Week 6-Complexity

I particularly liked last week’s roles activity and class discussion. The perspective of those which differ from mine add great insight into the experience of others. I am often quick to try a new think or embrace a new way of looking at a situation, and I appreciated the questioning spirit of my classmates.  I appreciated the role activity in reflection to who I want to be, how I want to define myself, and wondering does the time I spend in these roles reflect what I write on paper as priorities? How will these roles affect my future career?  When I worked as an Academic Advisor at a community college I always marveled at working, single mothers who managed to take on several classes at a time and do well in the classes.  I wonder how this role activity would be helpful to them?  Moreover, I think this would be helpful to the working, single mothers who have a hard time finding a balance and doing well in classes. Seeing their roles layed out in a “now vs. 5-10 years” may help put the work ahead of them in perspective. 

I appreciated the breadth of experiences and meanings the theory of complexity Bloch (2005) touches. When I started reading this article I found the philosophy initially hard to understand.  It is through the case study and the application to career development where I started to understand the philosophy behind this theory. When I got about a third of the way through the article I went back and re-read the first part and I understood it with more clarity.  

I like how this article touches on the human condition in a holistic way, just as Guindon & Hanna (2002) and Savickas (1995) approached career development. I like this article better because it speaks to the scientist not as in-tune with a spiritual connectedness of life and to the scientists in connection with the spiritual continuum of life. We can all understand how cells, animals, and individuals exist in a chaotic system, are individuals but still only a piece of the whole. 

Sometimes as future counselors we want a theory to utilized practically with clients, and these spiritual articles counter our traditional model of education and what we use in practice, what we consider ‘evidence based’; however, I find these article extremely helpful when I am frustrated in the specificity of positivist theories. Bloch (2005) and Super’s (Brown, 2012) emphasis of exploration, growth, connectedness, and satisfaction of needs seem to be where the career counselor plays the biggest role in guiding a client in understanding. 

Bloch, D. P. (2005). Complexity, chaos, and nonlinear dynamics: A new perspective on career development theory. Career Development Quarterly, 53(3), 194-207.

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

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.

Savickas, M. L. (1995). Constructivist counseling for career indecision. The Career Development Quarterly,43(4), 363-373