ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the theory and practice of My Career Chapter, which is a career assessment and counselling tool that can be used for the work of collaborative exploration and construction of a career-related autobiography. Turning away from essentialist perspectives of self revolutionises career counselling theory and practice. In philosophical terms, the essentialist perspectives may be understood as formist or organicist root metaphors for theory. In the career development literature, Savickas describes theories of career metaphorically as those of actor, agent and author. The trait-and-factor or person environment fit theories of the actor are formist. As an analogy, cycling between narrative analysis and analysis of narrative guards against criticisms that a personal truth may be little more than a narcissistic delusion. The theory of dialogical self is soundly articulated in the personality and psychotherapy literature, but its presence in the career development literature is inchoate at best.
