Blog 6

In reading the Bloch article entitled, “Complexity, Chaos, and Nonlinear Dynamics” for this week, I had a few comments that I thought noteworthy for the purpose of this week’s blog post. The author introduces a new definition that is different from the norm that combines spirituality with current career theory. In essence, the definition had two components. The first was that spirituality included a sense of connection to something beyond the individual; the second was that spirituality is a search for meaning, purpose, and integration in life. In this article, I explore how the currently prevailing scientific paradigm, careers, and spirituality are all entwined, thus stressing relationships and meaning.

I believe some of the concepts discussed in this current article parallels nicely to some of the topics discussed in during week 3’s discussion post, when we reviewed the Duffy (2006) article. In this current article, the author notes that there has been very little in the way of spirituality when it comes to career development. In their research Bloch (the author of the article) and his associate Richmond, (1997) wanted to develop some practical approaches in order to help individuals experience the sense of connectedness between spirituality and work. As a result, they identified seven connectors between spirit and work that assist individuals in maintaining the sense of interconnectedness. 

The seven connectors are as follows:

·      Change: Being open to change in yourself and the world around you.

·      Balance: Achieving balance among the activities of your life such as work, leisure, and family

·      Energy: Feeling that you always have enough energy to do what you want to do

·     Community: Working as a member of a team or community of workers

·     Calling: Believing that one is called to the work one does

·     Harmony: Working in a setting that harmonizes with one's talents, interests, and values 

·    Unity: Believing that the work one does has a purpose beyond earning money.

The authors mention that spirituality enables each individual to consider his or her own contribution to the world, to the ongoing creation of the universe. I definitely believe that people are called to do certain jobs, and that they find meaning in their work by being able to do the work that they were called to do. I believe that everyone has his or her special talents and skills that were given to them by God, and that they are able to hopefully put them to good use in their chosen careers. It is hopeful that inventories and career development assessments will allow a better understanding into some of these skills that may align well with a specific career.

Blog 5

            While reading about second-order changes as well as synchronicity, I began to ponder the emotional experiences that occurs for people during these times. After reading over the posts from my classmates, a theme seemed to be emerging. Most people who discussed their personal “aha” moments report a seemingly positive experience. Some of my peers reported feeling more encouraged and enlightened while others report emotions reminiscent of clarity and a sense of “being in the right place” as it relates to their career development. I cannot help but ponder if there is a correlation between the two. Do we recall these second-order changes in such great detail not only because of the transcendence that occurs within the self, but also because of the salient positive emotional experience? Also, do these experiences ever result in a negative emotional state?

            Second-order changes (the “aha” moments) and the emotional experiences that seem to occur simultaneously reminded me of Abraham Maslow’s concepts of peak experiences and self-actualization. Peak experiences are defined as being moments of extreme happiness and fulfillment (Engler, 2014). Those who strive to reach self-actualization tend to encounter peak experiences at a higher rate than those who have not. This research makes me wonder if second-order changes are necessary for a person to truly have a peak experience, and thus be further along the road to self-actualization.

            While reading the Guindon and Hanna (2002) article, I also felt a great sense of inspiration. In each of the case studies, the counselor played a chief role in the client’s experience of transcendence. Through their guidance and support, clients were able to accept their true self and their true aspirations. In a field where burn out is high and there are a lot of stories about “what not to do,” it is both inspiring and motivating to hear case studies that were so positive.

References:

Engler, B. (2014). Personality Theories: Ninth Edition. United States: Wadsworth Cengage

Learning

Guindon, M. & Hanna, F. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of

            God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 195-208.

Woops! - again..(not a reference to B. Spears)

If I were to every start my own private practice or mental health center, hiring a business manager would be my most crucial task.  I don't consider myself to be totally ignorant of the workings of technology but I certainly don't represent the technical savvy commonly associated with my generation.  Despite the fact that I have been absent from the present forum for all five weeks of class, I have been diligently writing in a blog I had created for the class, thinking that it was automatically accessible to Dr. Baker.  As a result, following the most relevant blog entry for the current topic, will be the posts that were mistakenly posted to an unconnected blog.  

In the process of analyzing and critiquing career development literature for class, I have regularly found my opinions changing as I go through the discussion prompt.  At the start of the semester I was skeptical of the usefulness of the career counselor's focus on spirituality and a search for larger life meaning.  In short, I saw career guidance as a solely problem-focused approach that had no use for deeper exploration of meaning.  

This week's study of Jung's theory of synchronicity has been particularly persuasive support of the validity of ethereal content in session.  In my formal post I argue that we, who make up the Psychology discipline, are anxious to shed the label of "soft science" and increase the empirical validity of the work we do in line with medical interventions.  The goal of psychological research is, in essence, to quantify abstract concepts for the purpose of proving or disproving its existence.  If it's agreed that the variable cannot be measured, it is regarded as fantasy.  I wonder if we have not devalued in depth exploration of spirituality in career choice and mental health to the detriment of the individuals seeking our help.  Are we missing the obvious path to meaningful change because we cannot accept something our contrived measurement system cannot detect? 

    

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Woops.

Hello!  Here I am again, posting twice in the same night!  Why am I doing this?  Well, you may notice that I neglected to post before the due date last week, so here I am making up for it now!  What the heck happened last week, self?!

Always lurking around the corner is a big, furry, purple, polka-doted monster and he's waiting for the moment when it seems I have my life organized.  About once a semester, at the perfect opportunity he will strike by disrupting my routine with a life curve ball.  Last year was when my roommate left the house to seek drug treatment.  The year before I was battling depression.  Every year I try to make things different but the monster is just so sneaky!  I know, I know, I didn't hand in my work in time and here I am now doing a blog post a whole week after it was due!  In the past I have not been able to pick myself up from this type of stumble very easily but this time was different.  I don't know if it is because of the counseling I am getting, the medications, or both (probably both), but that lug of a monster wasn't so quick and I could see him coming.

Over the week of Labor Day I was just starting a new job and had my days thrown off because of the Monday holiday.  All week I basked in the plethora of time I had to complete my work and was feeling mighty good about it.  On Thursday a failed root-canal and pain medication that put me to sleep was the monster's trick to steal my focus.  Unfortunetly, that week he succeeded in distracting me from responsibilities but this time I was able to shake from his grasps before the consequences began to escalate.

How does any of this relate to career development?  The first, obvious, point is that it is neither productive nor sustainable to have a working style that is unreliable and unstable.  Second, I feel there needs to be much better career education in schools.  It's possible that I am having such a difficult time subscribing to the theories we have studied so far because a detailed, in-depth, career education is not something I had ever experienced.  Although impossible to tell, I might have discovered the way to thwart the monster much sooner in life, if my teachers had been focusing on basic skills early in school.  For example, my lack of organizational skills got me in trouble in grade school when I would forget my homework all the time and keep a messy desk.  Maybe I'd be a rich entrepreneur by now if only I could keep my on track 100% of the time.

Girl Gets Ice Cream, Has Revelation

Last night I was grabbing a little late night snack at the grocery store.  I rounded the corner to make a final stop at the bakery section but got caught behind an older woman who was clearly not as hungry as I was.  She looked a little disheveled with a tank top and athletic shorts.  Her dyed hair with roots exposed was gently hanging to one side in a ponytail.  I noticed some scabs on her arms and legs and with her sandals had on thick blue socks with a rubber design on the sole to prevent sliding.  Aha! I would recognize those socks anywhere as the kind you get in a psychiatric hospital when you are not allowed to have shoes.

When I consider this woman in the context of this career development course, I wonder what career guidance services are available to her.  Abraham Maslow was a 20th century psychologist who developed a model for understanding a hierarchy of human needs.  At the bottom, or the most basic, are the necessities of life such as food, shelter, health, etc.  As you move up the ranks, you find needs such as safety and at the very top is self-actualization.  I have found most of the treatment models we have covered in class to focus on the client who is in the upper echelons of needs.  The person who has fulfilled all of their more basic needs, has the psychological space to consider which careers align with their personal actualization.  In contrast, the woman from the supermarket might not have the mental energy to consider such a question when she must devote her focus to buying food, paying rent, and living in a dangerous neighborhood.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Getting a different view

It might only be two weeks into the semester but I'm seeing the potential for an unexpected benefit of taking Career Development and Multicultural Counseling during the same semester.  Sometimes when I am recalling information from the text of either course, the facts from both merge.  If I had taken Career development earlier in my coursework, I might have formed opinions of the topics from the perspective of my life experiences. I might have neglected the influence that the larger social system has on every aspect of our lives, including work. Those who associate with a minority group are too often handicapped by majority social values.  The types of jobs available to them, the atmosphere of the workplace, and average wage, for example, are influenced by the entire span of our culture's history. To only consider counseling techniques and potential client needs from my spot in the world, would be shortsighted and culturally insensitive. No client will find positive change with a therapist who has no sense of how their social orientation differs from people of infinite variety of backgrounds.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

What is this?!?!

          Until the first day of class, I had not considered career guidance to be an aspect of Clinical Psychology.  In fact, until the overview of the syllabus I was under the false impression that the course was about how I could expect to develop in my own chosen career.  I have very little knowledge of career guidance and I was never a consumer of the service.  After the first chapter of the text, I feel quite skeptical of the topic.  There lacked a clear exhibit of the foundational theories that propel the need to improve career education and provide more access to career guidance.  In chapter one of Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development the authors layout significant events in the history of career guidance and education (Brown, 2012).  Publications like the Dictionary of Occupational Titles in the 1930s cataloged available fields, professions, and job descriptions for the first time but I just can’t seem to grasp why this is so important!

            Intuitively I understand that a person’s daily working life can have a monumental effect on mental health.  I have personally experienced depression triggered by an awful working experience.  For two years I had been working with a difficult client with whom boundaries were difficult to maintain due to his approved treatment hours and the duality of working in both the school and home.  An adult suffering psychologically because of a job can be helped with improved coping skills, alternative cognitions, or motivation to find a new position.  Guidance should come from a professional who is knowledgeable about a variety of careers and educational requirements.  Gender, culture, race, and education all have the possibility of influencing the jobs available to a client.  Therefore, the professional should be trained to conceptualize how those personal factors manifest to bring about the client’s unique circumstances.  The relevance of career guidance to an adult who is experiencing turmoil at work.  High school students are especially primed for career guidance as they get closer to graduation and making educational decisions for the future, but its application to elementary school curriculum is not as obvious.

            Is there any evidence that children who receive career education early in their schooling are more satisfied with their job in adulthood?  Is the goal of career education to expose children to a variety of available professions or to teach job skills?  Can it be shown that the career information provided in elementary school is retained years later?  None of these queries were granted a satisfactory answer in the text and I feel they need to be answered for career education to be perceived as necessary and effective.

 

 Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

 

Posted by Caitlynn Hill at 5:26 PM No comments:  

Synchronicity and Coincidence

When reading the article by Guindon and Hanna about Coincidence, Happenstance, and Synchronicity as well as many other topics covered, I particularly enjoyed reading about synchronicity and coincidence. Confidence has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Coincidence helped me get to Millersville. I never had planned on visiting Millersville when I was setting up graduate school visits. I was working with my Aunt who was helping me facilitate where to go and who I should see, but I was trying to make sure I was picking the schools by myself. But one day, as I was about to finish up sending e-mails to all the graduate offices at the schools I was visiting I randomly decided to look at Millersville University. It was close to my home in Harrisburg, and was became interested in it. I set up a meeting and ironically the last school that I called became the first school I visited.

I walked into Millersville with my fiancé and went to the graduate school office. The director of graduate studies was out of the office, so I had the pleasure to meet with the Dean of Graduate Studies, Dr. Victor DeSantis. He ended up knowing my Aunt very well, and we began talking to him about my future and instantly I felt a fit. Dr. DeSantis helped me get where I am today, and who would have known that a year later, I would be working as his Graduate Assistant in the Civic and Community engagement office where he is the director of.

Synchronicity is also very interesting to me. Reading about the 3 forms, I have instances from all of them. As I read other’s reflections for the discussion post this week, I was able to look at synchronicity in a whole new light. Synchronicity is defined as the “occurrence of a meaningful coincidence in time” (Guindon & Hanna, 2002). These meaningful coincidence can help mold us into our future selves or in terms of career development, our future careers. But sometimes these meaningful coincidences are ignored or not thought that they mean anything. As career counselors, we can use these meaningful coincidences to find the inner thoughts and feelings of our clients, and help them use these coincindences to find answers about themselves that they may have thought would always be left unanswered. 

Coincidence is apart all of our lives, and with the 3 forms of synchronicity, we can look at clients in an entirely different light allowing us to help them use their coincidences to help them find their preferred career path or find their true feelings about the career that they are in. This research and readings that we do only allows us to become better career counselors for all of our future client’s. Now we will be more prepared to help them find a meaningful career that can leave to long term success, but most of all, happiness.

Resource

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

Week 5.

Reading the Guidon and Hanna Article this week, really made me reflect on things that have happened in my life that given me the "aha" moment. It also made me think, "Are the things that have worked out in my life been a coincidence or have truly happened for a reason? In my post I discussed my coincidence moment. I was just about to give up my apartment and call my teaching job search off in Lancaster County. I knew I wanted to stay in the area, but could not support myself financially unless I landed a full-time teaching position. For those of you who know the world of education, it is difficult to find a full-time teaching position as someone who has no experience, and in the middle of December. The day after I received an email from Dr. Long that told me  that she passed my name along for a full-time special education position in the School District of Lancaster. I ended up getting the job and loving it. It has been a year and a half, and don't get me wrong, It has definitely had its challenges however, especially being in a city school, however I enjoy my job and the rewards it gives me. 


The case studies in the article really interested me. The first form with the first case study made me weary if they were actually even real case studies. For his best friend to randomly have a press that the client wanted all along to fulfill his life-long dream is not just a coincidence! It was a crazy coincidence. The second form, however, to me was making the unconscious, conscious. It was showing something that would eventually happen in the future. I thought it was very interesting. The last case study, also made the unconscious, conscious. For the dream to transform after the client became happen was extraordinary. This article has really enlightened me to different theories, ideas, and concepts, I did not even think about it when initially thinking about the idea of career development. 

Reading posts from other students in the class, is very beneficial, however I really connected with the posts that Kyle and Caitlynn wrote. The ideas and articles that were posted by each of them added depth and knowledge to me about this concept. I also enjoyed reading about the forms of Jung's synchronicity that each of them have experience throughout their life times. It just shows you how chance and coincidences are live and well. Counselors must embrace them and work with them and the clients, in order to be successful.  


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

Reflecting Guindon and Hanna

     I have a difficult time putting full belief in Guindon and Hanna's (2002) concepts of synchronicity because I feel most of it is coincidence and people putting meaning to ideas or concepts where there might not necessarily be any. I think, as humans, we strive to put meaning into every event and occurrence in our lives because we fear the unknown and sometimes use this meaning to make excuses for ourselves. I do believe that "aha" moments exist, but it is because we recognize what has been an underlying thought all along. I feel individuals often suppress their true yearning for a certain career path because it is not what others, such as family, might want them to do or they do not believe it is attainable due to several reasons such as money, education, etc. 

     I do believe, however, that if a client believes in synchronicity then, as a counselor, we should accept this and encourage it. I feel that if a client believes in these reasons then it helps them come to terms to their 'true calling.' It might give the client the extra push to open up and gain insight into themselves. I also believe that the postmodern approach is a useful one, but I do feel that it would be best mixed with the modern traditionist approach because the interaction of the two realities and causalities are important in how career development works. I do not think that one approach is superior to the other, but the interaction of the two is ideal.

     The interesting thing I found in the article was the recognition that all three clients had self-imposed limitations. I feel individuals do this often to avoid getting hurt, but in reality, these limitations they put on themselves is what is doing the most harm. I feel that the self-imposed limitations should be recognized in career counseling and the counselor can assist the client in finding ways to overcome the limitations they believe they have. I think this is also a result of low self-esteem and fear that they will not be good enough. Self-esteem is a major issue that many counselors encounter and I feel that in career counseling it is just as important. This self-esteem problem being solved can allow the limitations to be overcome.

     It is quite possible that I need to be more open-minded in regards to the concepts of synchronicity and the postmodern view, but I do recognize that they are important and can be effective if utilized appropriately. I hope to learn more in regards to combining the modern traditionist and postmodern approach because, as I mentioned previously, I believe that this would be most effective in assisting a client in their career development process. I do still take issue in dream analyzation but can see the value in a client self-analyzing a dream because this allows the client to have their own insight to their true inner thoughts and gives the counselor information as well. 

Reflecting the Reflection

After countless conversations with my parents, aunts and uncles, my genogram is complete. I figured out two things; the major role my family played in my career development, and how little I knew about the careers of family members.  I may not have known much about their occupations, but that is not the important information I need to reflect on in my career development. The values, beliefs, and the guidance they taught and instilled in me is what I need to reflect on and its impact on my career development.

The Genogram had me reflect on my family history, way past the scope of the career dimension. The Genogram made me realize the wide range of occupations of my family members.  In my reflection, I focused on the struggles my grandparents faced as immigrants, the strong academic background and values of my parents and the obstacles my aunt faced as a single mother. But, one person I never talked about or analyzed was myself. I never focused on how the combinations of all these factors merged together to make me the person I am today.

I realized my strong work ethic and values not only came from my parents, but all my family members.  I never realized how Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas mornings with my relatives helped shape my life.  I never realized that I learned the values and beliefs of all my family members while eating turkey and opening presents. I listened to stories about accomplishments and failures throughout the year that made me work harder and smarter each day.  I remember complaining to my parents about the long trips to my grandparents for the holidays when my friends were going to Florida or some other extravagant vacation.  My grandparents are gone now, and I would not have traded those trips for anything. 

I learned so much from my cousin with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  To this day, he is the person I think about when I get discouraged or have what I think are insurmountable challenges.   He has overcome so many challenges to become a Civil Engineer and is now engaged to be married.  It is clear to me now that all my family members have played a role in my career development.

In discussing the Genogram with my dad, I discovered that one of the reasons my dad changed jobs, when I was born, was to be closer to his family.  He wanted his children to be close to their grandparents so they could be exposed to the same work ethic and values that he learned.  I hope I can have the same opportunities with my career endeavors. 

My genogram reminded me of where I came from and where I am going.  This is a powerful gift.

Insights from Guidon and Hanna Article

While reading the Guidon and Hanna (2002) article, I thought back to when I had my “aha” moment in my career development process. Prior to this moment, I had it pretty easy and thought I knew exactly where I was going. I was going to Arcadia University to become a physical therapist. During my time there I kept losing sight of my final goal and needed to make a change. I transferred to Millersville where I emerged myself in all psychology courses possible. I decided I would get a mock internship with a physical therapist to gain experience and to truly see if this was the career I could see myself in. My internship left me with confusion and frustration. I had just spent the past couple of years with my goals set of becoming a physical therapist and knowing exactly how to get there. At this moment, I did not know what to do. About a week later, we had a speaker come into one of my psychology courses to speak about their internship opportunities over summer. I thought to myself well, you have nothing to do over summer and you get to work with kids at a camp, how bad could it be? By the end of the summer I had my “aha” moment. I knew that psychology is right where I needed to be and I was going to make this my new goal in my career process.

From looking at my own process of second order change I wanted to see the transformations in my family from the genogram project. Unfortunately I did not think about this sooner when completing the project but the Guidon and Hanna (2002) article brought it to my attention. My father knew he wanted to become a Certified Public Accountant during his senior year, just as I had my dreams of becoming a physical therapist. The difference between us was that he actually found his passion right away. He studied hard and passed his licensing exams and was on his way. I think he reached his “aha” moment when his own business became successful. He had a consistent knowledge of his ultimate career goal but during the process of opening his own business he had his doubts. Once he started making a profit and becoming successful, he reached his moment and realized that this was the right choice for him.

My father and I are one and the same. We both hold high importance to helping others and doing the best you can. I have had these values passed on to me my entire life. He also taught me to just let things happen. If something negative occurs, roll with it and learn from it. I think this is similar to the Mitchell, Levin, and Krumbotlz (1999) article I found on chance. Both my father and the article propose to allow fate to run its course and have the person gain insight from this and create new experiences. By recognizing environmental differences, a person can learn much more than by forcing their future.  

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

Mitchell, K., Levin, A., and Krumboltz, J. (1999). Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities. Journal of Counseling and Development, 77(2), 115-124.