Explore Your Career Identity: A Mental Health Workbook

Career theory today sees illness not as an abnormal event but as a probable event for many people. Even when one cannot work in paid employment due to mental illness, all the other aspects of one’s life still work together to make up what is called one’s life career. In the new millennium spiritual career development theory sees one’s life being one’s actual career. The idea of social progress and self-betterment has meant that, rather than lifelong unquestioned static work roles, the concept of ‘career’ – a sequence of jobs over a lifetime - has become the norm. This makes career planning important for an individual and it can often be a confusing process as we try to understand all of the influences that affect it. This workbook is for people with lived experience of mental illness. The lived experience of mental illness can make career development very difficult. Illness can lead to job loss and the need for unanticipated life transitions. This can lead to a need for career exploration as people recover. There are two parts to career exploration: exploring your identity in terms of career (‘career identity’) and opportunity exploration. This workbook (based on Dr Southern's 'Explore Your Career Identity' practical workbook) deals with career identity with a special focus on mental illness and helps you to develop hunches about the directions you might take in life after experiencing mental illness and reaching a level of recovery that means you are ready to engage in work and other aspects of your life-career again. It is not prescriptive and it does not aim to direct you towards a particular career. Rather the exercises in this workbook are to be used as prompts and insight generators to help you work out for yourself what direction to take. As Steve Jobs (US computer engineer & industrialist, 1955-2011) said: “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” This book helps you to explore your heart and use your intuition to discover your unique career identity. Good luck and have fun!