When a client reports, during a counseling session, that he or she is unable to master a specific domain of behavior, the counselor should focus on the causes of these perceptions in the client's background experiences" and examine how a lack of skills and unsubstantiated perceptions of a lack of self-efficacy are holding the client back (Betz 2004:4). Using "The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale...can be used to assess a person's beliefs concerning her or his capabilities to take the steps in career decision making" (Betz 2004:5).

Ideally, treating issues related to a lack of self-efficacy requires a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the counselor must help the client unburden him or herself of specific concepts of a lack of self-efficacy related to career skills and goals -- but there also must be a more general component of raising the client's self-esteem and efficacy that is essential to fully realize the individual's maximum...
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