Blog 5

            First off I would like to say that this was a very interesting article to read.  When thinking about synchronicity and how it was used in the three case studies, I tried to think about my life and how synchronicity fit into it.  I can say there were a few times in my life where this concept did happen to me.  Synchronicity may seem farfetched but it actually does happen.  It was interesting to see where the thought behind this phenomenon came to be.  Looking at two religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, Mary H. Guindon and Fred J. Hanna (2002) talked about how the universe and everything in it is interconnected.  If one thing happens, then that will affect something else.  To me it doesn’t seem that this information would reflect on what synchronicity is but with the study of time and space, which I do not really understand, they came to conclusions that synchronicity is “"occurrence of a meaningful coincidence in time” (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 3). 

            Another item that I would like to discuss is the counselors thinking synchronically for their clients.  When reading this article and the case studies, I found myself thinking that this concept is a happening of chance.  Something may take place in one of the three ways that Guindon and Hanna (2002) discuss, but it also may not happen.  One doesn’t know when this is going to occur.  Looking over the case studies, I felt like the career counselors all were using different theories like Holland and Parson.  It just so happened that something did significantly occur in their lives that was synchronicity.  I feel that you can’t think synchronically because you are hoping for something to happen when it might not.  Now I am not saying that nothing will happen as we can see in the case study it does which is great, but I don’t think counselors should be thinking in that way.  It is good to tell your clients that synchronicity could happen and is normal, but don’t be constantly thinking in this manner as it might not happen to the client.  It is good to know about synchronicity so when this type of situation occurs the counselor can address the client in the correct way.  I think that synchronicity does exist because it has happened in the lives of the people in the case study and my own life.  On the other hand, I do not think that we should be counseling in a way that we hope something will happen externally. 

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, 195-208. Retrieved from https://millersville.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame. d2l?ou=750610&tId=5560165