ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the two main trends in contemporary thinking on career counseling: more traditional career guidance and counseling, and career counseling within the life design paradigm that is becoming increasingly important in career counseling. Career counseling can be seen as a specific application of counseling psychology. The career counseling profession is both large and highly influential in the sense that many individuals rely on counselors to guide them in their career decisions and help them find meaning and purpose in their careers. The relationship element of the working alliance seems to be particularly important for career counseling effectiveness. Career counseling as a specific application of psychology and as part of the broader field of counseling psychology represents a varied array of types of career interventions in which diverse groups of clients are supported in various concerns about educational, vocational, and career issues.
