2.00 CE Credits Available
Guiding Pre-Teens in Career Exploration: A Creative Arts Approach
by Natalya A. Lindo & Peggy Ceballos
Start your pre-teen clients on their journey down the path of career development with CACCI, a creative, play-based group training program designed to help adolescents develop self-knowledge and skill awareness.
How do you move beyond the cliché of, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” when talking to pre-teens about their futures and the world of work? As clinicians, we need developmentally appropriate tools to guide our young clients in these career conversations while not adding to the many social pressures they already experience. The CACCI protocol demonstrated in this video will provide you with an empirically-proven, play-based, group-centered technique designed to facilitate self-expression and career exploration for children ages nine and older. And whether you work in a private practice, community or school setting, these live demonstrations of CACCI will give you tools you can use to set the stage for the independent thinking and self-awareness your young clients may someday parlay into a career choice.

Watching these demonstrations by an expert CACCI-trained child counselor along with rich conversations between Psychotherapy.net founder Victor Yalom and CACCI creator Natalya Lindo, will deepen your appreciation for and ability to apply this dynamic approach to career counseling with your young clients. Experiencing the power of this creative/expressive intervention will enhance your own ability to integrate career planning into your treatment. And the rich accompanying CACCI training materials will help you to facilitate your client’s creative self-expression and social awareness while allowing for individualized attention to and support of their awakening vocational self-awareness.
In Depth
Specs
Bios
CE Test
Counselors working with pre-adolescents around the future-oriented abstraction of a “career” need a flexible combination of verbal and expressive, here-and-now skills that this CACCI training video provides. Each of the CACCI sessions has a specific theme and aim which together will help you design your own career-oriented intervention with young clients.

During session one, the facilitator initiates group introductions and helps orient participants to the group process. The goal of session two, “What I Like to Do: Exploring Interests”, is to facilitate exploration of interests, which are key indicators of career suitability. It helps identify the kinds of activities and environments that may be of interest to the participants.

In session three, the focus shifts to favorite stories. The favorite story or movie provides familiarity and comfort. The participants imagine themselves in that story or identify with the lead character. The participant may also see the lead character’s story and their decisions as possible solutions to navigating their own problems or providing specific answers to academic or career-related questions.

Participants’ advice to themselves represents words of wisdom that they apply during difficulties or times of transition, and is the focus of the fourth session, “My Favorite Saying: Advice to Myself.” It represents the answer to the questions they may not even know they have, and offers a strategy for tackling a problem, whether related to life in general, or specifically to academic or career development.

Often identifying a role model is the first career decision a person makes. Session five explores the participants’ heroes. A hero represents someone that the participant admires or aspires to be and the role model also commonly has characteristics that the participants see in themselves. A participant’s description of a hero really describes their self-concept, a key component of career identity development.
Session six is grounded in the Adlerian technique of early recollections. The goal of this session is to develop an understanding of how the participant views a problem or specific career or academic concern. Even at a young age, children begin to develop unique ways of dealing with questions or challenges based on their perceptions of life experiences.

To wrap up the training, , the final group session facilitates closure and includes a sand tray activity. As in CACCI Session 1, the facilitator allows participants to describe their individual sand trays and uses reflective skills to help them process their experience.

In the group sessions, you will see the facilitator skillfully and playfully guide the children through expressive activities designed to help them:
  • get to know each other by introducing their worlds through sand trays
  • explore their interests by discussing and drawing them
  • imagine themselves as the lead character in problem-solving stories
  • create words of wisdom they can apply during times of difficulty
  • describe their self-concept by discussing a hero or role model
  • clarify their concerns and problems by sharing earliest memories

So join us, grab a few crayons and some clay and learn how to launch your young clients on their path of self-awareness and career direction.
 

Length of video: 02:11:56

English subtitles available

Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-596-3

Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-596-0

Natalya A. Lindo, PhD, LPC, Certified CCPT-S, Certified CPRT-S, is an Associate Professor and Department Chair at the University of North Texas with more than fifteen years of experience as a researcher and clinician with specialized training in working with children, families, and diverse and at-risk populations. Dr. Lindo’s primary research areas are school-based play therapy, Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT), teacher child relationship building and career development across the lifespan. Consistent with this research agenda, Dr. Lindo regularly conducts action-research projects in the public schools related to Child Parent Relationship Therapy and Teacher Child Relationship Building. Most recently Dr. Lindo developed the Child and Adolescent Career Construction Interview aimed at improving self-concept, occupational identity and career adaptability. With a focus on capacity building, Dr. Lindo collaborates with administrators and school counselors to develop school-wide mental health initiatives targeting children who are at risk for school failure.



Peggy Ceballos, PhD, Certified CCPT-S, Certified CPRT-S, is an Associate Professor at the University of North Texas. She has clinical experience as a school counselor and as a community counselor working primarily with children and adolescents. Dr. Ceballos research agenda focuses on culturally responsive play therapy, culturally informed parent and teacher training interventions and other issues relevant to multiculturalism and social justice. She is past president of the International Counseling Honor Society, Chi Sigma Iota, has conducted numerous professional presentations, and has been the recipient of 11 professional awards.

CE credits: 2

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss the importance of career planning with pre-adolescents
  • List the components of the CACCI
  • Design career-oriented group activities that incorporate expressive media

Bibliography available upon request

This course is offered for ASWB ACE credit for social workers. See complete list of CE approvals here

© 2021

You May Also Like…