ABSTRACT
Career counseling that envisions work as a quest for self and a place to nourish one’s spirit helps clients learn to use work as a context for self-development. Career counseling that cares for the spirit seeks to identify how clients wish to spend their lives and which projects are worth their lives. This concern with passionate and spirited commitment to work goes beyond individual achievement and careerism to teach clients that work is a social activity, one in which they connect with, contribute to, and cooperate with other people. Using work in their quest for self involves more than just fitting themselves to an occupation’s ability and interest requirements. The search for meaning involves meshing a life story with its preoccupations and projects into the communal effort to ensure survival and cultural self-realization for the group, not just individuals. To be fully alive means to share our unique contribution by joining spirit with other people in celebrating life through work, love, friendship, and worship.
