Developing Character Identity: A New Framework for Counseling Adults in Transition

✍ Scribed by Scott E. Hall

• Book ID: 102286903
• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 100 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1524-6817
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0029.2006.tb00010.x

✦ Synopsis

Counselors working with adults in transition can integrate the principles of character development with talk therapy, creating a framework for dialogue about the relationship between clients' character identity and their personal struggles and successes. Intervention strategies are proposed focusing on developing character identity for more effective decision making and authentic living.

A fundamental part of a counselor's role is working with clients in transition. Adult transitions can be especially challenging to facilitate because they can involve several life domains at once (Hall & Young, 1999). Life domains refer to the aspects of an individual's living that influence personal well-being and include interpersonal relations, leisure, work, and community participation (Schalock, 2004).

Transitions involving life domains, whether by choice or not, demand decisions regarding how to move forward. Counselors who work with adults in transition can help by identifying effective coping and decision-making strategies (Hall & Young, 1999). However, past patterns of ineffective strategies along with poor intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics might exist for individuals. Wrosch and Scheier (2003) found that personal factors indicating emotional stability, openness to experience, and responsibility significantly increased the quality of life experienced in the domains identified by Schalock (2004).

Various interventions are available for counselors to use in their work with adults in transition. The study of character development is an emerging trend in three theoretical orientations-dynamic psychiatry, transpersonal psychology, and the recently coined positive psychology (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The approaches are also similar in their focus on holistic, developmental well-being. The mental health professions