Pathways through Career Transitions: An Arts-based Approach to Decision-Making

This capstone project focuses on how people can use an art therapy approach to increase the probability of personal and professional satisfaction in their career choices. The main purpose of approaching decision-making in this way is for people to make decisions that are more connected to their truest self.

Through an arts-based, phenomenological approach, I developed this program to explore how art can be used in the context of career decision-making. I want to create something useful for participants and to inform my practice as an art therapist who helps people design careers based on authentic knowing. Included here is a discussion of the Chaos Theory of Careers which provides a relevant framework for the contemporary realities we face as it relates to career development throughout our lives and navigating uncertainty in the world.

This paper also presents a manual for a six-week, online, closed group art therapy program that uses existential perspectives such as responsibility, meaning and authenticity to help participants examine their career decision-making styles, motivation, inner voice, imagining future possibilities, and beliefs. The intention for each weekly session is discussed along with details on how to conduct the session, examples of participants' artworks and their reflections. The overall benefits of the program are reviewed along with participant feedback as well as recommendations for future development and refinement of the program.

The process reveals what new awareness related to career development is identified during the art-making sessions; how participants can use art to plan their careers; and what aspects of the program the participants find valuable or not valuable. Art therapists can use this information when working with clients who are in career transition or individuals familiar with an art therapy process may use it as a form of selfhelp