Career goals and psychotherapy

Washington DC psychologist, psychoanalyst and career coach, Dr. Lynn Friedman, talks about the differences between career coaching, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis and when each is appropriate for dealing with work-life, concerns.

Another article described the kinds of questions with which career seekers wrestle. These include:

1. What do you want to do with your life?.
2. How do you develop a strategy for doing it?.
3. How do you galvanize yourself to get started?

Often, people can use books such as, Richard Bolles's, What Color is Your Parachute and Barbara Sher's, Wishcraft, to answer these questions. Others derive benefit from career counselors and/or career tests. However, if these approaches have not been helpful, this could indicate that some sort of is interfering with efforts to clarify and pursue career goals.

This may be a sign that the difficulties require psychotherapy. How does one assess whether psychotherapy or career coaching is warranted? These are important questions to because, sometimes, when people pursue psychotherapy or career coaching without first undergoing a thoughtful psychoanalytically-informed, career assessment they might not receive the optimal intervention. This is unfortunate inasmuch as with effective help most career difficulties can be resolved.

Finally, it should be noted that sometimes anxiety or depression interferes can interfere with the person's capacity to identify and pursue career goals. It's important to recognize that with a careful evaluation, these difficulties can often be identified, addressed and resolved. Psychotherapy or psychoanalysis can be helpful in overcoming anxiety and depression.