It is essential for career counselors working with Canadian Native youth to be cognizant of Native communication patterns, which include non-intrusive listening, story-telling, patience, and respect for family influences. Native students and their parents want non-biased treatment, information, and guidance from counselors so as to ensure both…

The advance of science and technology, the rise of mass consumerism, the deterioration of families, and other factors have enormous implications for career counseling. This digest outlines a constructivist career counseling perspective. This perspective is based on the following concepts: there are multiple realities and no single "God's…

A constructivist framework for the practice of counseling, especially career counseling, is presented, including an Ethic of Authenticity. New orientations in career counseling (career counseling as a general methodology for life planning) and a new model of the self on which to base the work of counseling is discussed. (LKS)

The contextual considerations outlined in this digest provide a framework for career counseling with Canadian Native youth, a process which requires an unusually large range of cultural understanding and an appreciation of diversity and uniqueness. Counselors need to be aware of individual diversity within Native groups. Four Native…