What is philosophical counselling?
Philosophical counselling (something we refer to as philosophía counselling as a way of connecting with the ancient roots of philosophy itself) is special kind of conversation where two (or more) parties engage in a healthy, respectful and deliberately challenging back and forth.
The counsellor invites you to explore the biggest and perhaps most powerful ideas in your life; What is reality? How does the world really work? What is knowledge? What do I value? How should I act? What really makes me me?
Through this process, a more critical, reflective and coherent picture can emerge that supports your everyday; Is this the right job for me? Should I really move countries? How do I actually want to spend my free time? Should I go back and study? How can I best support my kids in navigating the unique difficulties of modern life?
This deliberately challenging back and forth process often occurs through something called Socratic Dialogue (although many approaches such as Values Clarification, Existential Inquiry, Conceptual analysis, Critical Reflection and Thought Experiments are employed throughout a given session). Here the counsellor inquires into different ideas or perspectives that shape your life. It’s a little like the five why’s; you ask why enough times and you eventually arrive at a core. This core could be complete obliterating uncertainty. Or it could be a well articulated, throughly thought through opinion. Either way it helps clarify (uncertainty is not bad. Understanding the limits of your knowledge has long been thought of as a foundation of wisdom). From this basis, these ideas can be further explored and tested against the world. This is one approach we take at ioēs, but it isn’t the only approach.
Nate is trained in the SMILE_PH method of philosophical counselling, developed by Prof. Luis de Miranda. This approach draws from extensive literature and has been tested in diverse settings, from major corporations through to university’s through to people who have suffered significant spinal injuries. This is a semi-structured approach to philosophical counselling that leads you through a distinctive process; from body, to self, to belonging, to what’s possible, to your purpose and ultimately to the philosophy that binds it all; a meaning-making process that enhances the coherence of your thoughts and actions. A process inspiring and empowering you to live with greater authoricity; a healthy, dynamic combination of authenticity, authorship and authority.
Nate, like many philosophers, believes that much of today’s societal dynamics result in philosophical foreclosure. This means a lot of people never get the opportunity to really explore this dimension of their life. This foreclosure is problematic because existential health, like physical or psychological health (not that they are distinctly separable), massively impacts the quality of our life in ways that are both obvious and subtle. In fact, certain processes that we tend to pathologise may at times result from what you can think of as philosophical disconnected, disruption or suffering. An example of this is depression, a complex phenomena that is sometimes described as the organism’s natural response to ‘eradication of possibility’ (this is not to say that neurophysiological changes aren’t part of this process. They certainly are. This is simply to suggest that not all depression is a simple cause-effect pathological process, but can result from the philosophical or existential dimension of our being suffering in some way. In fact, I’ve had many conversation with people who experience the types of symptoms most commonly associated with the process of depression as a result of some kind of genuine existential crisis, like becoming aware of planetary tipping points for the first time in their life. Much more could be said about this. I shall cover that in future posts).
It is our goal to make philosophía counselling more accessible to individuals, groups and organisations so that more people can benefit from the truth that “thinking can be healing”.
If you've got questions, please contact us.
With φιλία (philía),
Nate
