1). A vocational counselor can provide a different view of the disabled person than that person may receive either from friends and family or rehabilitation counselors -- in the relationship, the vocational counselor is the facilitator of the disabled person's ambitions, a guide rather than a paternalistic figure. This type of relationship can better prepare the counseled individual for the workplace. While simply the process of vocational counseling can give the disabled person a sense of empowerment, because it affirms the counselee's capacity as a 'worker' not just as a 'disabled person,' the ideal relationship between counselor and advisee is that of a working relationship. Seeing the client as an adult and as a partner, regardless of the extent of the client's disability,...

Vocational counseling also provides the counseled individual with self-knowledge, usually through the use of personal assessment tools, that can provide venues for social and personal exploration not offered by the individual's current frame of reference: "Consumer's skills and abilities to exercise informed choice can be developed through use of self-assessment techniques, training and experience in goal setting and decision making, and consumer education. In this manner, skills in exercising informed choice could grow in a parallel fashion along with growth of specific vocational and employment skills, enabling the individual to continue making important, informed life decisions following the completion of VR services" (Kosciulek 2004, p.4).