Holistic counseling is used by counselors to help clients with everything in their lives. The counselor will talk to the client about work goals, as well as personal goals. Separation of home and work life is rarely possible. When something bad happens in a client’s personal life it affects the work environment. Treating the whole person instead of part of the person is the best way to get results.
A client wants to advance in their career and they need to attend classes to achieve this goal. The counselor would simply research the classes needed and bring that information to the table for their client. However, the holistic counselor treating the client, would know they have small children and cannot attend night classes, so that counselor would be able to find online classes or classes available at lunch. This example demonstrates why knowing the whole person helps the counselor and client increase the success rate.
The holistic approach uncovers issues that may be blocking advancement in the workplace. The counselor is able to help the client with issues such as medical, mental and personal life issues. Work maladjustment, career transitions, job loss, work stress, changing work requirements, concerns of older adults, and changing values and interests are examples of career-related problems that can affect all life roles(Zunker, 2011).
A counselor must be aware of all the stressors in a client’s life. Stress causes physical reactions such as high blood pressure, migraines, and panic attacks. Once a person has a physical reaction to the stress in their life it can affect the person’s abilities to make good decisions.
A counselor that is looking strictly at the career aspect of a client is missing most of who the person is. It is necessary to know the details of a person’s life to better help
References: Zunker, V.G. (2012). Career counseling: A holistic approach (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks Cole/Cenage Learning