Philosophical Counselling

Many of the problems we face are inescapable parts of being a human: death, finding a meaningful life, tragedy, suffering, moral conflict, relationships, failure and success. Philosophers have been finding ways to deal with these issues for over 2,000 years for the benefit of themselves and others. Philosophical counselling continues this ancient tradition.

Modern philosophical counselling encourages clients to develop their own philosophical position with regard to these issues, and draws on 2,000 years of the most profound thinkers to inspire and challenge the client.

Unlike some therapies, philosophical counselling does not treat the client as ill or sick, but rather as a concerned individual confronted with difficulties that are an unavoidable part of human existence.

For a taste of what philosophy can do for you, please book your place on the Philosophy for Life Course.

Reasons for booking:

• Clients often come to philosophical counselling focused on a specific issue. 
• The issue can be personal, moral, social, professional or behavioral. 
• Sessions focus on getting a deeper understanding of the issue and your underlying goals, values, priorities, beliefs, expectations, habits and/or choices.

Possible outcomes:

• Resolution of your issue.
• Develop your own philosophy of life.
• Ability to formulate a coherent and fruitful life-plan.
• Ability to respond wisely to adversity and obligations.
• Improved ability to deal with conflict at work and home, make decisions and interact with others.

Each of us has a philosophy of life, but few of us have had time to become fully conscious of it or develop it. Without a consciously developed philosophy our actions can become contradictory and self-defeating. It can also, therefore, make formulating our plans into the future difficult.

The primary intentions of philosophical counsellors are to help their clients uncover their own inner philosopher, in order to help them to formulate their own philosophies of life for themselves. Philosophical Counselling is designed to empower individuals to take charge of their own lives, and thus it is typically short-term.

Anyone who has a issue or problem that would benefit from philosophical analysis.

This includes all ages from children to centenarians as well as all genders and people from all cultures and belief systems (although sessions will be conducted in English).

“Let no one who is young put off engaging in philosophy, nor anyone who is old weary of it.  For no one is either too young or too old to attend to the health of the soul. To say either that it is not yet the time to engage in philosophy or that the time has passed is like saying that it is either not the time or no longer the time for happiness.”           

                    Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus” (circa 310-270 BC)

Philosophy is concerned with learning how to think well about questions of deep interest to us.

Philosophy:

• Uses reason and logic.
• Uses dialogue (with others or oneself) to develop our thinking.
• Relates particular concrete examples to general principles.

The hope is that by doing philosophy we learn to think better to improve the quality of all our lives.

The questions it considers are central to living a human life, yet cannot be answered by experiments.

Some key questions include: 

• How should we live? (ethics)
• How can we reason correctly? (logic)
• What counts as genuine knowledge? (epistemology)
• What things exist and what are they? (metaphysics)

These questions often relate to each other. For example, to work out how we should live, we should reason correctly.