Page 13 - euroguidance-insight-newsletter-2016-autumn

Towards constructivism: the path of SocioDynamic Counselling in
Poland - Interview with Anna Górka, a Polish expert of

SocioDynamic Counselling

and reconstructing narratives on in career counseling” project, car-
careers and lives. It is a philosophy ried out by the Imago Foundation
of helping which supports personal from Wroclaw, the Bielsko Artistic
freedom. It gives space for trans- Association Grodzki Theater and
formative learning, life planning the Finnish partners: Timo Span-
and execution of personally mean- gar and Anita Keskinen, we were
ingful projects. According to Peavy, inspired by the idea of increasing
career means a person’s biogra- the quality of Polish vocational
phy/life, and counselling is accom- guidance, its implementation and
panied throughout life. the use of modern theory and prac-
tice. The project was a response to
Euroguidance: What was the the perceived shortage of modern
main idea behind the adaptation of approaches in Poland. In the ac-
SocioDynamic Counselling to the ademic field, there is a discussion
realities of Polish career counsel- about constructivist approaches,
ling? e.g. career/life counselling by Mark
L. Savickas, the approach of M.E.
Anna Górka: I am always inspired Duarte, Jean Guichard and John
Euroguidance: What is this Socio- by new trends in counselling and Krumboltz. But still, the counsel-
Dynamic Counselling, which you psychology, sensitive to context ling reality and practice is based
practice? and culture, providing an area of largely on the traditional approach
freedom, and open to imagination and tests application. This project
Anna Górka: SocioDynamic and creativity. In my search, I have was to introduce a new and fresh
Counselling is a contemporary come across cross-cultural coun- dimension.
response to the postmodern chal- selling, from which there is only
lenges of the labour market as well one step to the SocioDynamic ap-
as the socio-cultural and identity proach. In the “New perspective
transformations. The author of
this approach, Vance Peavy , was
1
one of the precursors of applying
concepts, methods and tools from
constructivism and narrative ap-
proach in career counselling (using
expressive techniques such as
visualization, metaphors, drawing,
writing, collage, using symbols,
images, photos etc.). The Socio-
Dynamic approach shows how the
process of counselling can assist
in the quest for self-realization and
self-creation in the world today.
This means help in constructing

1 Professor Emeritus of the University of Victoria, former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Counselling and a leading voice in
the profession of counselling in Canada. See http://www.sociodynamic-constructivist-counselling.com

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