I will present the key characteristics of the SPARKS career counselling model for individual counselling and peer group counselling of young people and adults, and the tools used in the counselling process: the visual and structured SPARKS chart, the SPARKS cards, and the SPARKS menus. The objective of the SPARKS model is to make transparent the career counselling process and to help the counsellee visualize the various areas of their life (using the SPARKS chart) which impact career and action planning. The SPARKS model has its theoretical foundation in constructivist approaches, including sociodynamic career counselling (Peavy, 1997, 2004), life design counselling (Savickas, 2012), and contextual action theory (Young & Valach, 2004). (Kattelus, 2019b)
In the SPARKS model, visualization is the main counselling method used to analyze the career counselling session and record it on the SPARKS chart using text, drawings, and colours. Visualization here also means using different visual tools in the counselling session to promote dialogue. The SPARKS questions and task cards contain a great many methods for visual counselling, activity exercises, narrative exercises, as well as tasks and questions based on mental imagery. The SPARKS strengths and emotional description cards can help to reveal counsellees’ true feelings and thoughts, and the SPARKS menus are handy tools that assist counsellees to quickly identify strengths and areas needing improvement—as well as what are, for them, important qualities in future jobs.
For counsellees, the SPARKS Career Counselling process means analyzing their objectives and options, strengthening their motivation and self-confidence, and bolstering their belief in a positive future. The approach helps them to mentally link themselves to the boundary conditions of their vocational preferences.
