Sally Gelardin is a career counselor and instructor who focuses on familial

relationships and their influence on career decision-making. In 2001, she authored an

article related to the use of narratives in the healing process. In it, she addressed the

mother-daughter relationship and its link to career decision-making. Gelardin builds

upon the Peavy's constructivist concepts by emphasizing the seven critical assumptions

in narrative constructivist career theory. These include the concepts that "reality" is not

an external unit but rather is relatively interpreted within each person; that people are

more that a collection of traits, but rather an organized being centered around certain life

themes; that people's lives can be described as stories or collections of stories; that

people attach meaning to their lives and their experiences; that individuals interpret

themselves and their experiences as they live their lives and, therefore, are constantly

revising their stories according to their own interpretations; that individuals have multiple

voices and, therefore, multiple stories; and that the process of self-authoring and

reflection can be empowering (Gelardin, 2001b).

 Building upon these assumptions, Gelardin (200 b) proposed exercises designed

to explore life themes and examine interactions from a narrative perspective. Later in

2001, she built upon this model in addressing the needs of trauma victims, like those

affected by the September 11th tragedies (Gelardin, 2001a). In a workshop presented at

the International Career Development Conference, she outlined how the utilization of

career narratives could positively impact the lives of trauma victims (Gelardin, 2001 a).

Like Savickas, Gelardin proposed a healing potential in career growth wherein work can

become part of the therapeutic process when negative life themes are addressed in a more

positive way and positive life themes are expressed in work settings.