CDS3002 Assessment 1: Non-Linear (Collage) Technique

Assessment 1 Background and Task

The following notes are designed to give you a clearer idea of the requirements for Assessment 1 the non-linear (collage) technique.

The Assessment

Use the non-linear technique (collage) along with the circles of influence and my significant others technique to provide advice to a client (of any age beyond Yr 10). Include a short paper outlining who the client was, their background, the results of the exercises and what you did. Reflect critically and briefly on the theory and practice motivating this approach. Refer to papers on LEO and recommended texts. Include on a page within your MS Word essay a good quality digital photograph of your collage.

Weighting:

Length and/or format:
50%
2,750 words (10% variation allowed)

The Task

1.Work with a client/student/volunteer to provide career counselling based upon the client constructing two collages.
2. Ask the client to create a first collage entitled Me Now do not give any further advice as to what you mean by that title it is up to the client to interpret (beyond explaining that the me in question is them and not you!)
3. Ask the client to create a second collage entitled Me in 10 years or alternatively Me in 5 years (as you please/choose).
4. When completed ask the client to talk you through each collage.
5. When the client has completed describing them (listen without interruption), it is your turn to ask questions or raise points of interest.
6. Useful questions to ask include:
1. Tell me more about.
2. What is missing from the collage(s). i.e. where is family? What about work where does that fit? What does the large Albatross signify? Why are there herds of wilderbeest sweeping majestically across the plain? (or whatever you want more information about)
3. Tell me about how you arranged the images? They seem very orderly/disorderly/carefully placed/randomly arranged/like a drunken mans stagger through the world of work/ like spew at a teenagers party after alcohol snuck in
4. You have used / not used a lot of words cut out why?
5. What images could you not find youd like to add?
6. (How) would your collage have changed if you had a different set of magazines/ images to play with?
7. There are a lot of images of wombats/ red and pink things/ Gracie Fields why is that do you think?
8. Are there any other themes to emerge that you only realised after you started / completed/ as you were making the collage?
9. What do the collages imply about your next steps? What barriers are there?
10. How could you make your next steps?
7. You could try what-if scenarios such as:
1. If I were to remove this/these images from your collage what would that mean to you? How would you life be different? What would you do?
2. If I were to add this image/elephant in the room/ ghost in the machine/ Exhibit A/ your school report/ to this collage, how would that change things?
3. If you had been asked to do this last year/five years ago/ how might the collages have been different?
8. Reflect and soon after the session record your thoughts about what went on. You could also record the session with permission, or conceivably make up a question sheet using the types of questions I have included above note it is perfectly permissible to use appropriate light-hearted remarks in such a document, as the aim with this exercise in counselling is to be fun, creative, provocative it is not an exam.
9. Also get the client to complete the Significant others and Circles of Influence exercises and compare the results to the Collages. See the worked example of a circles of influence exercise and the worksheet for significant others. Both are self-explanatory and ask about influences your clients sees on their career thinking.

Preparation and Materials

1. You will need two sheets of butchers paper. (Vegetarians and Vegans may choose to use Greengrocers paper sized approximately 610mm x 910mm ? ) . e.g. http://stationery.auspost.com.au/packaging-industrial/packaging-mailing/officemax-butcher-s-paper-610x910mm.html
2. Do NOT skimp and give people a sheet of A4 imagine if I asked you to describe your life achievements and then gave you a postage stamp sized piece of paper to fit them all in what would that say about my opinion of your achievements? (yes I know I would be stretched to fill a postage stamp, but we are talking about magnificent you and your brilliant career!)
3. You will need a collection of old magazines or if you are of passive-aggressive persuasion in a failing relationship, why not take your partners prized collection of limited edition souvenir magazines to cut up? That was a joke. Seriously. A joke. Dont do it. Dont. Stop!
4. Magazines can be procured from Op Shops, or I suppose you could choose to visit your Dentist more often.
5. You may want to think about the magazines and choose carefully. For instance a Principal of a girls school in Melbourne told me she ensured that she did not give her charges womens magazines such as Womens Weekly, etc. Rather she used things like National Geographic etc. She deliberately wanted to avoid gender stereotypical images. So you might want to consciously influence the exercise or not it is up to you.
6. You will need some scissors (assuming you are now trusted to use them again, after the last time)
7. You will need one of those UHU glue sticks
8. Some time and room
9. I find playing music in background while the task is being completed adds to the creative milleau. Miff Mole and his Molers, The Singing Postman, Corky Hale and her Jazz Harp, or Gunhild Carling and her Bagpipe Swing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RbVuDuCYMY) . You may wish to choose something of your own taste (probably Barry Manilow!!).
10. You will need to set aside at least 1 hour for your client to complete each and probably longer. Questioning after may take 15 minutes or more.
11. Also get the client to complete the Significant others and Circles of Influence exercises and compare the results to the Collages
12. When introducing this to your client or class, you will need to make it clear that the primary purpose is to assist you with a course requirement, rather than you helping them with their career thinking and that their collages will be shared with ACU staff for marking purposes and therefore client confidentiality is NOT assured. This must be said in advance, and better yet, put it in writing, with a sentence saying I understand that I am participating in this collage exercise voluntarily to assist X with their Australian Catholic University course requirements. I understand that the collage I produce and my reflections on it may be included in an ACU assignment, and that ACU staff and their contractors will have access to my assignment for the purposes of marking, review, archiving and quality assurance processes. Signed Y Dated x
13. At the conclusion take high quality digital photos of each collage to use both as a backup should the collages be lost, and importantly as part of your assignment submission.
14. Prepare and submit your assignment describing and reflecting on what happened as per assignment details. Use the relevant readings to integrate theory, practice and outcome. Below is an extract from our book, that will further assist you in understanding the relevance and purpose of this approach. Good luck!

Background information extract from Pryor, R. & Bright, J. (2011). The Chaos Theory of Careers: a new perspective on working in the twenty first century. Routledge: New York.
p.124, 131-134. Chapter 8. Chaotic Counseling And Assessment

Techniques Developed from the arts
The obvious place to look for inspiration when searching for techniques
that promote creativity is in the arts. Art therapy is long established
in psychiatry, having been used regularly since the 1940s. Techniques
such as drawing (Amundson, 2009) and reference to movies (Pryor &
Bright, 2006) and stories (Savickas, 1997) have been applied successfully
in career counseling.

Circles of Influence
The Circles of Influence technique (Bright & Pryor, 2003) represents
a graphical approach to understanding the different influences
that come to bear upon an individuals career decision making (see
Figure 8.3). The circles of influence are represented by three major
concentric circles that represent three key factors of career influence:
Unplanned Events, Family and Friends, and Teachers, Advisors and
the Media, derived from Bright, Pryor, Wilkenfeld, and Earl (2005).
Clients are given the circles and asked to consider either their current
situation, or a time in the past when they had to make a career
decision. They are encouraged to write down the names or positions
of people or things that they felt had an influence on the decision they
made, or are in the process of making.
The graphical nature of the task provides a ready structure to consider
different patterns of influence. With more adult clients, several
circles can be constructed that detail the influences at work across a
number of key decisions. From these multiple circles, patterns or emergent
themes can be discerned and analyzed.
The circles of influence technique benefits from being empirically
derived, meaning that the categories or circles used are not arbitrarily
present, or merely asserted vaguely from an untested theoretical

Figure 8.3 The Circles of Influence technique.

position. This increases the validity of such an approach to understanding
the probabilities in a clients life from their perspective. It also
orients the client toward an awareness of the unplanned and unexpected,
and therefore provides avenues and openings for the client to
consider the role of the unplanned in their lives.

Collage (Adams, 2003; Loader, 2009) is a technique that has particular
application within the CTC. Collage involves clients cutting,
placing and pasting images onto paper (or a computer screen) to represent
some aspect of their life, interests, values, aspirations or all of
these. For instance, a technique commonly used by one of the authors
is to ask a client to produce a collage of Me Now and then another
of Me in 5 or 10 Years.
Collage is a relatively free technique that requires little or no formal
skill to produce attractive work (compared to painting, music or
drawing). Second, collage encourages clients to express themselves in
patterns, and some of these patterns emerge as meta-patterns owing
to the synergy of the combinations of collage elements. Third, collage
benefits from being one of the few techniques that allow clients to
free themselves from the constraints of linear accounts of their lives.
The current preoccupation of many writers in the career development
field with narrative accounts implicitly or explicitly encourages linear
thinking about careers. Stories have a beginning, a middle (or sometimes
muddle!) and an end. They tend to tie up loose ends, which can
be both a strength and a weakness (Pryor & Bright, 2008). Fourth,
collage is one of relatively few techniques in career development that
do not present significant hurdles in terms of verbal fluency or reading
skills; nor does it require good interpersonal skills. Thus it is a technique
that can be well suited to those who are not overly proficient
in reading and/or speaking in the counselors native tongue, or are
perhaps shy.

The non-linear aspect of collage, combined with the natural emergent
patterns that arise, provides immediate connections to two of the
central tenets of the CTC. Figures 8.4 and 8.5 are an example of a
clients collages for Me Now and Me in 10 Years.
You can see in Figure 8.4 how the client has found key images
and words that have personal meaning. The building in the bottom
represents his workplace. The piece is well organized, obeying formalisms
of vertical and horizontal layout. The images capture what is
important beyond work such as sailing, gardening and family. There is
a certain literalness or concreteness in the frequent use of words rather
than pictures to capture key meaning. There is also a sense of pressure
in the picture captured in words such as meltdown, control and
CHAOTIC COUNSELING AND ASSESSMENT 133

Figure 8.4 Collage by a late middle age client depicting Me Now.
134 CHAOTIC COUNSELING AND ASSESSMENT

Figure 8.5 Collage by a late middle age client depicting Me in 10 Years.

in the thick of it. There are also references to his work as a career
advisor with a book and a reference to engagement. The phrase on the
right-hand edge near control says Unlock the power for brilliant
resultsanother reference to counseling work.
In contrast, Figure 8.5 presents a nearer to retirement image that
shows relaxation, a sense of legacy (he is a legend). There is consistency
between the images as well as change. The very strong outdoor
theme is evident in both pictures (e.g., the boat, the garden), but
this image is more expansive literally and figuratively as we see the
references to international travel (Big Ben in London, the postcard)
and the literal use of the word freedom and now for the fun part.
There is also imagery related to planning.
We might work with the client and identify Holland codes from
these images. Good candidates to discuss would be Realistic (the outdoor
theme) and Conventional (the organizing theme) as well as the
more obvious Social theme that reflects his occupation as a teacher and
careers advisor.
The arrangement is orderly in both images, and it is interesting to
note that he felt such a strong need to identify his family on the second
image that he was motivated to write the word into the collage, presumably
because he was unable to find appropriate images or words
to paste on.
Notice that these images provide a compelling emergent pattern
that is complex and also non-linear. We see different facets of his life
presented simultaneously rather than arranged according to some arbitrary
linear formula. It is often interesting to get clients to complete a
lifeline of their lives as a preliminary to this exercise. When they do this
unprompted, it is not unusual for clients to focus upon the milestone
events of transition in their lives, such as started school, finished school,
first job, second job. The interesting question is what they have left out
of their timelines, and generally it is the sort of material that appears
in the collage. In other words, it is the values and the ongoing day-today
things that rarely appear in the lifeline, but regularly appear in the
collage. The collage then appears to tap into the more personal, more
real strange attractor of the individual, rather than the public face, the
more constrained torus attractor of a milestone life