From Trauma Narratives to Career Narratives

People's career choices are not necessarily the unfolding of normative experiences. Instead, trauma experienced throughout childhood affects developmental trajectories and career choices. Findings of the study reveal consistent themes pertaining to the meaningfulness ascribed to helping professionals' experiences of cumulative childhood trauma and re-authoring of trauma narratives through a career lens. This chapter will draw on the findings of a recent study by the author (Bryce et al., 2022; 2023) which revealed that through vocational decision making, life, career and trauma narratives converge to foster a reauthoring experience. The intention of this chapter is to collate and synthesise existing research, and the research of the authors, which explores the influence of cumulative trauma and adversity on career decision making, and trauma informed career counselling