Intuition as a valuable cognitive process in professional counseling

¶ … intuition is considered to be "irrational," and based on unconscious perceptions or beliefs, it is generally devalued or discredited. Yet this article shows that intuition may be a valuable trait in some professions, like counseling and even education. When Jung developed his personality typologies, he did point out that other psychological traits and variables can work alongside and with intuition. For example, persons who are introverted and also oriented towards intuition might be less able to function due to the overwhelming pull towards the world of the unconscious and a simultaneous inability to apply intuitions to the outside world. The introverted and intuitive type experiences a "tension between protecting their visions from influence by others and making their ideas comprehensible and reasonably persuasive to others," leading toward a tendency to be impractical ("Intuition Definition," n.d.). Intuitive people would therefore do well to balance their tendencies with some extraverted actions such as joining social groups and professional organizations and applying intuition in this way.

Research in decision-making and judgment has also revealed ways intuitive people can capitalize on their tendencies to look into the subconscious for answers. The recognition primed decision (RPD) model shows how analytical people who are also intuitive may be the strongest decision makers under pressures of time or in high stakes/high risk scenarios, because intuition allows people to "make relatively fast decisions without having to compare options," (Intuition Definition," n.d.). Moreover, intuition is not something that is mysterious. Researchers often point out that intuition is based on a person's past exposure to ideas or past experiences, not on any paranormal sensibilities. For example, a person who seems to be "psychic" might just be making judgments based on visual and other perceptual cues about a person or a situation. The fact that New Age and other spiritual approaches promote intuition should not detract from the real evidence that highlights the role intuition plays in human decisions and behavior. Law enforcement officers and persons in similar positions who need to remain vigilant and observant of human verbal and nonverbal behavior rely on intuition, but that intuition is grounded in their training on how to read subtle cues.

It is helpful to read articles like this, which place intuition in perspective. While intuition has previously been detached from scientific inquiry, recent evidence is illuminating the ways intuition functions as a normal, standard cognitive process. In fact, the decisions made on "instinct" may be more rational than they initially appear. A person who intuitively takes a different way home might have sensed some change to the environment that did not register in their conscious mind. A missing street light bulb or a soft sound could have serves as warnings to their subconscious, which then sent "gut feelings" that were perceived as intuition. Certainly, there are outlying and rare situations in which people could not have possibly received any prior information such as refusing to board a flight out of an intuition that it would crash. Unless that person had somehow overheard that the pilot of that plane was drunk or that the maintenance crew did not maintain the plane, the intuitive voice might have been picking up information from beyond the typical five senses. These are difficult cases to prove, though, which is why science cannot necessarily account for paranormal and "psychic" activity.