Exploring the meaning in meaningful coincidences: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of synchronicity in therapy

Synchronicity experiences (SEs)—meaningful coincidences between inner events and external occurrences—can strengthen the therapeutic relationship and provide useful information about the therapeutic process. Based on interviews with nine practitioners (counselors, psychologists, and psychotherapists) who reported SEs in their sessions, three themes emerged: a sense of connectedness, the therapeutic process, and professional issues. SEs are perceived as helpful for overcoming communication difficulties and offering insights into a client's experience of themselves and others, whether or not the client acknowledges the SE or the therapist discloses it.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Synchronicity experiences (SEs) are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (e.g. thought, dream or vision) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. There has been limited systematic research that has investigated the phenomenology of SEs in therapy. This study aimed to redress this by exploring the process and nature of such experiences from the perspective of the practitioner. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of nine practitioners who reported SEs in their therapeutic sessions (three counsellors, three psychologists and three psychotherapists), and focused on how participants make sense of their experiences of synchronicity in therapy. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify three superordinate themes: sense of connectedness, therapeutic process, and professional issues. Findings suggest that SEs can serve to strengthen the therapeutic relationship and are perceived as useful harbingers of information about the therapeutic process, as well as being a means of overcoming communication difficulties, as they are seen to provide insights into the client’s experiencing of themselves and others, regardless of whether or not the SE is acknowledged by the client or disclosed by the therapist.