The “Talents & Transitions Patchwork” is both a counselling method and a product. It was first designed by an occupational psychologist, David J. Bourne, during career counselling sessions. Nowadays, the method is widely used by more than 200 practitioners in France (FONGECIF, CIBC, GRETA, PES,…) to facilitate the exploration of individuals experience especially in the frame of “Bilans de Compétences” and in the frame of career counselling.
The method offers the metaphor of a patchwork quilt for exploring individuals’ life experiences from a holistic and constructivist perspective.
The patchwork is considered and used in the career counselling process as a medium of self-expression. It “captures and illustrates activities experienced by individuals throughout their lives: each patchwork is made up of different patches sewn together, symbolising experienced activities in which the individual can bring contrasting backgrounds together to create meaning” (Pouyaud and Bourne, 2017). As a highly significant personal pattern, the patchwork is co-analysed by the client and the practitioner through the counselling process”.
The TTP method offers an effective manner to explore personal construct systems by allowing easy access to content that may otherwise be difficult to verbalise. In that sense, it is an innovative way of helping people describes their worlds with their own words and drawings.
