What if your career counselor is OBESE?

[Angela]

Originally Posted by lespauldude

angela, can't you show this kid some hate? can't hate teach anything? well, it was what i was trying to do in that post i made earlier that got deleted.

Sure I could show hate and call people names, I'm free to do that. And since I agreed to the rules of these forums, I would be subject to the consequences -- warning and banning. In this case, you broke that rule and your name-calling post was deleted. I find your posts valuable usually, so I hope that you will follow the rules going forward. But you are free to do as you wish, of course.

The only thing I'm sure that hatred teaches is more hatred. It's a downward spiral. The person at the receiving end is not likely to *get* what a hater is intending to *give* him. It feels really, really bad to me to nurture hatred in myself, and my aim in creating a life I love is to think thoughts that feel good when I think them. I also would prefer that the world at large operate on a love model rather than a hate model, and I think it's important to BE what I want to SEE.

So, all in all, hatred as a teacher does not work for me.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Are we saying that we can't discern anything from someone's physical appearance?

What if the career counselor was covered in facial tattoos and had a swastika burned into their forehead?

Maybe they were formerly a criminal and got all those tattoos in prison and now they have reformed and found a fail-proof way to guide people to the best career for them. Appearance doesn't have anything to do with intelligence or ablility, it's only a package which may or may not deter other people from taking your advice. Judge people not by the color of their skin (or tattoos or obesity) but by the content of their character (or the validity of their advice, etc). That's how I see it.

[mochamajesty]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

Appearance doesn't have anything to do with intelligence or ablility, it's only a package which may or may not deter other people from taking your advice. Judge people not by the color of their skin (or tattoos or obesity) but by the content of their character (or the validity of their advice, etc). That's how I see it.

Amen.

I am a Human Resources Manager. I am also overweight. Does this mean that I don't know a thing about Human Resources? Does this mean that I cannot give advice to my department heads because I am not model-thin? What does career counseling have to do with being obese?

If an applicant walked into my office with a swastika on his head, he would be shown the door. Why? Not because I would be horribly offended (although I would be) but because it is against our policy to have racist tattos.

[Alison Jenkins]

This is my first post but I just had to add a comment.

Have you considered that these people may be suffering from an eating disorder like Binge Eating Disorder, compulsive overeating or bulimia? We know that 50% of obese people binge eat.

You wanted advice on your career but you clearly are upset by the size of the counsellor.

I would like to say that "clinically obese" counsellors can still be excellent at their jobs. I work as an online counsellor with many people who come into recovery from the binge eating types of eating disorders. You may ask how can I help them when I am on the verge of being clinically obese. Well actually I can probably help them more than someone who is slim and never experienced binge eating. It was this event that led me to dramatically change my life and go on to help other people find recovery.Yes I am losing weight but not at target yet! I don't have to be a perfect weight to be a good counsellor. I was slim for 17 years of my 24 year binge eating so outwards appearances don't mean much really!

And if you do seek a slim counsellor how do you know they don't have anorexia, bulimia, take drugs etc etc?

Alison