Hope-Centred Interventions with Unemployed Clients

This study investigates the effectiveness of hope-based interventions (Niles, Amundson, & Neault, 2011) used with clients in employment counselling centers who were experiencing low hope. Specifically, five hope-centred interventions were delivered in face-to-face (F2F; n = 27) and online formats (n = 25). All participants completed the Hope-Centred Career Inventory (HCCI; Niles, Yoon, & Amundson, 2011), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE; Schwartzer & Jerusalem, 1995), the Vocational Identity Scale (VIS; Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980), and the Career Engagement Scale (CES; Hirschi, Freund, & Herrmann, 2014) at the start and at the conclusion of the study. The Enhanced Critical Incident Technique (ECIT; Butterfield, Borgen, Maglio, & Amundson, 2009) was used to identify helpful and hindering factors experienced by the participants as well as factors to consider when delivering the study interventions in the future. Finally, a focus group was used to explore the study participants’ perspectives of the career development counsellors who participated in delivering the study. Results indicate that increasing hope competencies can increase an overall sense of hope and that this increase has a direct and measurable effect on how individuals perceive their career situation. The F2F and online groups experienced similar outcomes.