Competency assessment and evaluation for all psychological therapies are now a common requirement. Recent international research studies have resulted in the development of the phrase ‘death competence’ as “tolerating and managing clients’ problems related to dying, death, and bereavement” with an urging for death work competence to be an ethical imperative (Gamino & Ritter, 2012). A further study of 176 death work professionals using an open ended question and content analysis proposed a model of death work competence that suggests it is dependent on more than knowledge and skills, with the emergence of emotional and existential coping as key elements (Chan & Tin, 2012). This study aims to build on this existing research with an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of six existential practitioners` experience of feeling competent in their death work, grounding the research in Heidegger`s notion of being-towards-death. The aim was to get as close as possible to the lived experience of death work competency in a small, purposive sample to investigate the subjective meanings and understandings of their death work competency. Semi structured interviews were conducted with five major themes emerging. These were frameworks for death work competency; existential engagement in competent death work; existential ways of being in death work; the psychological impact of death work on feelings of competency and the elusive essence of death work competency. The significant finding was the primary import placed by all participants on dialogues with personal mortality, suffering and death as providing them with “competency in adversity” and “competency in fragility” that were vital for their competent death work, both personally and professionally. These findings match the identification of existential coping and emotional coping as key elements in death work competency in the previous research. From this research a tentative framework is proposed for death work competency that looks to include these vital elements of an engagement with existential issues and personal mortality, for counselling psychologists and death work practitioners. Further research is suggested with regards to the absence or presence of similar experiences of death work competencies in other fields of death work with wider implications for training in both professional organisations and teaching institutions.

Tyrimo objektas: profesinio kryptingumo ugdymas. Tyrimo metodai: 1. Mokslinės literatūros studijavimas ir analizė. 2. Anketinė mokinių apklausa ir interviu su mokytojais. 3. Tyrimų duomenų statistinė analizė ir interpretacija. 1. Tyrimo rezultatai: Kryptingumo ugdymo pagrindiniai bruožai yra profesinių savybių plėtojimas, dvasinių vertybių bei nuostatų perteikimas, teigiamas poveikis besiformuojančių mokinių asmens savybėms. Pagrindiniai profesinio kryptingumo ugdymo metodai: teoriniai ir praktiniai. Tam, kad profesinio kryptingumo ugdymas būtų sėkmingas dirbant su deviantinio elgesio jaunuoliais, labai svarbu tinkamai parinkti ugdymo metodus. 2. Tirti pagrindinės ir internatinės mokyklos mokiniai labiausiai pasižymi praktine asmenybės tipo orientacija, silpniau išreikštos dalykinė ir socialinė orientacijos, ir jiems visiškai nebūdinga norminė ir tiriamoji asmenybės tipo orientacijos. Įvertinus asmenybės tipo atitikimą pasirinktai profesijai, nustatyta, kad daugumos deviantinių mokinių asmenybės tipas atitinka jų profesinę orientaciją. Neatitinka trečdalio pagrindinės mokyklos mokinių pasrinkimų. 3. Internatinės mokyklos ir bendrojo lavinimo mokyklos mokinių profesiniam apsisprendimui didžiausią poveikį daro tėvai. Deviantinio elgesio mokiniams taip pat svarbūs draugų, mažiau – klasės auklėtojo patarimai. Pagrindinės mokyklos mokiniams poveikį daro dalykų mokytojai ir kalės auklėtojas. Šiame tyrime nustatyta, jog deviantino elgesio mokiniai, priimdami profesinį sprendimą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Subject-matter: Career Counseling Methods: 1. Analysis of reference books; 2. Questionnaires for students and interviews with teachers; 3. Statistic analysis and interpretation of the data. The findings: 1. The key features of career counseling are development of professional characteristics, conveyance of values and attitudes and positive influence on developing character features. The main career counseling methods both academic and practical should be applied properly to make career counseling successful working with deviant students. 2. Questioned students of basic and boarding schools have every sign of hands-on personality. Having poor academic and social skills deviant students have no standard and exploratory features. After paralleling the type of personality with the chosen vocation it has been found out that most students have a match between their personality and profession. A third of basic school students didn‘t have a match between their personality and choice. 3. Parents have the major influence on boarding and comprehensive school students‘ career choice. Deviant students consider friends‘ and sometimes class teacher‘s advice. Tutors and subject teachers influence pupils in the basic school. The survey revealed that deviant pupils have recourse to the school psychologist and social worker while basic school students do not do it. 4. The methods of informing students are different in the schools: deviant students are provided with more personal and sectional... [to full text]

The diploma thesis is focused on career counseling, specifically on the methods that are most used in practice in counseling with primary school pupils. The thesis in the theoretical part defines key terms and concepts approaching career counseling in the context of Czech education. It deals with the target groups of career counseling with an emphasis on primary school pupils and the specifics of their difficulties in career choice. The following chapter deals with the basic theories that have fundamentally influenced the development of career counseling and are of considerable importance even today, focused on personality, career development and theories focused on social influences and their impact on career direction. The next sections are devoted to diagnostic tools used in the field of career decision-making, methods of career counseling and introduction to the system of career counseling in the Czech Republic. The aim of the empirical part is to map and describe the procedure for the implementation of career counseling and to specify the most used methods of career counseling in primary schools in Prague.

Syftet med studien är att identifiera betydande skillnader mellan vägledningsverksamheterna på University of Wisconsin-Whitewater och Umeå universitet. Ytterligare ett huvudsyfte är att ge förslag på hur studie- och yrkesvägledarna kan utveckla sina vägledningsverksamheter med utgångspunkt i de skillnader vi identifierat. Detta är en komparativ fältstudie med kvalitativa intervjuer. Informanterna är sex studie- och yrkesvägledare som ger en bild av hur vägledningsverksamheterna är organiserade. De berättar om sina arbetsuppgifter och arbetssätt samt vilka utvecklingsbehov de ser inom respektive verksamhet och redogör för sin kompetens. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna är vägledningsmetoder som visat sig vara effektiva internationellt, förklaringar av vägledningstraditionerna som format vägledarkåren i olika länder samt redogörelse för studie- och yrkesvägledarutbildningarna i Sverige och USA. Resultatet visade att det förekom stora skillnader. Av störst betydelse bedöms vara att Umeå universitet har en välutvecklad e-vägledning och drop-in vägledning men saknar karriärvägledning tillgänglig för alla studenter. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater saknar e- vägledning med personlig kontakt öga mot öga samt drop-in vägledning, men lägger stort fokus på karriärvägledning. Slutsatsen är att båda vägledningsverksamheterna kan utveckla sin vägledning genom att lära av dessa skillnader via ett utbyte av vägledningskompetens. / The purpose of the study is to identify significant differences between the counseling centers at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Umeå University. Another main objective is to provide suggestions on how study and career counselors can develop their counseling centers on the basis of the differences identified. This study is a comparative field study with qualitative interviews. The informants are six study and career counselors that provide a picture of how the counseling centers are organized. They talk about their jobs and working practices as well as the need to develop their organizations. They also point out their counseling skills. Counseling methods proven effective internationally, counseling traditions influencing the practice of counseling today and the differences between the Study and Career Counseling Program in Sweden and USA are the theoretical points from where we take our support. The results show that there are in fact big differences. The differences considered to be of most importance is that Umeå University has a well-developed online counseling (e- counseling) and drop-in counseling but has no career counseling available to all students. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is devoid of all face to face e-counseling and drop-in counseling but adds a strong focus on career counseling. The conclusion is that both counseling centers can develop its counseling by learning from these differences through an exchange of counseling skills.

This study presents how Indian counsellors in urban India work with Western counselling methods with Indian clients. The study is categorised as part of the cross-cultural counselling research field where a major assumption is that counselling methods are part universal, part contextual. This study explores how counsellors in Bangalore culturally adapt Western methods. The method used is qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven counsellors at Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre in Bangalore. The theoretical framework in this study is based on New Institutional Theory, with constructs such as Glocalisation, Translation, and finally Cultural Preparedness to understand the context of the counselling profession in Bangalore. Results show that the Bangalore counsellors meet clients that are culturally prepared for short-term and advice-oriented counselling. The clients are part of a context where family and spirituality are of great importance. The counsellors use Western counselling methods only but adapt their approach and language with indigenous elements and emphasise the individuality of each client. They use a person-centred and an integrative approach, in which they are informed by several Western counselling methods, but do not use them dogmatically. The individuals’ needs and the relationship between counsellor and client is emphasised. Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre is part of a complex organisational field with influences from India, the East as well as from the West.