Empowerment Through Thought

One of the core ways that philosophical counseling is different than therapy is its focus on time. Usually in therapy there is an emphasis on understanding contemporary feelings by exploring related things from your past. Philosophical counseling doesn’t take this approach.

Instead, Philosophers will take you exactly as you are right now (present you) and start exploring. Rather than focus on elements from your personal history and why those expereinces have shaped you into who you are in this moment, philosophers will do two things

(1) Explore whether the ideas you have today are the ideas present you really wants to embrace and

(2) Explore the reasons you are using to support those present ideas.

If it turns out that you either don’t really want to embrace present you’s ideas, or you no longer agree with the reasons you were using to support those ideas, then philosophers will help you explore your options.

This is the way in which philosophical counseling is future focused.

You are not seen as merely a product of past you but as a living breathing bundle of ideas that can be shifted with the right thoughtful reflections. Will this solve all of the pain from your trauma? Absolutely it will not – in fact it turns out there are no easy solutions to that kind of pain. But, what it can do is empower you to start creating who you want to be in the future. It can help you shift your focus from the pain of the past to the possibility of something new.

Philosophers shift the focus to understanding the reasoning behind your contemporary experiences and then offer you tools and resources to help you shape that reasoning process in a way that honors both who you are now and who you want to be going forward.

Imagine creating new structures of thought that can actually help promote more of the kinds of feelings you want in your life going forward. And to do so without having to focus so intensely on the massive injustice you experienced at the hands of the people who have hurt you. This is philosophical counseling.

Learn more about what I do with my philosophical counseling clients ​here.