Extensive Background and Experience in Career Transitions and Consulting

Edward Honnold, JD, LICSW, has a long-standing specialty practice consulting professionals in Washington, D.C. on career development and career transition issues.

• Full Range of Career Transition Services:  Ed Honnold works with clients who wish to improve performance in their current job, remove obstacles to professional development, get a new job in their current profession, reassess their current career, or change their career.
• Shifting Job Sectors in Washington, DC:  In advising clients wishing to move from one sector of professional practice in Washington to another, Ed Honnold draws on his own extensive professional experience, over a period of almost 40 years, working in the private for-profit, non-profit, judicial, congressional, executive branch, lobbying, trade association, medical, journalism, international development, and private consulting fields in Washington, D.C.
• Past Professional Experience:  Before becoming a lawyer and mental health professional, Ed Honnold gained valuable professional experience as a free-lance journalist and photographer overseas, and subsequently as a non-profit organization lobbyist and small business owner,  He has lived extensively overseas and traveled for several years through Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.  He is fluent in French and Spanish, and has some facility in Italian and Swahili.
• Previous Legal Career:  After graduating from Yale Law School in 1978, Ed Honnold served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; as an associate with a major Washington, D.C. law firm; as a Legislative Director to a Member of Congress; and as Attorney-Advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
• Career Change Experience:  For clients contemplating a career transition,  Ed Honnold draws on his own experience completing a successful mid-life career change from the practice of law to clinical social work, as well as his experience building a highly successful private practice in his current career.  Ed draws on more than 30 years of his own professional experience in different sectors of professional life in Washington, D.C., and in completing several fundamental career changes during his extensive and varied professional life.   Specifically, Ed has worked:
  • As a reporter and freelance writer for the Christian Science Monitor;
  • For a public interest organization, lobbying Congress on domestic and foreign affairs legislative issues;
  • As  a Legislative Director for a Member of Congress;
  • As a law clerk to a federal appellate Judge;
  • As an associate with a major Washington, D.C. law firm, representing both corporate firms and non-profit organizations, specializing in issues of international arbitration, trade and development;
  • In the Executive Branch, as an attorney-advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID);
  • As a clinical social worker on the inpatient and Day Center staff of the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW);
  • As a community organizer, founding and directing a highly successful local organization dedicated to personal change;
  • As an organizational development consultant with a trade association;
  • As a professional consultant with several law firms, a Member of Congress, and senior executives in federal service;  by contract with the U.S. Department of Energy;  and by referral through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, U.S. Department of State, Office of the U.S. Attorneys, and U.S. Department of Justice;
  • As a speaker and panelist with local law schools, the D.C. Bar, and specialty Bar associations;
  • As a Board Member of the Lawyer Counseling Program of the D.C. Bar Association;
  • As a career consultant for many individuals starting private businesses;
  • As a personal counselor and psychotherapist, with individuals, couples and professional groups.

• Advising on Each Stage in Career:  As a highly experienced clinician and professional in several fields, Ed Honnold draws on more than 30 years of professional experience in his work with clients at each stage of their own career:  those just “starting up,” others managing the stresses of a successful career, as well as those contemplating a mid-life career change or planning for retirement.
• Serving Clients who are Successful but Unhappy:  Most of Ed Honnold’s clients are exceptionally high-functioning, with well-developed skills and impressive credentials.  Clients seek consultation with Ed because they are dissatisfied with their achievements or unhappy in their professional or personal lives, despite their “success.”
• High-Achieving Clients:  Ed’s clients for career transition services include Members of Congress, senior Congressional staff, high-ranking Executive Branch officers, successful lobbyists, public interest advocates, business owners, law firm partners and associates, and other mental health professionals.
• Advising New Professionals:  Ed Honnold also advises young professionals just starting out in their career, or seeking direction to determine which career or professional path and graduate training program would suit them best.
• Helping Clients Get “Unstuck”:  Drawing on his extensive clinical training and experience, Ed Honnold helps each client assess the nature and source of the client’s unhappiness, establish goals, and take concrete steps to develop a more meaningful and satisfying personal or professional life.
• Using Career Assessment Tools:  Ed Honnold has extensive experience administering and using a wide range of career assessment tools and modalities, many of which he used himself in completing his own mid-life career change.  When needed, he refers clients to further resources that may be useful to them in their career search.
• Numerous presentations, speeches and workshops:  Ed has spoken extensively on career change issues over the years to various professional groups, including U.S. House and Senate staff, Employee Assistance Programs, specialty Bar Association panels, and graduate programs in law.  He meets regularly with other local career professionals and has studied and taught extensively in the field.

Ed Honnold uses his extensive professional experience and his highly developed clinical skills to help individual clients identify, pursue, and achieve their own professional and personal goals.