Career Counseling as a Science, a Skill, and an Art: Drawing on the Inspiring Career-Life Story of Dolly Parton to Demonstrate How Theory Building in Career Construction Counseling is Premised on Practice

This chapter draws on the inspiring life story of the amazing Dolly Parton to demonstrate the remarkable overlap between multiple facets of Mark Savickas’ counseling for self- and career construction theory and how this theory is practically and “naturally” enacted in numerous real-life contexts. First, a brief background to Dolly Parton’s life is presented, and the overlap between her career-life story and the theory of career construction counseling is outlined. A truncated biography of Dolly Parton follows, after which the focus shifts to an elaboration of how she developed herself as a career project ( Cochran, 1992). The outcomes of a “virtual” self- and career construction counseling-based interview conducted with her (based on information gathered from numerous publications and interviews) are used to uncover her key life themes. This interview is subsequently analyzed, and mission and vision statements are proposed for her. Next, the chapter discusses how Dolly Parton enacted her mission and vision and influenced the lives of countless other people positively (and continues to do so). More particularly, she provided and continues to provide a holding environment for millions of people. I explain how self- and career construction principles are realized in Dolly Parton’s career-life story before the chapter is concluded.