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"Work begins when you don't like what you're doing." ~ Joseph Campbell
Brian Collinson is a Jungian Analyst in Canada who writes a blog called Vibrant Jung Thing. He has an interesting post this week giving a Jungian perspective on career transition.
This is a topic that has a special meaning for me. For several years, I focused my practice around what I called depth-oriented career counseling. I spent many years thinking and writing about the topic of work. I also regularly gave a lecture I called "How to Hear Your Calling."
Although career work is no longer a central focus of my practice, it can still be a central focus the therapeutic work I do with individual clients.
I think work and career are natural topics for Jungians to address because a person's experience of work is so often tied up with their identity. This is a problem only if work serves to shore up a self-identity that is too narrow--if it is merely a reflection of one's persona, in Jungian language. However, if a person's work is an expression of their deepest self, it can become a vehicle of personal growth and transformation.
And of course, this is also a natural topic for Jungians because most of us feel called in some way to the work of Jungian Psychology. This is our vocation. We do it because we fell in love with the work. That is certainly the case for me. I can honestly say that I'm grateful to have found this work that I do.
Is your work a vehicle for personal growth, or does it feel like a barrier to growth? If you could change your work what would you do instead?
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