ILP is a Holistic Approach to Life Planning – what issues do we need to consider?

Welcome back! After a brief absence from the blog, I am back and want to spend some time talking about Integrative Life Planning as an approach, which can be considered from six perspectives. As we have discussed before, ILP is a comprehensive model, aimed at offering life-changing assistance to individuals – ILP is a truly holistic approach, and as we will be discussing today, consists of various facets of significance.

When one starts planning a career, the whole picture needs to be taken into consideration. The approach to life planning, which is described by the ILP model, can be viewed from six distinct perspectives. The first perspective that we will now be looking at, has been alluded to already: ILP is a holistic approach, which is used to help all individuals look at themselves within the various contexts they are functioning in.

ILP, as an approach to career and life planning, considers every single element, which is known to have an impact on our personal experiences and lives. I agree, this indeed sounds like quite an ambitious statement – let us take a closer look at what these specific issues are.

v Local, national, and global change – this can include literally anything, which someone planning a career, will in one way or the other need to consider. Granted, issues of global change will take longer to impact my day-to-day life, but invariably does.

v Work, family, education, and leisure changes – these elements describe both our private and public lives, and are duly considered as a function of the holistic nature of the ILP approach

v Cultural changes and subsequent changes seen in the roles of men and women – this makes up for another element, which is considered in terms of ILP’s holistic approach to life planning and patterns

v Change in our life roles, which include learning, loving, relaxing, and work – these elements, when discussed in terms of the ILP approach, are duly considered as additional facets to consider when we are engaged in the process of planning for a career; the integration of these areas are given centre-stage in the ILP life planning play!

v The need for personal reflection, especially in terms of one’s own priorities for issues such as personal and career life planning – this is a need, which was not sufficiently catered for by the previous linear models of career planning and life development; and lastly

v The impact and importance of the notion of change itself – change is often viewed as the only constant in our lives! We are all experiencing change in one form or the other – ILP considers the manner in which change impacts on individuals in all their complexity and uniqueness.

The manner in which career professionals approach the life and career planning of clients, simply has to give full consideration to the above issues. If we opt for fully-fledged career counselling, the above areas simply have to be included in the process; if a career coach was to employ the ILP model, the truth would be unchanged and the value of ILP as holistic approach would again be realised.

When we meet again, we will continue our current discussion of the six perspectives from which the ILP life planning model can be viewed – I look forward to talking to you soon!