications; taught at the FBI Academy; and worked as a profiler for many years. The purpose of this article is to show you how a career is built. I did nothing by accident or luck. I hope this snapshot of my career will inspire you to pursue your goals.

After finishing my master’s degree, I opened a part-time private practice. I did general practice, but my passion was working with children. I knew over time I would develop my skills and reputation to where I could focus solely on children — and that eventually happened.

However, in the 1980s, there were few resources for those who wanted to do play therapy. I read every book I could find, continued my education beyond my master’s degree, and joined the Association for Play Therapy (APT). I went to the APT conference every year for years, soaking up everything I could learn from experts in the field. At the same time, I was meeting people and doors were opening for me.

When I finished my doctorate, I wrote my first professional article. I had previously done some research for an issue related to stalking (something that wasn’t even in the vocabulary of the average person prior to 1990). Additionally, I was intrigued by the potential causes of a series of shootings by U.S. Postal Service employees in the 1980s. My article addressed assessment of risk of violent behavior.

That article ended up on the desk of the former director of the FBI who had approved the original profiling research at Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI Academy is located. He called me in and asked if I would be interested in doing some training on the subject. We worked together for several years, including a decade in which I taught several times per year at the FBI Academy. That relationship also led to a very long consulting job with Delta Airlines and numerous other businesses.

I began publishing books, and almost immediately, my consulting jobs increased. I worked with famous writers such as New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, who has become a very close friend. It also led to consulting work with actor/director Tyler Perry. Each writer or actor was seeking my insights as a violence expert and profiler so they could develop their characters realistically.

Over time, I moved through the ranks as a college professor, from instructor to full professor. Today I am the dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Point University, where I have served for almost 40 years.

I also began working with an agency that sent scholars around the world to colleges that needed their expertise. I eventually taught undergraduate and graduate students in more than 30 countries, sometimes literally teaching in a grass hut, as I did in both the Philippines and India. These experiences taught me many things and helped me to develop many lasting relationships. I even received a personal invitation from the president of Rwanda to train counselors to help victims of the genocide there.

Public speaking, writing, profiling, working with clients and providing supervision are just a few of the activities that rounded out my life for many years. Relationships with my professional associations also opened doors for me. I continue to serve as the editor of our state professional journal and was appointed just over a year ago to the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists.

I’ve never had fewer than two or three jobs since I was in the fifth grade, and I have worked very hard. Working multiple jobs has meant that I had to cut out some things. I don’t watch much TV, and my social life is minimal. But I don’t regret a single thing that I’ve done in my professional life, and despite being busy, I always had time for my children. In fact, each of them traveled with me multiple times on my international trips.

This is a short version of my career path, but here are the lessons for you. First, focus on the end game — where you want to be in 30 years — and work backward from there. Accept opportunities that move you in that direction.

Recognize open doors when they present themselves. I worked for 10 years as a consultant with Delta Airlines, and they never paid me a penny. But my association with them and the doors those relationships opened earned me thousands of dollars over time.

Recognize your deficits. I knew I wanted to be a child therapist, and I knew I had to be my own educator. I did the same thing with profiling. Professional associations are critical in this developmental process.

Finally, don’t be afraid to chase your dreams. One of my former professors said to me often, “Greg, I never worked a day in my life.” He loved his job, just as I do. And like my friend, I’ve never worked a day in my life.

 


Gregory K. Moffatt is a veteran counselor of more than 30 years and the dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Point University. His monthly Voice of Experience column for CT Online seeks to share theory, ethics and practice lessons learned from his diverse career, as well as inspiration for today’s counseling professionals, whether they are just starting out or have been practicing for many years. His experience includes three decades of work with children, trauma and abuse, as well as a variety of other experiences, including work with schools, businesses and law enforcement. Contact him at Greg.Moffatt@point.edu.


Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

Hard at work

By Bethany Bray August 30, 2021

No employee clocks in to work each day entirely free from personal issues and struggles. However, individuals with mental illness face an extra layer of adversity in the workplace. Simply showing up and fulfilling job responsibilities can be an uphill battle for employees who are bombarded by intrusive, obsessive or critical thoughts; trauma flashbacks; depressive episodes; anxiety triggers; and other challenges.

Adding to the issue is the friction that can arise in a workplace when a mental illness — either disclosed or not — causes an employee to struggle to keep up with their workload or to take time off frequently to go to counseling appointments or tend to their mental health. Co-workers and supervisors can be unsupportive of a teammate who falls behind, sometimes regardless of whether they’re aware of the mental illness underlying their colleague’s work performance, making the situation worse.

Professional counselors can be key allies for clients whose mental health struggles are affecting — or even derailing — their work life. Being an ally includes providing support at an individual level, such as by equipping clients with coping mechanisms and talking through career-related decisions, and at a systemic level, such as by helping clients seek accommodations from an employer or otherwise advocate for themselves.

In these situations, a supportive counselor can normalize the client’s experience, help with perspective-setting and serve as a sounding board as the client talks through decisions and emotions related to work and career, says Meredith Montgomery, a supervising professional clinical counselor in Ohio and an assistant professor of counselor education at the University of Dayton. “It’s also a counselor’s role to know what different [mental health] diagnoses might bring up in a work setting. If a clinician is working with a client who meets the criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you need to really do the research to know what that can potentially mean in the workplace. But at the same time, don’t buy into clichéd old ideas; look for the newest, updated information and laws that can help support them in a work environment,” says Montgomery, a member of the American Counseling Association. “Ultimately, a counselor’s job is one of support and illumination: to illuminate [a client’s] path, not to create the path, or determine the path, or push or pull them on the path, or shove them off of it, but to equip them with all the information you can to help them make their own decisions.”

A daily struggle

Behaviors that can indicate a client’s mental health is leading to problems in the workplace include frequent absences, tardiness, difficulty motivating themselves to perform their job, or job performance issues such as struggling to meet deadlines or other work expectations, says Amanda Hembree, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and certified employee assistance professional with a private practice in New Orleans.

Perfectionism can also be a factor, she adds. For example, a client with OCD may miss deadlines or have trouble contributing to team projects because they need extra time to prepare and complete compulsive rituals or steps until an assignment is just right. This can especially be the case in job roles that involve safety, Hembree points out. Employees with OCD may feel they need to check and recheck their equipment, tools and other safety protocols repeatedly, causing them to be late or struggle to complete other tasks.

At the same time, Hembree acknowledges that many people with mental health challenges find “workarounds” to push through the workday and keep themselves from being noticed by co-workers or supervisors.

A client’s workplace challenges may also fly under the radar in counseling sessions unless the clinician fully explores how the person’s mental illness is manifesting across their life, Hembree stresses. Clients may seek counseling for a different presenting issue, such as parenting struggles or communication problems within a marriage, and fail to recognize or acknowledge that work problems can be a contributing factor to difficulties in their personal life.

“Don’t discount work,” Hembree urges her fellow counselors. “Clients are spending 40-plus hours there each week, and it will affect what they’re bringing into the counseling office. Work plays a big role in our lives, and you [the counselor] have to figure out the intersection of why they’re in your office and what is going on at work and what can be helped in both realms. None of us lives in a vacuum. Mental illness will affect every part of a whole person’s wellness — and especially work.”

Seth Hayden, an associate professor of counseling at Wake Forest University and president of the National Career Development Association, a division of ACA, also emphasizes the importance of listening for and asking clients about job-related challenges, regardless of whether their presenting concern involves work. A comprehensive client assessment should include questions about how their presenting concern manifests throughout their life, including their physical health, relationships, ability to engage in hobbies that interest them, and views on work.

If a client identifies work as a source of stress or discomfort, a counselor should explore that further in session, says Hayden, an ACA member who specializes in career transitions with military and veteran clients. This involves uncovering the thoughts and feelings the client associates with their job and how those things tie into the person’s self-concept and align with their core beliefs.

“If work continually comes up in their conversation, let’s stop there and dive deeper, talking more about the work that they do and how they feel about it,” says Hayden, a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina and an LPC in Virginia. “Have their feelings [about work] changed over time? Do an extensive examination of aspects of career and work and how [they’re] connected to other areas of life. … If you try to artificially separate them [mental health and career], it could potentially be to the detriment of the client … because they are interconnected.”

Asking the right questions

Avoidance behaviors and other signs of distress and unhappiness at work can result from any number or combination of sources, says Montgomery, who co-presented the session “Enhance Counseling Services by Integrating Clinical and Career Counseling Strategies” at ACA’s Virtual Conference Experience in April. She emphasizes the need for clinicians to fully unpack clients’ feelings and emotions about their work situation during counseling sessions.

Montgomery urges clinicians to draw on two foundational counseling skills: asking probing questions and using empathic reflection.

“We [counselors] need to make sure we are asking the right questions. We don’t necessarily want to jump on the ‘you hate your job, let’s get you out of there’ bandwagon. When you pull it apart, it could be a toxic environment, or … a bad fit, or they could make changes to make it a better fit, but often the only option clients see is to leave,” Montgomery says. “We need to explore, explore, explore, explore [the client’s situation] before we jump to any kind of solution formulation.”

When clients talk about how hard work is for them, counselors should use empathic reflection, repeating clients’ statements back to them, to allow them to think through these thoughts, Montgomery says. It may be a knee-jerk response to agree or sympathize with client statements such as “I hate my job” or “Work has been terrible since the COVID-19 pandemic,” but counselors must be careful not to inadvertently reinforce a client’s statement with their reactions, she advises.

Instead, clinicians can probe for details and ask clients to describe the feelings underneath the statements they are making. Montgomery finds that an emotion wheel can be helpful for prompting these conversations, so she suggests counselors keep copies handy in their offices or readily available for screen-sharing during telebehavioral health sessions.

Often, individuals do not fully express their experiences because they do not have the language to do so, Montgomery says. Using tools such as an emotion wheel is a way to increase a person’s ability to better understand and communicate their experience. For example, a client may initially say, “I feel angry at work.” But after looking at the emotions listed on the wheel, they may be able to better articulate their feelings by saying, “I feel underappreciated, exhausted and disrespected at work.” That deeper and clearer understanding is far more beneficial to both the client and the clinician because the solutions to feeling underappreciated are different than the solutions to feeling angry, Montgomery says.

This exploration stage of counseling should also include a focus on identifying clients’ needs and which needs are not being met through work or are being marginalized or curtailed in the workplace, Montgomery adds. For example, a client who is social and benefits from talking through challenges with others may feel isolated and struggle to process things or complete assignments if they’re in a setting where they work alone or are physically separated from colleagues by the office layout. Identifying these needs often provides clarity and helps clients move toward either making changes in their current job situation — such as asking to be moved to a shared workspace or scheduling regular check-ins with their boss — or considering a different position or career, Montgomery explains.

Montgomery first worked in the corporate and nonprofit spheres before switching to a career in counseling. She recalls her own process of adapting to a new role as a counselor educator. After some self-reflection, she realized she craved structure to navigate the varying demands of work as a university professor, and there were some ways she could ask for help and support in this realm from her employer.

Montgomery looked for tools to create structure, such as a whiteboard to make lists and keep notes in her workspace. She also suggested her department streamline processes by creating a master calendar with due dates for evaluations and other important benchmarks. Not only did this modification keep Montgomery from feeling like she was always behind, but several colleagues mentioned that they found it helpful too, she says.

Coping mechanisms

The interconnected nature of career and mental health may cause work-related discomfort to affect clients when they are off the clock. This can manifest in many ways, including sabotaging their ability to get to work on time in the mornings or channeling feelings of frustration or unhappiness toward family members after a frustrating workday.

Amanda Barnett, an LPC who specializes in mental health and work issues with clients at her private practice in Gainesville, Georgia, helps clients who struggle to separate work stressors from their personal lives to build intentionality into their routines. She suggests clients visualize changing “hats” as they transition to and from work. For example, a client may take off their accountant hat and put on their dad hat as they leave the office. For some professions, this transition is literal because employees change into work uniforms or wear a tool belt or other work equipment, notes Barnett, an ACA member. Regardless, she urges clients to take time to center themselves, give themselves a pep talk and be mindful about setting themselves up for the workday or for their return home.

Hembree notes that offering psychoeducation regarding how anxiety manifests in the body and providing tools to lower stress and anxiety in the moment can be particularly helpful with this client population. Breathing techniques can be a useful go-to tool in the workplace, especially because some of these techniques can be used without other people noticing, she says. Hembree, who has extensive experience working with clients through employee assistance programs, often teaches clients “box breathing,” which involves inhaling for four counts, holding for four counts and exhaling for four counts. This technique can be done discretely even when an employee is sitting in a work meeting or preparing for a presentation, she points out.

Another powerful yet simple tool is helping clients realize that they can take a break — even if just for a moment — when things begin to escalate at work. Many clients get so wrapped up in the emotions they feel when they are stressed that their instinct is to dive further into the situation rather than pull back for a moment.

“Unless you’re on a heart-transplant team, you can take five minutes to have a snack, take a break, meditate or do a grounding technique,” Hembree advises. “Even if your boss is breathing down your neck and saying, ‘I need this yesterday,’ you will do a lot better if you take a couple of minutes to ground … and center yourself — and your work will be better because of it.”

Hembree also finds techniques that counter negative self-talk to be helpful with this population. Clients who struggle in the workplace can easily fall into the “comparison trap,” she says. But as is the case when people compare themselves with others based only on what they see on social media, workers see only a portion of others’ lives at work. When a client is bombarded by negative self-talk, a co-worker’s success can send them further down that spiral. It’s easy to compare themselves and catastrophize, thinking that they’ll never be as good as their co-worker, that they are a failure, or that they are about to be fired, Hembree notes.

“Perhaps a co-worker gets praise from the boss. But what [the client] didn’t see is that [the co-worker] stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish [the work assignment], missed their kid’s soccer game, got in a fight with their partner and gave themselves an ulcer to get this modicum of praise from the boss,” she says. “A counselor can offer psychoeducation that others have good and bad days, and you will have a day when you’re the superstar.”

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Disclosure

The decision to disclose one’s mental illness in a work setting can lead to the good, the bad or the ugly. In a best-case scenario, an employer will respond to disclosure in a supportive and understanding way. Employees whose mental health challenges are affecting their work life can find support in an understanding ally — whether it’s a supervisor or a trusted co-worker — who knows the reason behind their work struggles. However, disclosure in a worst-case scenario can leave an employee open to direct or indirect hostility, misunderstanding, awkwardness, retribution or discrimination from an employer.

“There should be an element of dignity in work and being able to say things without any fear. But [counselors should] recognize that there are precarious elements of work that don’t make it easy for people to do that,” says Hayden, who presented “Career Development and Mental Health in the Context of COVID” at ACA’s Virtual Conference Experience. Hayden and the other counselors interviewed agree that disclosing one’s mental illness at work is a complicated issue that must be considered carefully depending on several factors, including how supportive the overall climate is at the client’s job.

Marina Williams, an LPC in Lexington, Virginia, who specializes in helping clients with work issues, stresses that clients should think carefully about what they have to gain by disclosing a mental illness in the workplace. This issue is even more complicated for clients whose work settings can involve direct or indirect repercussions if a worker is deemed unfit. Those in law enforcement, the military or jobs with a security clearance often feel particularly vulnerable about disclosing any type of mental health issue.

“Discrimination for mental health is very common,” says Williams, who presented on workplace bullying at ACA’s 2018 conference. “I recommend that clients not tell anyone [at work], but the exception to this is if they’re having such difficulty that they need to ask for accommodation in the workplace. But even then, I would limit [disclosure] to human resources.”

Hembree has also worked with clients who were treated differently after disclosing their mental illness in the workplace. She has heard clients talk about being treated like “fragile glass,” being denied job advancement or becoming the target of bullying behaviors such as being called a “snowflake.”

“It would be amazing if we lived in a post-stigma mental health world, but we are not there yet,” Hembree says. “I generally do not suggest that people disclose unless they are in a very supportive or progressive workplace.”

When the question of disclosing comes up in counseling sessions, Barnett encourages clients to think their situation through carefully. She cautions clients about oversharing and making the assumption that co-workers are friends. And she reminds her clients that the human resources department works for their employer, not for the employees. “Everything you say to human resources could go on your permanent record,” she tells clients. “Be aware that they have a duty to the company, not to you.”

Barnett once worked with a client who had mixed results after their boss learned about their mental health struggles. The client was having frequent panic attacks at work. Because the workplace was a closed, secure environment, the client couldn’t step outside easily or bring in personal items to help them cope.

The client’s boss became aware of the situation after a workplace incident triggered a panic attack and the client became visibly upset in front of him during the workday. After that, the client received what they termed “reluctant” support from their boss. The boss wasn’t cruel, but he wasn’t overly understanding either, Barnett recalls. The client’s stress also increased when the supervisor revealed that he was leaving and cautioned the employee that the next boss might not be as understanding to their situation as he had been.

What did help, however, were the coping mechanisms that the client learned and honed in counseling with Barnett, as well as a focus on quelling negative self-talk. Barnett and the client also found small ways that the client could stay mindful and calm during the workday, such as by chewing gum.

Clients who work on-site at a job may need to seek permission to leave for therapy appointments. They may also face questions or comments from co-workers about their frequent absences. If a client feels they need to explain their mental health struggles at work, a counselor can help them figure out a way to ask for leave without fully disclosing. For example, Williams says, the person could tell their boss, “I’m going through something right now, and these appointments are helping me.” It’s also OK to simply say, “I have an appointment” and leave it at that, she asserts.

Hembree agrees that disclosure can involve a range of information and doesn’t necessarily have to include details about a client’s diagnosis. She once counseled a client with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder who had trouble maintaining focus when he had to sit still for long periods of time such as in trainings or meetings. His solution was to stand and move periodically or ask for breaks with the simple explanation that he was feeling “fidgety.”

Counselors can ask clients how they feel about disclosing and how receptive their workplace might be to their mental health issues and to providing potential accommodations. Most of all, clients should disclose at a level that feels safe and comfortable to them, Hembree says.

“Everyone has to advocate for themselves, individually. That’s going to be different for every person,” she says. “For some, they are desperate to remove the stigma of mental health issues and wave that flag for everyone in their office and create a better environment for [all employees]. But that’s not for everyone. You don’t have to pick up that battle. You don’t have to be the spokesperson for depression [or another diagnosis]. You just have to do the best you can on any given day, and that may be disclosing and it might not be, or [it may be] disclosing in different ways.”

Accommodations

Employees may need to disclose a mental illness in the workplace if they are seeking accommodations that would help their situation. Possible work accommodations include being able to leave work regularly for therapy appointments, reducing an employee’s hours or responsibilities, or relocating from a cubicle to an enclosed office for increased privacy and decreased distraction, Williams notes.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) affords protections for workers, the language in the law guarantees “reasonable accommodation,” Williams points out. Counselors and clients should keep in mind that employers can make a counteroffer or refuse an employee’s request based on how reasonable they perceive it to be.

Hembree urges counselors who are unfamiliar with ADA or the protections it affords to seek continuing education on the topic, do research or consult with colleagues (including professionals in related fields such as human resources) to better support their clients. ADA also has an information hotline (ada.gov/infoline.htm) that counselors or clients can call to ask questions, she adds.

Hayden and Montgomery both suggest that counselors whose clients plan to disclose a mental illness or seek accommodations at work role-play in sessions to help clients gather their thoughts and prepare for the conversation. Hayden advises that it can be helpful for counselors and clients to explore the following questions:

What is the client hoping to gain from the conversation?

How might the conversation go? What do they anticipate happening?

What reaction might they receive? How will they respond to it?

Montgomery encourages clinicians not to make assumptions about a client’s comfort level regarding asking for things they need. Just because a client works in management or a position of authority doesn’t mean that they will easily be able to advocate for themselves, she says. Counselors should also never make assumptions based on the client’s level of education, socialization, cultural background or other factors, she adds.

“Assume everyone is terrified about asking for what they need and go from there,” Montgomery advises. “If we assume that no one is comfortable, then we don’t have to worry about offending someone or leaving someone unprepared because they’re uncomfortable asking you [their counselor] for help with learning how to ask.”

Hembree believes accommodations can be helpful for clients whose mental health struggles at work go beyond being a “nuisance” and truly interfere with their daily ability to do their job. As with disclosure, workplace accommodations — and the process to seek them — fall on a spectrum and will vary from client to client. Hembree says the documentation she has written for accommodation requests has ranged from in-depth reports for clients in government positions to a brief letter confirming that a client left work to see her for an appointment on a certain date and time. No matter the circumstance, she always has clients review the document to ensure they are comfortable with it before she submits it to their employer. She tries to focus her documentation on the client’s needs rather than the client’s problems, Hembree says.

Counselors can also work with clients to explore coping strategies that they can use on their own without having to seek an employer’s permission. In Hembree’s experience, clients have found it helpful to have fidget devices, noise-canceling headphones or calm strips (textured stickers a person can touch to soothe or ground themselves) at their desk. Customizing a workspace by adding plants or using a lamp rather than overhead florescent lighting can also be calming, she notes.

In other cases, employees can ask for measures that would help their situation without framing it as a mental health accommodation, Hembree says. For example, a client may notice that a different workspace is available in their office and ask to be moved without giving a reason.

Making work work

What is the tipping point between struggling at a job because of an underlying mental health challenge and foundering in a position that simply is not a good fit for someone with a client’s diagnosis? There’s no easy answer to that question, Williams says, but “keep soldiering through” is not a solution.

The counselors interviewed for this article agree that finding answers to this question should involve exploration of a client’s identity and how the client feels their job aligns with their identity and personal values. It can also be helpful to talk through the timeline of when a client started to struggle at work and whether that coincided with other events in their life, Williams notes.

Barnett suggests that counselors prompt clients to think about how long they’ve pictured themselves in their current role. For example, they could ask, “Have you always wanted to be in this career? Is it your life’s passion? Or is it simply a way to get dollars in your bank account?”

“You have to get to whether [the job] fits with the core of their identity,” Barnett says. Ask the client, “Is this what you really want to do? Is it your passion? Is it meeting your needs? If not, give yourself that freedom to make a choice.”

Counselors can also offer the perspective that clients don’t have to stay in a career simply because it’s what they studied in school or have been doing for years, Barnett notes. Clients can try out other careers by taking on a side job or working part time and slowly transitioning into another position if it is a good fit for them.

Above all, the client should guide the conversation, Montgomery adds. “Work, like relationships, can be a great source of purpose and meaning and can be a place where we can grow and do really exciting things and fulfill our brain’s desire for stimulation. It also can be a place where we get a paycheck, and we go home and we get all those things in other places [outside of work],” Montgomery says. “If getting purpose from work is really important to you and you want to do that, then make the decision that supports that result. But it’s also OK to just get paid and use that money to do fantastic things in other places. … We get all kinds of messaging that you should be saving the world through work. But the reality is that it’s not true for everyone. Everyone has different needs, and we just need to explore how to get those met.”

 

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Bethany Bray is a senior writer and social media coordinator for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

Working our way through a pandemic

By Laurie Meyers February 25, 2021

To appropriate a turn of phrase from Queen Elizabeth II, 2020 was our collective annus horribilis (horrible year). The queen was referring to 1992, a year that featured the implosion of three royal marriages, a devastatingly destructive fire at Windsor Castle, and unfortunate headlines involving Sarah Ferguson’s new beau and his, ahem, admiration of the Duchess of York’s feet.

But as the meme goes, 2020 said to 1992, “Hold my beer.”

The year that the queen “shall not look back upon with undiluted pleasure” included family losses, property destruction and embarrassing press. Stressful, to be sure, but ultimately personal and mundane (although, granted, most of us don’t have to face the paparazzi). But 2020 pelted us with events of a virtually seismic nature that have in one way or another affected billions of lives worldwide. The emergence of the novel coronavirus was not the only stressor or calamity the year visited upon us, but it remains arguably the most disruptive. And perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in people’s work lives.

When the great shutdown began in the U.S. in March 2020, most of us thought we’d be confined to the house and working virtually for only a few months. But approximately one year later, and with more than 450,000 American deaths attributed to COVID-19 through the first week of February, many people are still hunched over their makeshift office equipment.

In the beginning, some of the work-from-home snafus were funny. Newscasters broadcasting with jackets — but no pants (which seems to be the preferred work-from-home style for a surprising number of people). The boss who accidentally turned herself into a potato on Microsoft Teams and didn’t know how to change back. Amusing, embarrassing and sometimes horrifying comments and conversations caught by accidentally unmuted microphones in video conferences. Other disruptions, such as cats on the keyboard and dogs chiming in during meetings, were a bit chaotic but too cute — at least at first — for their human companions to truly complain about. But other people struggled to carve out a workspace and found themselves joining meetings from underneath the stairs or barricaded behind the bathroom door because it was the only private space in a house full of busy (and noisy) family members. Even people who frequently telecommuted pre-pandemic often found adapting to an all-virtual workplace a challenge.

Balancing work, school and child care

One of the most significant challenges to working — whether virtually or on-site — during the COVID-19 era has been the lack of child care options and the need to assist children with their virtual schooling.

“Coaching folks on how to handle their work life without child care is a big focus of my practice these days,” says Katie Playfair, a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and management consultant located in Portland, Oregon.

“I tell clients to be as flexible and creative as they can in figuring out how to get their job done despite these obligations and to consider, when possible, cutting back hours to something more manageable,” she says. “As the mother of children who are 8, 6 and 2 years old, I home-school them during the day and then work from 5 p.m.-10 p.m. every evening after my spouse gets home. It’s a rough schedule.”

Playfair says many parents are having to take breaks to help with schoolwork during the day and then catching up on work themselves at night. Even children who are old enough not to need constant supervision often interrupt the workday to request a snack, to seek permission to take a break or to ask a quick homework question. As a result, parents are continually task-switching, unable to block out time for uninterrupted work, Playfair explains.

“Developing a system to communicate with older kids about when parents are interruptible and when they aren’t is vital,” she stresses. The use of physical or virtual calendars, door signs or predetermined “office hours” when they will be available to their children can help parents protect meeting times and allow for concentrated work during the day, she says.

“Providing kids with a way to table their questions until appropriate times is the other side of this equation,” Playfair continues. “They may need a whiteboard on parents’ doors or some other ways of tracking things so they don’t forget about them and get frustrated. Older kids can also be taught to email or text parents. Nonetheless, parents may still find themselves having to work nights or weekends to make up for the work that isn’t getting done during the school day.”

Even with families in which one spouse was already a stay-at-home parent before the pandemic, the virtual work and school mix can throw a wrench into the routine, says Keri Riggs, a Texas-based LPC whose specialties include relationship stressors, stress management and work-related issues. In one couple with whom Riggs worked, the mother was accustomed to structuring her day around the schedule of their middle school-age children. The family had managed to incorporate virtual school into their routine when, suddenly, the father began working remotely.

The only available workspace was the kitchen table, and the husband frequently needed everyone else to clear out of the room so he could participate in meetings. But he also recognized the need to give his wife a break — and the need to get away from the table himself — so they scheduled in lunches and other times when they would trade responsibility for the children. Because his meeting schedule varied, the couple sat down every night and plotted out the next day’s schedule, blocking off times when the kitchen needed to be in “do not disturb” mode and carving out time for breaks, says Riggs, a member of the American Counseling Association.

Fitting in the demands of work and school is even more difficult for single parents because, absent an available and willing relative or neighbor, there is no one to help shoulder their burden. Uninterrupted blocks of time may be available only when the children are asleep. However, some work-related tasks, such as meetings and phone calls, generally have to take place during the day. To help minimize disruptions, Jessi Eden Brown, an LPC whose specialties include trauma and workplace bullying, suggests parents buy or create “some kind of super-involved art project that they [children] only get to work on during meetings, so it’s kind of like a treat.”

“I don’t love this,” she continues, “but some clients have [also] had success with a television show or movie that can be started or stopped.” Brown, an ACA member, recognizes that isn’t an ideal solution, but it may be the only way that some clients can prevent interruptions in meetings. As she tells parents, with all the stressors they’re coping with, an extra hour or two of television here and there for their children is not the end of the world.

Of course, as Sharon Givens, an LPC who specializes in career development and mental health, points out, “Not everyone was able to just pick up a laptop and go home. If you’re a housekeeper, you can’t work from home.”

This is particularly problematic for single parents, she says. Some of her clients have family members who can assist with child care during the day, but others have had to relinquish their jobs. They are experiencing devastating financial difficulties that were exacerbated by the end of federally supplemented unemployment benefits.

“And, so, we’re working together to create some strategies to pay the rent,” says Givens, president-elect of the National Career Development Association, a division of ACA. Some clients have pulled money from their retirement accounts or tapped family members for financial assistance. Givens has also helped clients find local assistance programs and search for jobs that they can do from home.

The pandemic and resulting recession have demanded that counselors put on their “practical strategy hat” to help clients, Givens says. She has advised clients to speak with their mortgage company or landlord and their utility companies to see what type of deferment or other relief they can offer.

Setting boundaries and navigating distractions

The virtual office poses other challenges, such as the blurring of boundaries between work and home. By getting rid of the daily commute, office workers have gained extra time, but it has also deprived them of a natural boundary that signaled the beginning and end of the workday, Riggs says. The computer is always right there — a siren beckoning workers to check their email one last time or to do just a little more work. Suddenly, it’s midnight, and they’ve spent all day at the computer.

Riggs works with clients to replace the commute with other routines, asking what symbolizes starting and ending the workday for them. Is it taking a shower or changing out of their work clothes at the end of the day? She also suggests engaging in rituals such as hanging a “closed” sign on the computer or home office door or voicing a mantra such as “I did my best today.”

Sometimes, however, it isn’t employees who have trouble setting boundaries. American work culture is often brutal and not supportive of health and well-being, Playfair asserts.

“Unless an organization has set out to really change themselves into a more compassionate and empathetic place to work, they’re going to expect lots of hours, productivity and performance from everyone nearly all the time,” she says. “But even within this culture, there are opportunities for boundaries. First, I encourage people to ask their bosses, ‘Do you want the truth or what I think you want to hear?’ when an employee feels pressured past what they can take. Most people will choose the truth, and that will give the opportunity for healthy disclosure. I also like the phrase, ‘I wish I could do that for you, but I can’t because …’ to introduce a boundary.

“Finally, I think it’s helpful for employees to empathize with their bosses while still demanding support themselves. For example: ‘I understand that you’re short-staffed for this shift and that headquarters is expecting you to figure it out. That’s unfair. If our company would budget and plan sufficiently for contingency staffing, this wouldn’t be a problem for you or me, would it? I know they expect you to be fully staffed today, but they haven’t given you the resources to be successful with that, and I can’t personally make up for their poor planning.”

Brown encourages her clients to look for fellow employees who seem to be able to set boundaries. “Like ‘Bob’ — he always seems to sign off at 5. How does he do it?” she asks.

In other cases, Brown and the client may review their job description or the company’s policies and procedures manual to see if expectations for work hours have been set out.

Home itself can often be a distraction, Riggs notes. It can be difficult for people to focus exclusively on the work they are paid to do when they are surrounded by ever-present reminders of household tasks that also need to be completed, such as doing the laundry or loading the dishwasher. Cell phone pings announcing texts and social media notifications also beckon.

Riggs and her clients try out different solutions to find what works. This might involve setting a timer to complete 30-minute blocks of focused work, giving themselves a healthy reward for completing work, or setting up accountability partners. Riggs also suggests that, if possible, clients leave their cell phones in another room. If that isn’t feasible, she encourages clients to disable their notifications. She also counsels clients to prepare for the unexpected by allowing some margin for “white space” — a block of free, unscheduled time — during the day to attend to urgent requests or time-sensitive tasks.

The mental toll

Working under less than optimal conditions — or not working at all — has created significant challenges among a population that is already struggling with grief, Givens says. “All of us, if we’re being honest, are feeling a sense of loss: loss of activities, loss of career opportunities, loss of income.”

The uncertainty ushered in by the pandemic has challenged many clients’ coping skills, Givens says. She uses a variety of methods to help, including exploring what methods have supported clients’ ability to cope in the past. For some people, that involves more physical activity, whereas for others, it’s about increased (virtual) connection.

Givens also uses cognitive behavior therapy interventions such as having clients keep a thought record. They then look at this together and evaluate what is and what isn’t under the client’s control. “Many of them see the visual: ‘I spent four hours per day worrying about something that I couldn’t control,” she says.

Many of her clients are also engaging in frequent catastrophizing, obsessing about what will happen and whether they’re going to die in the pandemic. These concerns are natural, but some clients are mentally building worst-case scenarios, Givens notes. For these clients, she uses a different kind of thought record known as an evidence record. The concept is the same — clients write down their thoughts and then go over them with Givens — but what they’re looking for is any evidence to support the likelihood of their worst-case scenarios becoming reality.

All of the practitioners Counseling Today spoke to for this article urge clients to be patient with themselves as they navigate the myriad challenges of working during the COVID-19 era. Riggs recommends Kristin Neff’s five-minute self-compassion break (a guided version is available at self-compassion.org/guided-self-compassion-meditations-mp3-2/).

The practice begins by, as Neff puts it, “calling up a little suffering,” or reflecting on something that is currently causing stress or worry. Neff then provides a series of phrases “designed to help us remember the three components of self-compassion when we need it most.”

The first phrase is “This is a moment of suffering.” Or, as Riggs tells her clients, “I’m having a hard time today. I’m struggling.”

The second phrase is “Suffering is a part of life.” Riggs describes this as recognizing one’s connection to all of humanity: Not only am I struggling, other people struggle too. I am not alone.

The third phrase is “May I be kind to myself in this moment.” To support being kind to oneself, Neff suggests that listeners place their hand over their heart or another place on their body that feels soothing, then focus on the warmth of their hand and let that sensation stream through their fingers. She then recommends that listeners direct kind and supportive language toward themselves, such as words they might use with a friend going through a similar situation — e.g., “I’m here for you. It’s going to be OK.”

At the end of the practice or “break,” Neff asks listeners to notice how their bodies feel and to allow themselves to just “be” in the moment with those sensations.      

Riggs also suggests clients ask themselves what would make them feel better at that moment. “That’s really the hardest piece if you don’t know what you need,” she says. “Do I need to move my body? Do I need to journal? Call my best friend? Put on music? Give myself a hug?”

Finally, Riggs tells clients to remind themselves that the stress or anxiety they are currently experiencing will not last forever — that they won’t feel like this forever. Eventually, it will change.

Amid the suffering caused by the pandemic, Brown sees opportunities for personal growth. “Never before have we had … [such a] profound opportunity to slow down and focus on life’s priorities with such intention,” she says. “COVID-19 has affected nearly every person on the planet. Countless people live in fear, and many have lost family, friends, livelihoods and so much more.

“The tragedy is undeniable. That said, I have always believed that low moments like these potentially set the stage for meaningful change as we reflect on what is important and how our decisions either support or impede our progress.”

 

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The pandemic and a frayed political climate have also been at the center of various instances of workplace bullying. Read more in our online exclusive article, “No rest for the bullied.”

 

 

 

 

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Laurie Meyers is a senior writer for Counseling Today. Contact her at lmeyers@counseling.org.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

No rest for the bullied

By Laurie Meyers February 1, 2021

The climate of intolerance, anger and, to put it plainly, hate, that was encouraged to bloom during the past four years have kept Jessi Eden Brown busy as the professional coach for the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) and in her private psychotherapy practice in Seattle. According to the WBI, targets of workplace bullying consistently reported more frequent and more brazen attacks, crippling sabotage, and mobbing based on known or assumed opposition to the Trump administration. Brown has seen this trend playout in her private practice and in her coaching work at the WBI. In the weeks surrounding the insurgent attack at the U.S. Capitol, two of Brown’s clients reported that workplace harassment had escalated to personal property damage.

“One had, ‘Trump 2020,’ scratched into the hood of his car in the employee parking garage,” says Brown, a licensed professional counselor. “And the other told me his locker was broken into [and] the contents [were] soaked in red paint, one day after the U.S. Capitol riot.”

The division between mask-wearers and anti-maskers during the pandemic has also created a pernicious type of bullying, Brown says. “For example, one client told me that three workplace bullies have ‘fake coughed’ in her direction for months, often followed by snickering and occasional obscene gestures. She said she considered reporting the problem to HR or management, but her last grievance resulted in retaliation, so she has opted to try to ignore it and keep wearing a mask.”

The pandemic has also contributed to an uptick in bullying in other ways, Brown says. “At the beginning of the pandemic, many of my clients reported an overwhelming sense of relief as they transitioned to remote work [and were] no longer required to face their bullies in person,” she explains. “Bullying tactics such as micromanaging, nonverbal intimidation and public humiliation were dampened by distance. However, for some clients, that period of calm was short-lived, as bullies began to weaponize the very technology we rely on to work from home. Clients told me their invitations to essential Zoom meetings were ‘somehow overlooked.’ They talked about the relative ease with which bullies manipulate reports and documents, craftily overinflating their contributions and minimizing the target’s value.”

Brown’s clients have also reported feelings of mounting isolation as they face increasing levels of resource gatekeeping.

The economic collapse brought on by the pandemic is also being wielded as a weapon, according to Brown. One client’s boss regularly makes threats such as “This is not the time to be jobless, so you really don’t want to screw up next week’s presentation.”

Brown says that, understandably, most of her bullied clients fear leaving their jobs during the pandemic, despite the abuse they are subjected to.

“Sometimes there are ways to push back and advocate for yourself; other times that may only make things worse,” she says, noting that the outcome is highly situationally dependent. “I work with my clients to explore their options and refocus whenever possible on addressing their health. Setting boundaries, boosting self-care and seeking outlets for processing pain and frustration — all might help the client survive in the job until the outlook is more positive.”

“A couple of my clients have reached their absolute limits in dealing with workplace aggressors and have opted to resign, transfer or prematurely retire despite the extraordinary uncertainty of a global pandemic,” Brown continues. “One client is taking advantage of the opportunity to return to school and recast her career in a different direction. The other is taking a bit of time off, living on savings and repairing his health — knowing he has a financial cushion of exactly six months. As that deadline draws near, we will plan out the next steps and, ideally, he will reenter the workforce feeling a bit recharged and focused on creating a fresh start.”

These are difficult situations to face in counseling, Brown acknowledges, and she sometimes becomes concerned for the safety of her clients. “First, I listen to their account of the incident, allowing the client to process the fear, anger, confusion and vulnerability that comes with being persecuted,” she says. “From there, we talk about any steps — minor as they may be — to help the client feel safer.”

For example, because his house keys and wallet were in the locker when someone broke into it, Brown’s client decided to change all of his locks at home and add two more security cameras to his home system.

In cases that involve bullying that is potentially criminal, Brown and her clients discuss whether to file a police report or take any other formal action, weighing the costs and benefits of these decisions.

“I also research and pass along any specific resources that might offer additional support for my client, such as hate crime victim support groups, PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] groups … Unfortunately,” she says, “as things continue to deteriorate in our society, it is challenging to help these individuals fully regain a sense of safety, which is something we often recognize and address openly.”

“I have witnessed the combined effects of a divisive Trump administration, a deadly global pandemic and an intense racial reckoning precipitate enduring traumatic injuries on some of my clients. Often,” Brown concludes, “I think the repair and healing work we do in therapy is only just beginning, and even more challenging times lie ahead.”

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COVID-19 has largely redefined where people work, how people work and the workplace challenges that confront employees as they try to make ends meet. Read more in the article “Working our way through the pandemic,” in the March 2021 issue of Counseling Today.

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Laurie Meyers is a senior writer for Counseling Today. Contact her at lmeyers@counseling.org.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.

Starting post-college life in a pandemic

By Bethany Bray August 3, 2020

Spring 2020 college graduates have emerged into a world turned upside down by COVID-19. The job prospects and post-college lifestyles these graduates were imagining for themselves just a few months ago are today largely nonexistent.

Unprecedented seems to be the buzzword of the season, notes Roseanne Bensley, assistant director of New Mexico State University’s (NMSU’s) Center for Academic Advising and Student Support. The coronavirus pandemic has affected everything from relationships to career planning for new graduates.

“It’s not one part of their life, it’s every part of their life,” Bensley says. “Employers have uncertainty and don’t know, day to day, when things will lift. … No one has enough information to give answers. This is new territory for employers and job searchers.”

However, Bensley would like to add a second buzzword to the class of 2020’s lexicon: resiliency. As she points out, these students, many of whom had to unexpectedly finish their senior year coursework online, can claim an advantage when it comes to adaptability and comfort with technology.

Because of COVID-19, “New jobs and new ways of doing business are opening up. This is going to cause a new wave of change, and [employers] may not be going back to the way it was,” Bensley says. “These students are ahead of the curve. … They will be resilient with what they’ve learned.”

At a loss

Licensed professional counselor (LPC) Patricia Anderson recently worked with a new college grad who was experiencing a resurgence of anxiety this past spring during the pandemic. The young woman had switched jobs, and the restrictions associated with COVID-19 meant that she was unable to meet any of her new co-workers in person. Her entire hiring and onboarding process had been completed via video and electronic communication. She had also recently moved into her own apartment and begun living away from her family for the first time.

The client was stressed out, anxious, and struggling with her self-confidence, recalls Anderson, an American Counseling Association member who has a private practice in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. In working through her feelings in counseling, it became clear that the young woman — an extrovert by nature — was experiencing grief over the large-scale absence of social connection, both at work and in her personal life.

During the pandemic, the client had stopped using an online dating platform. This resulted in her experiencing a sense of loss regarding opportunities to meet people and a decrease in the confidence she normally gained through interacting with dates and new relationships. Anderson worked with the client to establish a self-care plan that included making time for hobbies and exercise, as well as maintaining social contacts and reconnecting with friends with whom she had lost touch.

Anderson also focused on boosting the client’s confidence and equipped her with strategies for keeping her self-talk from becoming self-critical. In addition, Anderson helped the client recognize that what she was feeling was grief, which can arrive in waves. Together, they connected some of the client’s feelings to family-of-origin issues that were contributing to her stress.

Anderson also helped the client focus on the reality that her current situation wouldn’t last forever. “We talked about things she can look forward to in the future: going back to online dating, figuring out a new normal, looking forward to meeting colleagues face-to-face, planning a trip, and working on another business opportunity,” Anderson says. “Time spent away [from dating] had eroded the confidence she once had and had kicked up her anxiety. Staying ‘in the game’ can be beneficial for some [clients]. It’s a way to get to know themselves and push themselves socially.”

Many of Anderson’s clients are young professionals, current college students or recent graduates. Throughout the spring and summer, many of these clients have been wrestling with feelings of loss, she says. This includes the loss of rites of passage such as graduation ceremonies and in-person celebrations, the loss of internships and immediate job prospects and, for some, the seeming loss of entire career plans.

“Their world and their [sense of] structure have been upended, and they’re not really knowing which direction to move in,” Anderson says. “Some days, they feel like, ‘OK, I got this,’ and then other days, they have doubts about ‘Where am I going?’ The floor dropped out of what they thought was going to happen. … They have anxiety over the fact that everything got pulled out from underneath them, and now they don’t have a road map.”

It is vitally important that counselors first help these clients process their feelings of loss before trying to guide them to reconsider their job options or life path, Anderson says. Among the most consequential actions counselors can take are to listen to, validate and normalize the emotions that these young adults are feeling in the wake of COVID-19.

“Be with the client where they are,” Anderson says. “If they’re unable to go with a job that didn’t happen or was rescinded, really sit with them in that space before opening up and looking at the possibilities of ‘what else?’ It’s difficult to do that until they know that you understand them and where they’re coming from.”

All feelings of loss should be treated as real and valid, Anderson says, even if clients themselves express guilt over feeling that way or dismiss those feelings as being trivial when the world is facing weightier issues. For example, some graduates may still be dealing with disappointment that they missed out on a final chance to take a spring break trip with friends or weren’t able to study abroad because of the coronavirus. Counselors should reassure these clients that it is OK to have these feelings and then give them space to talk about it, she emphasizes.

“[Help them] know that they’re not alone and that it totally makes sense to struggle right now. They also may be scared at feeling unsettled, which may be a new feeling for them,” explains Anderson, who does contract work for the QuarterLife Center, a Washington, D.C., therapy office that specializes in working with young professionals in their 20s and 30s.

In addition to normalizing feelings, Anderson has been providing clients with psychoeducation on self-care, the nonlinear aspects of grief, and the importance of maintaining social supports and a structured daily schedule. She checks with clients to ensure they are staying connected with friends and family via technology and that they are equipped with coping mechanisms such as meditation and self-reflection exercises. She also asks if they are eating well, engaging in physical activity, getting outside, and taking part in other wellness-focused activities.

As Anderson’s clients talk in sessions, she listens for hopeful language that might indicate they are ready to rethink their futures. “I try to help them broaden their scope a little, if they’re ready for it. I let them talk about what they need to talk about, but then spend some time looking at other pieces of what else might be possible. [I] try and get them out of their heads just a little bit,” Anderson says, “because if I [as a client] always thought I was going to be a dentist, and come to find out that I’m not going to be a dentist, I have to grieve. But at the same time, maybe there are some things that free me up about not being a dentist.”

“If you can create a trusting relationship with a [client],” she says, “they know that you understand them, and we can explore all kinds of things, whether they [previously] seemed unrealistic or not.”

Rethinking career plans

Flexibility must be the watchword for recent graduates who are looking for jobs, says Lynn Downie, associate director of career and professional development at Presbyterian College in South Carolina. In her work with undergraduates and alumni of the small, rural college, Downie is finding that those who had a “hard and set, defined path” in mind, such as entering the health care or hospitality industries straight out of school, are struggling most.

Those who are currently seeking jobs can benefit greatly from the guidance and encouragement provided by a counselor, says Downie, who recently finished a two-year term as president of the National Employment Counseling Association (NECA), a division of ACA. “Give them reassurance that things haven’t changed completely. Highlight [the idea] that pathways to a particular goal aren’t always the same. There are other distinct pathways,” she says.

Downie is helping her clients identify workarounds as they adjust their perspectives to become more flexible and less discouraged by rejection letters or the idea of taking a job that might not have appealed to them previously. Some of her clients have readjusted their career plans to take entry-level or short-term work in positions or fields they wouldn’t have considered six months ago. Others have pivoted to opportunities in national service programs such as AmeriCorps.

Downie, a member of ACA, also reminds recent graduates that they just need to find a fit for right now. That doesn’t mean their long-term career goals have to change. “Help [these clients] realize that they’re not making a choice for the rest of their lives when they choose a job, or [especially] their first job,” she says. “Their life is going to be full of all kinds of pivots. Some are planned and some are unplanned and forced. There is a big arc from 18 to 65 or retirement age. … You can [still] have aspirational goals that are for down the line.”

Downie has worked with several business students who had hoped to go into health care administration, but because the industry is so in flux currently, there aren’t many administration jobs open at the entry level. With these students and graduates, Downie has focused on ways that their administration skills could be used in alternative settings, such as nonprofit, community development or public health organizations. Another tactic is taking lower-paid medical aide or assistant jobs in settings that are currently short-staffed (such as nursing homes) and that do not necessarily require special certification. As Downie points out, even working as a contact tracer as part of the COVID-19 virus response — a job that didn’t exist six months ago — could help these new graduates gain experience.

Similarly, a job in pharmaceutical or medical sales could provide these graduates with valuable exposure. “They would still be interacting with those in the medical field, instead of applying for jobs that don’t exist,” she points out.

Bensley notes that going with a “Plan B” job in a field or setting that a graduate didn’t originally intend to work in can demonstrate to other potential employers that the graduate possesses a good work ethic and thinks outside the box. She also urges students and recent graduates to widen their searches to consider temporary, freelance or even gig work instead of focusing solely on full-time employment.

“[A first job] may not be professional, but it’s work, and [the individual] can be introduced to people through that work,” Bensley says. “It also tells a [future] employer that you’re a hustler and not waiting for the golden egg to show up.”

When counseling clients who are rethinking their career plans, Downie finds it helpful to have them identify a theme they feel drawn to and then consider various types of work that fit that theme. For example, a graduate who enjoys building relationships can use that skill in any number of job settings. They might start out in sales but advance to building teams as a manager or even pivot to cultivating client relationships as a professional counselor.

“Find a theme for your life — that one thing you cling to, what you’re good at,” Downie tells her clients. “You can work on that in all types of settings. A core skill can translate into different fields, and sticking with it will give you a sense of continuity and purpose.”

Networking during a pandemic

Bensley often tells students at NMSU to think of how professional athletes are handling the pandemic: Their season may be on hold or even canceled, but they’re continuing to stay in shape.

“Just because the competitive side of their sport has stopped, they’re not watching Netflix for 10 hours a day. They are still keeping their skill set up, working out, training and preparing,” Bensley observes.

That same philosophy should apply to career planning during the pandemic, she emphasizes. Now is the time for job candidates to put even more energy into enriching themselves and expanding their professional networks.

“Don’t limit your strategy to just sending out résumés and waiting for a response,” urges Bensley, an instructor for the global career development facilitator credential through NECA. “While employers may have slowed down their original hiring plans, it does not mean that a candidate should also slow down. If anything, it means you might need to work harder at following employers on LinkedIn, reviewing their homepages and [thoroughly] reading job postings to determine if you have the skill set that employers require.”

Bensley suggests it is also the perfect time for recent graduates to flip the usual dynamic and reach out to interview professionals who are already working in their desired field. Job seekers can identify contacts through LinkedIn or other networks and ask if these professionals have 20 minutes to talk about their job or industry.

Bensley urges students and recent graduates to start with professors and mentors whom they already know or have worked with. They can then use those connections to secure introductions to other professionals in their desired field. Those professionals can recommend still others they would recommend connecting with, and so on, in a widening circle, Bensley says.

Professionals are especially open to such requests right now because many are working from home and are free from in-person meetings, conferences and business travel engagements. In many ways, motivated students and recent graduates currently have a “captive audience,” she says.

“This shows curiosity and a desire to learn about your craft, gets your name out there, and helps you evolve and have insights on what they [professionals] consider to be important,” Bensley says. “If an employer said, ‘We really value teamwork,’ there’s a hint: Everything [you might say in a job interview] should be focused on teamwork. Instead of saying, ‘I did X,” say, ‘We did X.’ That can be the small percentage you need to get ahead — understanding the value system of the employer because you’ve talked to them about it.”

Forward vision

As counselors offer support and reassurance to recent graduates and young professionals struggling to adjust to personal and professional lives upended by COVID-19, here are some important points to keep in mind:

>>  Focus on listening. Downie urges counselors to slowly ease in to therapeutic or career work with these clients. She often opens her sessions with a question: “What do you want to talk about today?” With so many concerns currently weighing on these clients, their answers might be unexpected and diverge entirely from the topics they have discussed in session previously, she says.

“Give them the floor to talk about whatever they want. We [counselors] always have to be good listeners, but now as we’re isolated, there’s a real temptation to give advice,” Downie says. “What is needed now, during this crisis, is to listen — listen more and not give advice. That’s been essential. Students who were slow to open up to begin with now need additional time to be comfortable. We need to build [therapeutic] relationships but also step back and allow for quiet. Right now, there’s so much chatter, [clients] need time to catch their breath before speaking.”

>> Consider the whole picture. College students and recent graduates may unexpectedly find themselves living at home and navigating family stressors, Downie notes. Regardless of the presenting issue that brings these clients to counseling, counselors should ask questions that will help them understand clients’ situations in full. Downie says she has worked with students who have needed to finish college coursework while sharing a computer with family members or to conduct their entire job search on a cellphone. Others found themselves scrambling to secure temporary work — long before they expected to start a career — to supplement household income because their parents had been laid off.

“When students went home and courses went online, family structures were being upended,” Downie says. “It took an emotional toll. … The level of stress has been enormous, even from day one” of the pandemic.

Some students and recent graduates have expressed feeling pressure from parents about their job searches or life choices (even if parents haven’t necessarily voiced those concerns) that they wouldn’t have felt living on campus. Counselors should be mindful that living at home adds an entirely new dynamic to these clients’ experiences, Downie says.

Administrators at Presbyterian College, including Downie, split up the student body roster and called every student to check in through the spring semester. This endeavor confirmed a saying that Downie had been hearing from colleagues: “We’re all in the same storm but not in the same boat.” The needs and stressors that students were experiencing varied widely, depending on their circumstances, she says.

“Really quickly, I realized the truth of that saying. For some, doors opened that weren’t there before. There were some who found themselves with new opportunities, yet their best friends were experiencing a very different [reality],” she explains.

>> Make clients the authors of a story in progress: Tina Leboffe, an ACA member and a counselor pursuing licensure under supervision at a therapy practice in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, uses narrative therapy with clients, many of whom are college students concerned about finding a job after graduation. “I see my clients as the meaning-makers in their own lives. When working with loss [related to the COVID-19 pandemic], I feel that it is important to walk with the client as they tell the story of their experience, while supporting their exploration of what they want this loss to mean for their life story. This can look like allowing space for the client to be present in feeling the emotions caused by loss and also to look forward at what they want their lives to look like as a result of the loss,” says Leboffe, an associate addiction counselor.

“When working with a client to refocus and reimagine their future, we can listen as they add context to their story,” she says. “Despite the setting of their story shifting, the client is still the author. We can support our clients as they integrate a new reality into their life story by asking questions that refocus on the client being the expert of their life. As counselors, we might not be able to change the job market, but we can guide our clients in an exploration of what they want their life to look like given the changes that have occurred. We can assist them in identifying decisions they want to make in the face of change.”

>> Seize the opportunity to explore identity: Leboffe and Anderson both note that while this is a time of stress and upheaval for young clients, it can also afford opportunities for personal growth. Counselors can help support and encourage that process.

“This is a good time for them to learn about themselves, learn about what their values are and what is important to them. … [It is] a time to explore their internal world and let them find out what their 22-year-old self is like,” Anderson says. “How are they with stress? How do they handle ambiguity? How are they capable and able to move forward and readjust in such a difficult time? Giving them space to talk allows them to process [these things].”

“In my experience working with young adults and recent grads — and being one myself not long ago — I have found that this time in their lives can be filled with identity exploration and transition,” Leboffe says. “They may be faced with new levels of independence and responsibility that can evoke questions like ‘What do I want my life to look like?’ or ‘Who do I want to be?’ This can be important to keep in mind as we work with or parent recent grads because it can serve as underlying context to help us be empathetic to their lived experiences while they are developing their sense
of identity.”

>> Remember that productivity is relative. Anderson has found it helpful to remind young clients that even though they’re spending much more time at home, they may need to temper their expectations about productivity.

“This shouldn’t be a time when you plan to be super productive. That’s hard to do when you’re going through something so emotional and so taxing,” Anderson tells clients. “It’s not a time to learn six new languages, clean your entire house or finish a major art project. Instead, focus on what works for you. What are things that calm you and help you [that] you can do routinely? Be less hard on yourself. At the same time, it’s a great time to try something new if you have the motivation to.”

>> Build confidence. Bensley urges counselors to focus on the positive when communicating with college students and recent graduates during the pandemic. “The No. 1 thing we can do for clients is help build their confidence,” Bensley says. “The tone of my emails has been, ‘Hey, you’ve got this. I’m cheering you on.’ I’m trying to use my language to be that [needed] encouragement, even if they don’t ask for it or seem to need it.”

>> Take them seriously. Transitioning to adulthood is hard enough without the added concerns and stresses of COVID-19. Validation from a counselor is pivotal during this time of life, Anderson says.

“Take their concerns seriously. We know in general that people will land on their feet and things will turn out OK as they make their way in the world. [But] they need to be held in the emotional space where they are right now,” Anderson says. “Moving into adulthood is really hard. It can be a very tumultuous time — and one that promotes growth.”

“[These clients’] struggles and needs are serious,” she continues. “Figuring out dating, jobs and social stuff — it’s all important. Stay with them in their space and create that [trusting] relationship. Know that their concerns are valid, even if we have all the confidence in them in the world that they’re going to figure this out. They really are worried that they’re not going to figure this out in the right way. And that’s valid [because] they haven’t been here before.”

 

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Entering the counseling profession amid COVID-19

Graduates from counseling programs certainly aren’t immune to the stresses and uncertainties that 2020 graduates in other fields are facing.

Darius Green graduated from James Madison University (JMU) with a doctorate in counselor education in May. Green says that he and many other counseling graduates feel the pressure of finding jobs that can provide financial stability “rather than being able to choose what positions best fit [our] personal and professional goals.”

I do not come from a background of financial privilege, so this rose to the top of my priorities,” says Green, a member of the American College Counseling Association, a division of ACA. “I [have] noticed a mix of success and difficulty among some of my peers in the job search process. For those who started early and found a position that matched what they were looking for, the process seemed easy. For my peers who had not been able to start searching early or just had not found the ideal position, there seemed to be more difficulty. … I struggled with finding a position that I wanted and carried out my job search longer than I had planned.”

This summer, Green is living in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where JMU is located, holding down both a full-time instructional faculty position with JMU’s Learning Centers Department and working part time as a counselor with the ARROW Project, a community mental health organization roughly 30 miles away in Staunton.

Green hopes that in this time of crisis, professional counselors who are already established will remember the role they play as advocates for the profession and will look out for new counseling graduates trying to enter the field.

“I think that counselors who are already working can be aware and sensitive to how stressful being in such a position [graduating during a pandemic] can be. I also feel as if counselors can advocate within their agencies or communities to do our part in making sure that existing opportunities are made known to recent graduates,” Green says. “That could include reaching out to counseling faculty members to share information or even connecting with colleagues who may know of new counseling graduates in need.”

“One thing that I would want [counselors] to keep in mind is that not everyone has connections to others in the counseling profession and other mental health fields,” he continues. “Some students come from backgrounds that may have lacked opportunities for networking or that may not value the mental health professions. I think it would be important to pay particularly close attention to those students so that they do not fall through the cracks or face another layer of oppression.”

 

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Bethany Bray is a senior writer and social media coordinator for Counseling Today. Contact her at bbray@counseling.org.

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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.