Frank Parsons' contribution to career counseling

The Devaluation of Inner Subjective Experiences by the Counseling Profession: A Plea to Reclaim the Essence of the Profession

“…The counseling profession began with the vocational guidance movement during the early 1900s (Bradley & Cox, 2001). Although on the surface this emerging specialty was concerned with helping clients identify a career, the underlying philosophical spirit of vocational guidance emphasized careful attention to the needs and particular preferences of individual clients (Jones, 1994). Unlike other helping professions (e.g., psychiatry, clinical psychology) that reduced clients to pathological entities, early counselors attempted to help clients actualize their innate potential.…”

“…Historically, counselors have placed great value on the inner subjective experiences (ISE) of clients. This emphasis on the unique way that clients experience the world was present at the beginning of the counseling profession, when vocational guidance was the primary focus (Bradley & Cox, 2001;Jones, 1994), and was later fortified by the humanistic psychology movement during the mid-1900s (Hansen, 1999(Hansen, , 2000bSass, 1989).…”

Copying and Coping Conceptualizations of Language: Counseling and the Ethic of Appreciation for Human Differences

“…Individual differences, then, were not judged or negatively evaluated by these pioneers of the counseling profession. Rather, an appreciation for differences was fostered in order to help individuals choose work that would be fulfilling (Jones 1994). These historical roots distinguish the counseling profession from the foundations of other helping professions, such as psychology and psychiatry, which began with the assumption that certain human characteristics (i.e., diagnosable deviations from normalcy) warranted eradication, not appreciation (Hansen 2005).…”

On Displaced Humanists: Counselor Education and the Meaning–Reduction Pendulum

“…The counseling profession has a rich, meaning-based heritage. From the vocational guidance movement at the turn of the century (Jones, 1994) to the midcentury identification with humanism in the form of client-centered treatment (Kottler, 2004), counselors have traditionally emphasized client development, strengths, and the nuances of individual human experience (Hansen, 2005a). Given this history, it is clear that the counseling profession has been forged out of meaning-based, not reductive, ideologies.…”