On my website, I mention dynamic processes I bring to career counseling, including:
“Free Writing and Creativity: writing without editing yourself can help unlock fresh ideas, insight, and direction. Tapping into your right brain through creativity may break you out of habitual thinking and deliver new inspiration.”
I recently read and related to an article, The Secret To A Successful Career Change: Left, Right Brain Dominance, that discusses how we can use BOTH hemispheres of our brain to successfully navigate a career change. It’s true that much of the process is more left-brained, but the right brain is crucial, as well, as I encourage clients to reflect, brainstorm, and visualize career options and long-term goals.
This is especially important in the initial exploration process, so that the client can open up and consider new career possibilities before analyzing, potentially catastrophizing, and dismissing them. One right-brained exercise I use engages imagination to envision an ideal work day several years in the future, from the moment of awakening to drifting off to sleep. I’m always amazed at the helpful clues that surface through this exercise. Left-brained activities include researching and analyzing career data on www.onetonline.org, as well as data-driven decision-making.
Truly, integration is key, as the article states, “To successfully change careers, it’s crucial to integrate the strengths of both hemispheres. Utilize left-brain logic for strategic planning, analysis and goal setting while tapping into right-brain creativity for intuition, passion exploration and holistic decision-making. While logic ensures a systematic approach, passion fuels motivation and resilience during the challenging phases of a career change.” Forbes.com, 2/01/24