Post #5

I really enjoyed the article this week because it sort of supported my view that things happen for a reason (as cheesy as that might sound) without being overly religious. I liked that the article gave a broad sense of spirituality and included people who may not believe in a "God", but who might just believe in forces outside of our control. At the beginning of the article I was a little confused about how these unknown forces would be applicable to career counseling, but when the authors began discussing the case studies, it became a lot clearer for me.  

In Dan's case, the coincidence of him finally going after his dream and his friend coming across a printing press was definitely, in my opinion, fate. However, I was trying to grasp how to use these unknown forces of the universe in career counseling. I like how the authors say that, "rather than seeing chance events as random and meaningless, synchronicity provides a framework for understanding and working with such phenomena when they occur" (Guidon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206). This sparked my interest because I believe many events happen in one's life and sometimes people are unaware of the connections and let these could be life changing coincidences pass them by. I like that the authors are urging counselors to open their minds and be willing to investigate the unconventional and use nontraditional techniques like meditation, guided imagery, active imagination, and dream analysis to help recognize these "coincidences",  but this still does not give me a clear direction on how to apply this to a counseling situation if these coincidence or life altering events don't happen for my client. For example, if I finally am able to get my client to recognize what would  a career that would be meaningful for them, but then noting comes along and the right job doesn't just appear when they "move to the open door", then what? While I do believe in fate and destiny, I am also realistic and know that in this economy people may not be able to wait for the "open door" because they need a job now, and they need to provide for their family. While I believe the ideas in this article are phenomenal and it is important for clients to know that sometimes these "remarkable coincidences are not necessarily accidental" (Guidon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206), for me, however, some of the applicability of this theory is lacking. 




Reference

Guindon, M. H., & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.