This paper proposes that the notion of taking agentic action provides a crucial intersection between career and mental health domains. Agentic actions are actions that one wants to take, on some level; taking agentic actions is the ability to take such actions, to be intentional and self-directed in one’s life. This paper is informed by a holistic, contextual model of human development, counseling for work and relationship, that stipulates three major social contexts of development, (a) market or paid work, (b) care work in personal lives (unpaid), and (c) relationships, through which most people co-construct their lives. Taking agentic actions, especially in market work contexts, is central to contemporary career theory and practice. It is also important in psychotherapy, the signature intervention practice in mental health where the ability to take agentic action is widely considered an outcome of successful psychotherapy. A focus on taking agentic action opens up significant areas of collaboration between these two domains. For example, mental health issues may negatively impact the ability to take agentic action in the social context of market work. Conversely, constraints in the social context of market work may negatively affect mental health and adversely impact the ability to take agentic action across life contexts. Furthermore, such collaboration may help to heal the split between the personal and the social realms of human experience that has been reified in these two domains of theory and practice. Finally, the issue of inclusivity is central when discussing agentic action because the structure of opportunities significantly impacts the experience and expression of agentic actions, especially in relation to market work contexts. Narrative methods relevant to both career and psychotherapy practices may help to address the narrowing of lives due to constraints on agentic action in market work contexts.
