Guiding Symbols
A new approach to career guidance
Symbols are the vehicles of communication, the means by which men exchange their ideas, feelings, and experiences."
Susan Langer
In brief...
The Guiding Symbols project introduces a novel method for career guidance, centered around the power of symbol work. This approach provides tailored support to adults navigating the complexities of finding employment, especially those encountering barriers such as social exclusion, lack of qualifications, or personal difficulties. By focusing on individual needs, Guiding Symbols offers a pathway to integration that has proven successful with "hard to reach" populations.
Key benefits
Enhanced support for career professionals
This project provides career counselors, trainers, and social workers with a powerful new approach to guide adults in their career paths. By using symbol work, professionals can gain deeper insights into individual needs, leading to more effective and tailored support.
More inclusive and effective guidance for individuals facing barriers to employment
Guiding Symbols is designed to be accessible and impactful for individuals who often face challenges in accessing or benefiting from traditional career services. Its visual and personalized nature helps to overcome barriers such as language difficulties and social exclusion, promoting greater inclusion and success.
Development of tools and resources for wider implementation
This project provides career counselors, trainers, and social workers with a powerful new approach to guide adults in their career paths. By using symbol work, professionals can gain deeper insights into individual needs, leading to more effective and tailored support.
Why Symbols?
The Guiding Symbols methodology harnesses the power of visual communication to facilitate career exploration, particularly for individuals who may face communication barriers. Visual symbols offer a unique advantage in bypassing the limitations of language, making it easier for those with language difficulties or those who struggle to express themselves verbally to engage in the process. This is especially relevant for individuals experiencing social exclusion or those who find it challenging to articulate their needs and aspirations through words alone.
Beyond overcoming communication hurdles, symbols can unlock deeper levels of self-awareness. They can help individuals access and articulate hidden strengths, needs, and aspirations that might remain untapped by traditional, purely verbal methods. While the Guiding Symbols method is practical in its application, it also draws upon established psychological concepts. The use of symbols can resonate with the unconscious and, in some cases, may even connect with archetypal imagery (as discussed in the Hafelekar resources). However, within Guiding Symbols, these concepts are approached in an accessible and practical manner, focusing on personal meaning-making rather than complex psychological analysis. The emphasis is on empowering individuals to discover their own truths through the symbols they choose and how they interpret them.
The process: Guiding Symbols in action
The Guiding Symbols method offers a structured yet flexible process designed to facilitate individual exploration and career development. While each session is tailored to the specific needs of the participant, the process generally involves these key steps:
The benefits of the method
For individuals
-
Increased self-awareness: Guiding Symbols empowers individuals to gain a deeper understanding of themselves. By engaging with symbols, participants can uncover hidden strengths, values, interests, and personality traits that may influence their career choices. This self-discovery process facilitates more informed and authentic decision-making.
-
Clarity in career goals: The method helps individuals to identify and articulate their career aspirations with greater clarity. By exploring their inner landscape through symbols, participants can move beyond vague ideas and develop a more focused vision for their professional future.
-
Enhanced motivation: Guiding Symbols can boost motivation by tapping into intrinsic drivers. The process of self-discovery and the visualization of potential career paths can ignite a sense of purpose and excitement, encouraging individuals to take proactive steps towards their goals.
-
Confidence: The process of exploring one's strengths and articulating one's aspirations builds confidence. Guiding Symbols helps individuals recognize their unique potential and overcome self-doubt, fostering a belief in their ability to achieve their career objectives.
01
For career professionals
-
More effective tools: Guiding Symbols provides career counselors, trainers, and social workers with a powerful and versatile new tool. This method complements traditional approaches, offering a fresh perspective and deeper insights into their clients' needs.
-
Deeper understanding of clients: by utilizing symbol work, professionals can gain a richer and more nuanced understanding of their clients. This method can reveal underlying motivations, challenges, and aspirations that may not be easily accessible through verbal communication alone.
-
Ability to work with a wider range of individuals: Guiding Symbols is particularly effective in engaging individuals who may be challenging to reach with conventional methods. Its visual and intuitive nature makes it accessible to people with language barriers, low self-esteem, or difficulty expressing themselves, allowing professionals to provide support to a more diverse clientele.
