Innovative Moments in Career Construction Counseling: Proposal for an Integrative Model

Abstract

This article advances understanding of career construction counseling (CCC) by viewing it through the lens of the innovative moments model (IMM) of how clients construct change. The IMM conceives clients’ narrative transformations as resulting from counselors prompting and clients reflecting on exceptions to a problematic self-narrative (i.e., innovative moments; IMs) that emerges in counseling dialogues. On the basis of intensive IMM analysis of CCC case studies, the authors propose an integration of the 2 models that describes the sequence of client change in IMs across the 3 phases of CCC. This proposal provides both conceptual and assessment tools that make it possible to describe and analyze the process of client change through life-designing dialogues. The authors illustrate the integrated framework with vignettes from case studies and conclude by suggesting research to examine the validity and usefulness of the client change sequence and interventions for using this pattern of change to foster client transformation.