Educational psychology therapy for group-based career counselling with young people in rural school

Abstract

This study describes group-based career counselling by educational psychology students with clients in a remote secondary school. This qualitative secondary analysis study utilising descriptive phenomenological and indigenous psychology paradigms used an existing ten-year dataset Flourishing Learning Youth (FLY) generated by academic service learning (ASL) students delivering educational psychology services to Grade Nine clients. Data sources, indicative of group-based career counselling, were purposively sampled and included data on 18 groups who received career counselling therapy (2012 ASL: n = 7 females; 2014 ASL: n = 11 females; Clients: n = 126; male = 50; female = 76). Data sources on group-based career counselling with the 18 groups included client files per groups, therapy planning, and visual data spanning a ten-year frame. Following thematic analysis, two themes emerged. Career counselling challenges that required educational psychology therapy, included academic challenges, socio-emotional well-being, and identity challenges and future orientated challenges. Group-based career counselling techniques were described, namely: activities for academic support; activities for socio-emotional support and identity formation; activities for career education and planning in challenged educational settings. The particular contribution of this study is a description of group-based techniques that can be used during career counselling therapy, emphasising: (i) arts-based, postmodern, and constructivist techniques to accommodate diversity, engage clients and mobilise indigenous knowledge; (ii) the benefit of a positive psychology lens to foreground personal strengths and communal resources despite rural adversity; (iii) allowing for one-on-one time between client and therapist whilst the rest of a group continues undisturbed with therapy; (iv) include socio-emotional support given contextual trauma; (v) emphasise identity formation in conjunction with future aspirations; (vi) and the provision of career information as part of career counselling as essential to buffer against contextual limitations.