ABSTRACT
This chapter examines which counsellors in Finnish career guidance training respond to students' "troubles-talk". The ways in which troubles-recipiency is oriented to by the counsellors are analysed in relation to the institutional goals and constraints of counselling in this particular setting. Counselling in Finland is an emerging practice within the field of adult education. It is usually viewed as a work method and a site for learning rather than a problem-driven therapeutic setting. Career guidance training has always based its curriculum on self-directed and experiential learning and learner-centred methods. It first emerged in the 1970s as a labour market service. The initial aim was a more activating, learner-centred alternative for psychological tests and behind-the-desk career services, especially for people with special difficulties in becoming employed. Conversation analysis describing patterned features of interaction that the participants themselves show orientation to, both in the organisation of their own turns of talk and the treatment of turns by other participants.
