Philosophical Counsel

Do you have personal issues which could benefit from philosophical examination? These could be relating to your career, religion, politics, relationships, or identity. 

Perhaps you went to a psychologist for therapy, or to a life coach, or to a priest, and you found it was not the kind of experience you were looking for. Philosophical counseling is neither therapy nor coaching.

For example, you could be going through an existential crisis. You wonder what in your life is valuable and where you can find meaning. Together, we can discuss what makes a life meaningful, and whether value is found in our activities, or in our relationships, or in something else. We will look at how various philosophers approached these matters, and then we see how those concepts apply to you in your life.

Helpful but Not Therapy

Philosophical counseling is not therapy. From the outside, a session may look like a psychological therapy session: we sit down together and have a private discussion for about an hour. But I don’t aim to “fix” some psychological illness you have and I don’t support people through trauma. 

We certainly may discuss your feelings, your relationships, and other concerns in your life. However, the aim is not therapeutic. The goal is to broaden and deepen your understanding of these matters by offering new perspectives. It might happen that through our discussions your mental and emotional well-being does improve, but that is a fortunate side-effect of the process, it’s not the goal.

As an analogy, someone goes to a personal trainer to help them with their health and fitness. The personal trainer isn’t a psychotherapist nor a productivity expert. But the exercise, personal attention, and routine causes other aspects of their life to improve. They have more energy for their job and become more productive, their mood and sleep gets better, and so on.

Decision Making and Moral Guidance

If you have difficult and significant decisions that you’re struggling with, we can talk through them in a rational way. We will look at the various aspects of your choices, such as the practical consequences, the moral implications, and matters of your personal authenticity.

Together we can try to figure out what is the best thing for you to do. I’m no expert on the practicalities of whatever your problem is, but I am willing to make recommendations if I feel some course of action is better than another. 

Philosophical Discussion

Do you want to have focused philosophical discussion about ethics, values, metaphysics, religion, politics, and so on? Many people need dedicated time and someone to talk about these things in a measured and rational way. We can have regular philosophical discussions on these topics and delve deeply into them. This could involve reading and learning from important philosophical texts.

We can do these discussions in one-on-one sessions or in small groups.