Certificate Obtained: Client Counselling, American Philosophical Practitioners Association, at Georgetown University, Washington DC, November, 2002

Announcement:

Certified philosophical counselling and consultation services are now available through Metapra Associates on a fee for service basis. For more information please contact Hugh Williams at Metapra Associates through the various means outlined in this Web Page.

Preliminary Explanation:

   Philosophical counselling or consultation is a practical approach to dealing with issues of daily life through philosophical reflection and self-examination. It is best characterized as an educational effort in self-knowledge and self--improvement. This has been part of the philosophical tradition from its very beginning but has been neglected as philosophy withdrew from the street and market place to the academic departments of universities. This withdrawal has been unfortunate because so many of the very human questions, issues, and problems life presents us with have a philosophical dimension or they may even be philosophical at their core. These can be issues of conflicting beliefs, issues of conflicting values, issues of morals, issues of justice, issues of knowledge, issues of interpretation and evidence, issues of thinking in circles, issues of communication and relationships, issues associated with major life change, or issues of meaning. All life issues have an emotional dimension. Many emotions, however, can be more the result of an underlying problem in beliefs and thinking rather than having their source in an emotional disturbance or a biological disorder that may be more appropriately addressed and treated in psychology or psychiatry. Philosophical counseling often has been described as "therapy for the sane". It is a very old tradition that is intimately connected to the question of what it means to be human.
   A person does not need a background in philosophical study to engage in philosophical counseling or consultation only a desire for self-examination and self-knowledge. Many people have their own sources of practical guidance and inner strength and many people already have a philosophy that more or less works for them. However many people rarely, if ever, consciously and critically reflect upon their philosophical beliefs and yet these beliefs continue to influence the decisions they make and how they act. In situations of rapid and seemingly continuous change personal disquiet, questioning, and conflict will arise for the thoughtful human being where a reevaluation of one's philosophical commitments with a philosophical practitioner, can be helpful. This seems to be especially true in our times when religion in the public arena has retreated before the advance of science and technology leaving us with what many have claimed to be an unprecedented crisis of meaning.
   Philosophical counselling or consultation is talking with a philosophical practitioner. This is dialoguing with another person who is able to draw on some of the ideas of the philosophical tradition and who is prepared to work with you in finding ways for applying these helpful resources to your own unique situation as a person. This is always done in conjunction with your own insights relevant for solving or better coping with the questions and issues of life.


Background Note:

I have always believed this concern for "therapy" or what has been called "care of the soul" in the humanistic Socratic sense, has been a central concern of philosophical thinking and practice from the very beginning. As philosophical practitioners and some psychologists have pointed out this is a rich point of interface between the worlds of psychotherapy and philosophy. There is an intimate interrelationship between our action, emotion, and belief. Many people's problems are more usefully interpreted as issues of meaning - i.e., understanding and finding one's place in the world, rather than as neurosis or psychosis. The renewed movement of philosophical practitioners of the past twenty years, especially in Canada, the United States, and Europe, provides a needed alternative to the tendency to approach all problems in human living with a medical conceptuality, discourse, and treatment. I recall Victor Frankl's insight that some "mental health" issues were caused essentially by a sense of boredom and emptiness derived from having lost any sense of purpose in life. This Socratic orientation has always been essential to my own thinking and practice as a community developer, human services practitioner and manager, and as a teacher of philosophy. I have tried to bring this approach into the varied and rich human services culture that now makes up the work of Metapra Associates.

Hugh Williams