Introduction to Philosophical Counselling

Joel Zoramthansanga
Introduction
Who am I? What do I really know? Where am I going? Where should I go? Here are four
fundamental questions of concern to us all. There are more than thirty of the most important
philosophers, from Pythagoras to the present tried to tackle these questions.1 During the 1970s
philosophy began to interest psychiatrists, psychologists and other practitioners who deal with
issues of mental health. In particular, existentialism and phenomenology became inseparable
components of their therapeutic mission. Indeed, in the end, some philosophers, encouraged by
this interest in philosophical knowledge and skills, accepted the challenge and began helping
people to reflect on everyday issues.2 The practice of ‘Philosophical Counselling’ can be found
in a growing list of countries that already includes Germany, the U.S.A., the U.K., The
Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Spain, Canada, Israel, Turkey and South
Africa.3

1. Brief Historical Background of Philosophical Counseling

Philosophy exists or occurs at a date earlier than psychotherapy as a way to address painful and
disturbing life problems.4 Even before Socrates, philosophers helped people to think through
their problems.5 It is a rebirth of something very old, perhaps close to the authentic origin of
philosophy, for example Socrates´ philosophical dialogues at the town square in Athens, or the
philosophers in ancient India and China, who ordinary people could come and consult regarding
their daily problems.6
Philosophers such as Zeno the Stoic, Epicurus, and others viewed philosophy as a practical aid to
effective living. Over the years, however, philosophy has become an almost purely academic

1
Alex Howard, Philosophy for Counseling and Psychotherapy: Pythagoras to Postmodernism (New York:
PALGRAVE, 2000), xiv.
2
Blanka Sulavikova, “Questions for Philosophical Counseling,” in Human Affairs 22 (n.m.:2012): 131.
3
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,” South African Journal of Philosophy
32/1 (June, 2013): 60-70.
4
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,” Professional Psychology:
Research and Practice 36/5 (n.m., 2005): 558–565.
5
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,” 60.
6
Philosophical Counseling as an Alternative to Psychotherapy,
https://mortentolboll.weebly.com/philosophical-counseling-as-an-alternative-to-psychotherapy.html (Accessed on
28/11/ 2018)

1
discipline detached from day-to-day personal concerns.7 A philosophical Counseling practice
was opened by the German philosopher Gerd Achenbach8 in the first of May of 1981. In 1982 he
founded the German Society of philosophical practice,9 opened a philosophical practice near
Cologne, Germany10 and ever since the phenomenon has spread all over the world.11 The
movement received popular attention as a result of several well written popular books about
ways that philosophy can assist people with life crises and decisions.12
Philosophical counseling associations can now be found in Germany, France, the Netherlands,
the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and other countries. In the United States,
philosophical counselors may belong to academic (the American Society for Philosophy,
Counseling, and Psychotherapy); or professional societies (the American Philosophical
Practitioners Association, or the American Philosophical Counseling Association). Philosophical
counseling appears to be a loosely connected movement with several organizations and many
individuals who share a love of philosophy and a common goal of using cherished philosophical
wisdom as a means to improve the day-to-day lives of individuals.13

2. Meaning of Philosophical Counseling

Philosophy investigates basic life-issues such as what is a meaningful life, what is true love, and
what is morally right or wrong. These issues concern not only philosophy professors, but every
person who is capable of reflecting on his or her life.14
The term “philosophical counseling” is commonly used to include any form of counseling
sessions between a philosopher-practitioner who serves as a philosophical counselor, and an

7
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,” 60.
8
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,” 60.
9
Morten Tolboll, Philosophical Counseling as an Alternative to Psychotherapy,
https://mortentolboll.weebly.com/philosophical-counseling-as-an-alternative-to-psychotherapy.html (Accessed on
28/11/ 2018)
10
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,” 60.
11
Morten Tolboll, Philosophical Counseling as an Alternative to Psychotherapy,
https://mortentolboll.weebly.com/philosophical-counseling-as-an-alternative-to-psychotherapy.html (Accessed on
28/11/ 2018)
12
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,”, 60.
13
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”Professional Psychology:
Research and Practice 36/5 (n.m., 2005): 559.
14
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and
Psychotherapy, edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Samuel Zinaich, Jr., (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2013), 83.

2
individual counselee. Typically, the two meet once (or more) a week for several weeks or
months, and together reflect philosophically on the counselee’s personal life and predicaments.15
Philosophical counseling can be seen as an attempt to revive those ancient Hellenistic
philosophical traditions, such as Stoicism16 and Epicureanism17, which sought to guide the
individual towards the good life.18

2.1. Definition of Philosophical Counseling by Marinoff

Contemporary Philosopher Marinoff19 describes Philosophical Counseling in terms of five stages
which he calls it the ‘PEACE’ process: Problem, Emotion, Analysis, Contemplation,
Equilibrium. In the first two stages, the problem and the emotional reactions that it triggers are
identified. These emotions must be experienced authentically and expressed beneficially. For
Marinoff “most psychology and psychiatry never progress beyond this stage”.20 In the third stage
options for addressing the problem are listed and weighed. In the fourth stage the client obtains a
“philosophical disposition” through exploring, with the counselor, the philosophical framework
within which what transpired in the first three stages would make sense to the client. This then
leads to the fifth stage in which the client reaches equilibrium, that is, “understands the essence
of [his/her] problem and are ready to take appropriate and justifiable action”. 21 As such, the
whole process involves a variety of skills like empathetic listening, objectification (i.e. taking a
step back), logical reasoning, conceptual analysis, critical and creative thinking, synthesizing a
variety of particulars, and seeing things in perspective.22

15
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 83.
16
An ancient Greek school of philosophy founded at Athens by Zeno of Citium. The school taught that
virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified
with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and
pain.
17
An ancient school of philosophy founded in Athens by Epicurus. The school rejected determinism and
advocated hedonism (pleasure as the highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was regarded more
highly than physical, and the ultimate pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental pain, especially that
arising from needless fear of death and of the gods.
18
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 84.
19
Lou Marinoff is originally from Canada, he is Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies at the City
College of New York (CCNY), and founding President of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association
(APPA). He has authored international bestseller –Plata Not Prozac, The Power of Dao. The New York Times
weekend magazine called him “the world most successful marketer of philosophical counseling…(see
http:/www.globalthinkersforum.org/people/lou-marinoff-phd/) (Accessed on 6/1/2019)
20
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,”, 62.
21
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,”, 62.
22
Dirk Louw, “Defining Philosophical Counselling: An Overview,”, 62.

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2.2. The Goal of Philosophical Counseling
The goal of Philosophical Counseling must be to use philosophical methods to help clients
critically reflect on the ideas and worldviews associated with specific occurrent practical life
problems. Because of this focus on the “troubled” individual, the institutional setting for the
practice of philosophical counseling must also differ from that of traditional philosophy.
Philosophical counselors are not teachers who offer some set curriculum to a general audience,
rather, they must respond to the specific problems of their clients.23
This is the goal of philosophical counseling as according to Ran Lahav is to help counselees
understand the narrow perimetral worldview in which they are imprisoned, and to inspire them to
transcend their prisons walls in order to enrich and deepen their lives. In Platonic terminology,
we might say that the goal is to understand the cave in which we are imprisoned, and eventually
to step out of it.24

Philosophers believe that feelings and emotions are not simply irrational events. A number of
well-known philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Sartre etc., disagreed that an emotion
does not simply come up from the dark unconscious but it is set in motion by perception, a
certain way of understanding the world. Therefore, they believe that a negative feeling or
emotion about oneself, can be changed by critically examining oneself perception and his/her
worldview. The goal of Philosophical counseling is not simply to resolve a client’s immediate
problem but to educate the client in more effective ways of thinking so that if a problem arises
again, the client will be better able to deal with it on his/her own. 25

3. The Individual’s Worldview

One important point from the transformational thinkers is the realization that the individual’s
everyday life is normally limited and superficial. Our behaviors, emotions, and thoughts are
confined to a narrow and rigid repertoire which falls short of the potential fullness and richness
of life. This is because, to a large extent, we follow fixed and automatic emotional and

23
Roger Paden, “Defining Philosophical Counseling,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy,
edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Samuel Zinaich, Jr., (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), 27.
24
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 92.
25
Perter B. Raabe, What is Philosophical Counseling, http://www.peterraabe.ca/what.html (Accessed on
15/1/2019)

4
behavioral patterns, which do not give voice to deeper resources in us—sources of sensitivity, of
inspiration, of wisdom. Ran Lahav calls this superficial repertoire the person’s perimeter.26

3.1. Perimeter Worldview

A perimeter is the limited range within which the person’s habitual behaviors, emotions, and
thoughts are normally confined. It can be seen as a kind of personal prison, analogous to Plato’s
cave. Just like Plato’s prisoners, we are usually not aware of the fact that we are confined to a
limited segment of life.27 A perimeter is sustained by powerful psychological forces, or
mechanisms, but we are usually not aware of them. We are so accustomed to our habitual
behaviors and emotions that they feel to us normal, spontaneous, authentic and free. Indeed, for
counselees in philosophical practice it is usually a surprise, even a shock, to discover the narrow
and rigid patterns which they normally follow unthinkingly. Usually, we notice our perimeter
only when we find ourselves struggling against it. For example, it is only when a talkative person
tries being quiet, or that a shy person tries behaving boldly, that they realize how difficult it is to
transcend their habitual boundaries.28

3.2. Perimetral Worldview:

A perimetral worldview is, then, the understanding of life which is expressed in the person’s
habitual patterns. It is the person’s way of responding—not mainly in words, but in behaviors
and emotional reactions—to basic life-questions such as: What is love? What is meaningful in
life? What does it mean to be authentic? We might say that a worldview is the person’s implicit
“philosophy of life,” although it is rarely expressed in words. And, of course, it need not be deep
or even tenable. In short, a perimeter is the person’s habitual patterns, as well as the worldview
(or “philosophy of life”) which these patterns express. Taken together, these two points suggest
that individuals are usually imprisoned in a narrow understanding of life—in other words, in a
limited perimetral worldview—and that these prison walls, though powerful, can be opened. One
important way to do so is through philosophical reflection. Philosophy deals with ways of
understanding life, and it can therefore be used to examine and modify those prison walls.29

26
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 92.
27
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 92.
28
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 92.
29
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 92.

5
4. Types of Philosophical Counseling

4.1. Narrow-Scope Philosophical Counseling

Philosophical counselors differ widely in their views of the profession’s scope of practice. The
term Narrow-Scope Philosophical Counselors is used to refer to those who address issues that
typically appear outside the realm of psychotherapy and within the realm of philosophy
(including ethical, metaphysical, political, and logical problems). Clients may seek philosophical
counseling for a practical problem, such as a professional ethical dilemma. They may seek
counseling to consider epistemological, worldview, or conceptual issues, such as “what gives life
dignity or what makes life worthwhile”, or they may seek to learn philosophical ways of thinking
so that they can handle future problems. Particular attention is paid to the relationship of
philosophical ideas e.g., “those related to the nature of freedom, the morality of lying, the
meaning of love,” and the client’s life situation.30

4.2. Broad-Scope Philosophical Counseling

By way of contrast, the term broad-scope philosophical counseling is used to refer to those who
address issues that typically appear within the realm of psychotherapy. Their goals include
helping people in interpersonal relationships or life crises, or those coping with anxiety or
depression. “If a person seeks ethical [philosophical] counseling, and the counselor has no reason
to believe that the problem is reducible to some physiological or neuropsychiatric dysfunction,”31
Marinoff (1995) contended, “then the counselor will treat the problem as solvable exclusively in
a moral dimension”.32 Consistent with a broad-scope perspective, Raabe (1999) asserted that “the
philosophical counsellor’s intention is to help his/her client reach any reasonable and morally
permissible goal the client has set for himself/herself”.33

5. Philosophical Techniques and Methods

Philosophical counselors also differ in their use of techniques. Some use approaches that overlap
with nondirective psychological approaches, emphasizing the need to listen to others and to
allow them to talk. Others are more directive, using methods similar to those of cognitive or

30
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 559.
31
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 560.
32
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 560.
33
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 560.

6
rational– emotive behavior therapy in which they identify and confront their clients’ irrational
assumptions.34 Philosophical counselors more commonly describe their interventions in
philosophical terms. They provide clients with philosophical content (which may include
relevant “concepts, distinctions, methods, assumptions, etc.,”), often in the form of assigned
homework (philosophical readings). Some focus on one philosopher or philosophical approach.35

Philosophical methods are emphasized, including clarifying the philosophical issues in practical
issues, defining key terms, questioning and critically analyzing presuppositions and basic
principles, and identifying and correcting problems in thinking (e.g., identifying and eliminating
inconsistencies and contradictions). Philosophical counselor’s help clients inspect the range of
choices available to them and understand the different points of view on the choices they face.
Finally, they help clients formulate their own philosophical stances and justify their choices. Not
all philosophical counselors think identifying method is a good idea, however. Achenbach, as
Schuster noted, held that philosophical practice opposes “the positivist notion that it is necessary
to have a method” . Achenbach claimed that his practice is “beyond method”.36

6. Approaches to Philosophical Counseling

6.1. The Critical Thinking Approach

The more common type in the philosophical practice world is what can be termed the “Critical
Thinking Approach.” The basic idea here is that philosophy is a critical investigation of
fundamental issues, and, therefore, it employs a variety of thinking tools or techniques, such as
the formulation of arguments, detection of logical validity and fallacies, analysis of concepts, and
exposure of hidden assumptions. These thinking tools, collectively called ‘critical thinking’, can
presumably be used to help counselees analyze their personal problems, their behavior, beliefs,
and emotions. In short, this kind of philosophical counseling is based on the art of reasoning. In
principle, self-examination through reasoning, or critical thinking, can be used for a variety of
goals: in order to develop self-understanding for its own sake; in order to enrich the counselee’s
world; to shatter the counselee’s hidden assumptions and thus facilitate greater openness to life,
etc. But by far the most popular goal in the critical thinking camp is problem resolution: helping

34
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 560.
35
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 560.
36
Samuel Knapp, “A Review and Critical Analysis of Philosophical Counseling,”, 561.

7
counselees to define and resolve their personal problems. Hence, this sub-type of the Critical
Thinking Approach can be called the Problem-Solving Approach of philosophical counseling.
Counselors who follow this approach typically focus on specific personal problems the counselee
wishes to address and solve, such as marital stress, anxiety, or difficulties at work. They use
critical thinking primarily in order to find a solution to these personal problems. The counseling
is regarded as successful to the extent to which at the end of the process the counselee can better
deal with the personal problem at hand. We might say that the ultimate goal here is counselees’
normalization: to enable them to return to normal life with greater satisfaction.37

6.2. Edification Approach

The process of philosophical counseling is viewed not as an attempt to fix a personal problem,
but as a personal journey towards greater wisdom and meaning. The counseling does not end
once a personal problem is solved, but rather is an ongoing process that never ends. Its goal is to
enrich, rather than simplify, counselees’ world, to problematize rather than resolve their personal
problems. This approach can be called the Edification Approach to philosophical counseling.38
It is based on the realization that ideas have an immense power to inspire us and even transform
our lives. Consider, for example, how a new social vision about the plight of the unfortunate can
inspire someone to leave his secure job and start working for the poor, how an environmental
awareness can make a person start behaving in a considerate and frugal way, how a religious
realization can inspire a person to forsake his former ways and become humble and meek, or
how an existential realization about the inevitability of death, or the futility of fame and money,
can motivate an individual to set upon an intense personal journey.39

37
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 85.
38
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 85.
39
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 85.

8
6.3. Casuistical Method40
Clients are often concerned with whether or not a certain course of action is morally acceptable.
For example, a client may approach a counselor in order to inquire whether or not she should
procure an abortion. Given that it is not a counselor’s responsibility to provide “right answers” to
such questions, but rather to help the client come to understand what she believes the right thing
to do is, the counselor may decide to address this issue casuistically. She would then outline to
the client a set of scenarios in which similar moral dilemmas are faced, and ask her what she
believes the right choice to be in those cases—and why she believes this. For example, the
counselor may begin by asking the client why she believes killing to be wrong. If the client
responds that killing causes pain, then the counselor may proceed by asking her whether killing
someone painlessly in his sleep is wrong. If the client believes that it is, then clearly she does not
believe that the wrongness of killing lies solely in the pain that it may cause to the victim.41
Eventually, the counselor may elucidate from the client that she believes that killing is wrong
because it takes away from the killed entity the potential for a certain kind of life. With this in
hand, the counselor may then more directly address the client’s own beliefs concerning the
morality of abortion. Alternatively, the counselor may elucidate from the client that she believes
that it is wrong only to kill an entity that possesses certain kinds of capacities at the moment of
its death. Again, this information may be used by the counselor to help the client reflect more
acutely upon her own views concerning the morality of abortion.42 Counselor must be careful not
to use either the casuistical method nor the elenchus in such a way as to “lead” her client into
making the decision that the counselor believes to be correct.43

40
Casuistical method is of value to both philosophical counselors and academic philosophers leads to a
second similarity between them; that they both aim to increase their clients’ self-awareness and critical thinking,
where the clients of academic philosophers are understood to be their students. On this view, when an academic
philosopher uses the Socratic method in her classroom in order to encourage her students to think more clearly, she
is engaging in a form of philosophical counseling, in that she is encouraging her students to think more critically
about their own worldviews. (Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 85.)
41
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and
Psychotherapy, edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Samuel Zinaich, Jr., (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2013), 72.
42
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,”73-74.
43
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,”, 74.

9
6.4. Contractarian Approach
An alternative way in which a philosophical counselor may help a client come to better
understand her own worldview is through utilizing a contractarian approach to counseling—
again, a technique for counseling drawn from the practice of mainstream philosophy.44
Kenn Cust’s use of the contractarian approach in philosophical counseling is also indicative of
how this practice may interact with academic philosophy. In using the contractarian method,
Cust’s counselor would ask her client to make his decision on the basis of his own values and
worldview. In order to enter into such a hypothetical contract, then, one would have to possess a
fairly substantive motivational set with which to guide one’s decisions. Drawing on the
contractarian approach to philosophical counseling’s recognition of this, one may develop an
objection to the Rawlsian contractarian position that requires persons to make decisions from
behind a veil of ignorance, devoid of all knowledge of their personal characteristics. This
highlights the second way in which philosophical counseling is of central value to the
mainstream of academic philosophy:45 Through their use of standard philosophical methodology,
philosophical counselors are able not only to help their clients address their personal problems,
but they are also able to productively interact with the abstract problems addressed by
mainstream philosophy.46

7. Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy

Many authors agree that philosophical counseling aims toward philosophical self-examination
and understanding through the guidance of a professionally trained philosopher. Yet few can
agree on the specific aims, purposes, or goals of Philosophical Counseling, the content and focus
of sessions, the domain of appropriate clientele, and what truly distinguishes Philosophical
Counselling from psychotherapy.47

Philosophy can never be divorced from psychology, for philosophy is psychological activity.
Represented by many theoretical innovations from Aristotle to Hegel and Freud, reason is the
exalted outgrowth of desire: reason, as well as ethical self-consciousness, is a developmental

44
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,”, 74.
45
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,”, 75.
46
James Stacey Taylor, “The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling,”, 75.
47
Jon Mills, “Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy,
edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Samuel Zinaich, Jr., (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), 101.

10
achievement that matures from the more primitive mental processes that constitute the nascent
soul. From Kant to Fichte and Hegel, intelligence is a systemic psychological organization which
requires the ability to differentiate intuitions, representations and concepts into a meaningful
whole and synthesize them. This is why, for example, Hegel places philosophy at the peak of the
self-articulate totality of the Spirit. Thus philosophical judgment, axiology, and noetic
development are the embodiment of psychological activity.48

Philosophy is not only concerned with human psychology and the nature of what it means to be a
human being, but psychology is a pervasive philosophical issue. In addition, not only
psychological phenomena are discussed in the interpersonal context of counseling, psychological
processes are mobilized, imbued and inextricably engaged in the therapeutic encounter. As such,
philosophical counseling is a philopsychological process that takes place between two or more
people always under the influence of myriad conscious and unconscious mental forces, cognitive
states, affective conditions, subjective and inter-subjective perceptions, persuasions,
suggestibility, interpretations, and distortions, and the explicit and cryptic expectations, hopes,
fears, apprehensions, disappointments, confusion, and anxieties that saturate any helping
dynamic.49

Ran Lahav, on the other hand, views Philosophical Counseling as an intervention that addresses
current life-issues, personal problems, predicaments, and moral dilemmas with the goals of
achieving some form of wisdom and/or ameliorating personal distress.50 He believes this is best
achieved through a “worldview interpretation” as a conceptual framework for practice, but the
“de-psychologizes” his specific approach despite the fact that he suggests elsewhere that
philosophical counseling may perhaps be not that different from psychotherapy. Lahav claims
that since psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis in particular, is primarily concerned with
uncovering underlying causal forces that explain conscious thoughts and behavior, the
philosophical meanings associated with these events become “irrelevant” and are thus dismissed.

48
Gerd B. Achenbach, “Philosophy, Philosophical Practice, and Psychotherapy,” in Essays on
Philosophical Counseling, edited by R. Lahav and M. Tillmanns (Lanham, MD: University Press of America,
1995), 63.
49
Jon Mills, “Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy,
edited by Elliot D. Cohen and Samuel Zinaich, Jr., (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), 101.
50
Ran Lahav, “What is Philosophical in Philosophical Counseling?” Journal of Applied Philosophy 13/3
(n.m., 1996): 1.

11
This is far from the case in many forms of psychotherapy, including phenomenological and
existential approaches, daseinsanalysis and logotherapy, where the search for meaning,
ontological security and philosophical holism are primary therapeutic goals despite unconscious
causal attributions. Lahav commits a theory-method confound: he assumes theory and method
are the same. Psychotherapeutic techniques can be applied in many schools of thought
irrespective of one's theoretical orientation.51
Furthermore, a specific theoretical position that informs technique should not be confused with
the general claim that philosophy stands independent of psychological critique. A preference for
philosophical rather than psychological insight does nothing to advance his case that the pursuit
of philosophical meaning excludes psychological reflection.52
Philosophical counseling is psychotherapy because it:
(i) constitutes a professional relationship whereby a recognized expert is consulted to
render services,
(ii) receives clients for a fee,
(iii) aims toward personal growth, adjustment, autonomy, wellness, increased mental
health, or self-insight,
(iv) professes treatment efficacy,
(v) is pedagogical, preparatory, and constructive, and
(vi) models generalizable skills that can be applied to everyday life.53

7.1. Self-transformation as a Goal of Philosophizing

Looking at the philosophical counseling process as a whole, we can note that it is focused on
self-transformation and in this sense reflects the fundamental vision of transformation thinkers.
In line with their approaches, it recognizes that our daily life is usually limited to a narrow, rigid
and superficial attitude— narrow in the sense that it represents only a tiny portion of human
possibilities; rigid in the sense that it is resistant to change; and superficial in the sense that it
involves primarily the easily accessible parts of our selves, leaving additional inner resources
inactive and dormant. Philosophical counseling is geared toward overcoming this “Platonic

51
Ran Lahav, “What is Philosophical in Philosophical Counseling?”, 5.
52
Jon Mills, “Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy,”, 103.
53
Jon Mills, “Philosophical Counseling as Psychotherapy,”, 104.

12
cave” towards a fuller, freer, deeper life. In the course of the counseling, counselees learn to
understand this potential fullness—not only in words, but mainly through their emotions,
behaviors, and entire range of attitudes. Since this approach revolves around understanding
conceptions of life, it is obviously a philosophical kind of counseling, and it makes use of some
of the rich treasures of ideas which have been accumulated throughout the history of
philosophy.54

The different transformational philosophies can be seen as complementary to each other. There is
no need to decide between Rousseau’s goal of connecting to the natural self and Marcel’s goal of
being a witness to a light. The two address different kinds of perimeters, or human limitations,
and attempt to open the individual to different voices, or to different themes of human
existence.55 Obviously, the goal of self-transformation cannot be achieved in a month or two of
counseling. But it is regarded that philosophical counseling as a moment within the life-long
journey toward a fuller existence. Philosophical counseling is not a time-out from life, not a
preparation for living, but an integral part of life which is a never-ending process.56

8.1. Philosophical Counseling as Therapy

Philosophical Counseling as it was developed two decades back, there are only a few books,
articles and it is not known to many people and even to pastoral counselors. From the appraisal
of philosophical counseling, its goal and techniques, as it investigates basic life-issues related to
psychological activity, helping a client not only resolves his/her immediate problem but educate
them in a more effective and logical way of thinking to deal with the problem by different
approach and methods, it could be one of the therapies which can be integrated in Pastoral Care
and Counseling.

54
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 98.
55
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 98.
56
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self Transformation,”, 98.

13
Conclusion
One of the prominent philosophical counsellor Dr. Peter B. Raabe says, “Philosophical
counselor often deals with individuals who are dissatisfied with other forms of counseling.”
Philosophy Counselling investigates basic life-issues such as what is a meaningful life, what is
true love, and what is morally right or wrong. Philosophical counselors are not teachers who
offer some set curriculum to a general audience, rather, they must respond to the specific
problems of their clients.

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