Counseling to Maximize Potential: Case Study of a Disaffected Blind Worker

Abstract

A disrespectful, disruptive attitude was threatening the employment of a blind man working in a sheltered workshop. Intervention in terms of confrontational and didactic counseling based on models promulgated by Gerald Egan and William Glasser, combined with a plan of coordinated effort for creating placement opportunities, enabled the client to determine the negative impacts of his attitude on his employment history, to identify his own vocational strengths, and to obtain white-collar, semi-professional employment. This case history indicates that direct, confrontational counseling both prior to and subsequent to the taking of an application for services, and teaching of job-seeking and related skills by a rehabilitation counselor, along with coordinating opportunities for a client to use acquired skills, can result in positive vocational change in a formerly noncooperative individual.