The usefulness of facilitating narrative career counselling with learner-athletes in a South African sport school

Abstract

Psychologists can play an important role in supporting learner-athletes who opt to pursue dual careers by rendering services that are relevant to both the careers of learner-athletes. This study explored the usefulness of facilitating narrative career counselling with learner-athletes in a South African sport school as opposed to traditional career counselling, as the latter has shortcomings in addressing the needs of adolescents within a diverse South African context. Three participants from previously disadvantaged backgrounds were purposively selected for this study. Narrative career counselling by means of the Career Interest Profile (CIP) (Version 4) was used to facilitate the process. The usefulness of narrative career counselling was illustrated in meeting the career counselling goals of these learner-athletes. Furthermore, it was found that the CIP can deconstruct role engulfment, where either the learner-career or the athlete-career is accentuated at the cost of the other.