Turning the Page: A Career Construction Counseling Group Design for Mid-to-Late Career Unemployed Adults

Integrative review on career interventions with unemployed people: Nature, outcomes, and recommendations

“…Among the 16 included articles, three different modalities of interventions emerged: group career counseling was mentioned in eight articles (50%) (Bhat, 2010; Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014; Maree, 2022; Maree et al., 2019; Murphey & Shillingford, 2012; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021; Rezaei et al., 2017; Sabatés, 2013), followed by individual career counseling in six articles (37.5%) (Amundson et al., 2018; Behrendt, Göritz & Heuer, 2019; Behrendt, Heuer & Göritz, 2021; Drosos et al., 2021; Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014; Whelan et al., 2018) and a combination of individual and group counseling in two articles (12.5%) (Kenny & Rossiter, 2017; Santilli et al., 2021). From the eight group career interventions, six were conducted face‐to‐face (Bhat, 2010; Maree, 2022; Maree et al., 2019; Murphey & Shillingford, 2012; Rezaei et al., 2017; Sabatés, 2013) and two did not specify the delivery modality (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021). All six individual career interventions were conducted face‐to‐face (Amundson et al., 2018; Behrendt, Göritz & Heuer, 2019; Behrendt, Heuer & Göritz, 2021; Drosos et al., 2021; Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014; Whelan et al., 2018).…”

“…The intervention length ranged from 1 day (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014) to 1 year (Behrendt, Göritz & Heuer, 2019; Behrendt, Heuer & Göritz, 2021). The number of sessions varied from one (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014) to 40 (Kenny & Rossiter, 2017), ranging from one session per day (Bhat, 2010; Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014; Kenny & Rossiter, 2017), two sessions per week (Maree et al., 2019), one session per week (Amundson et al., 2018; Littman‐Ovadia et al, 2014; Murphey & Shillingford, 2012; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021), one session every 6 weeks (Maree, 2022), or between three or six sessions over 6 months (Whelan et al., 2018). Thus, the most intense intervention spanned 3 weeks with a total of 15 seven‐hour sessions held daily (105 h of intervention) (Bhat, 2010), whereas the least intense session lasted only 1 day and featured a session of only 1 h (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014).…”

“…The interventions targeted various dimensions, including interpersonal skills (Amundson et al., 2018; Drosos et al., 2021; Maree et al., 2019; Murphey & Shillingford, 2012; Santilli et al., 2021; Whelan et al., 2018), career adaptability or adaptability attitude (Maree, 2022; Maree et al., 2019; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021; Sabatés, 2013; Santilli et al., 2021), career self‐efficacy (Amundson et al., 2018; Bhat, 2010; Drosos et al., 2021; Whelan et al., 2018), self‐esteem (Bhat, 2010; Drosos et al., 2021; Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014; Maree et al., 2019; Whelan et al., 2018), self‐awareness (Bhat, 2010; Drosos et al., 2021; Maree, 2022; Maree et al., 2019), career decision making (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014; Rezaei et al., 2017), career exploration/knowledge (Drosos et al., 2021; Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014), counsellors’ behavior (Behrendt, Göritz & Heuer, 2019; Behrendt, Heuer & Göritz, 2021), reemployment speed (Behrendt, Göritz & Heuer, 2019; Behrendt, Heuer & Göritz, 2021; Drosos et al., 2021; Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014), job search skills/self‐efficacy (Bhat, 2010; Drosos et al., 2021; Murphey & Shillingford, 2012), entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self‐efficacy (Kenny & Rossiter, 2017), life satisfaction/wellbeing (Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014; Whelan et al., 2018), perceived employability (Whelan et al., 2018), and other career resources [career engagement (Amundson et al., 2018); career problem solving (Bullock‐Yowell et al., 2014); career sustainability (Whelan et al., 2018); career planning (Drosos et al., 2021); future orientation; (Santilli et al., 2021); vocational identify (Amundson et al.,…”

“…When designing a comprehensive career intervention, integrating key concepts from various career theories could be beneficial. It is advisable to integrate components from the social cognitive career theory (Lent & Brown, 2013; Kennedy & Chen, 2012; Thompson et al., 2017), the Savickas' life design principles (2009) (Maree, 2022; Maree et al., 2019; Santilli et al., 2021), and Savickas' career construction theory (2005) (Littman‐Ovadia et al., 2014; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021; Rezaei et al., 2017). References to protean career orientation (Panari & Tonelli, 2022) and to Ryan and Deci's self‐determination theory (2000) and achievement goal theory (Van Hooft & Van Mierlo, 2018) could also be considered (van Hooft et a., 2022).…”

“…Thus, it is advisable to provide information about the potential physical, psychological, financial, and social effects of unemployment (Santos et al., 2010). By fostering a realistic yet optimistic view of the situation faced by unemployed individuals, it becomes possible to deconstruct dysfunctional narratives and reconstruct a path towards achieving career goals (Drosos et al., 2021; Panari & Tonelli, 2022; Parola & Marcionetti, 2022; Peila‐Shuster et al., 2021). Through the establishment of this vision, clients can be assisted in recognizing, creating, and capitalizing on alternative pathways and opportunities (Drosos et al., 2021; Panari & Tonelli, 2022; Kenny et al., 2018; Krumboltz et al., 2013).…”