The World Health Organisation recently listed air pollution as the most significant threat to human health. Air pollution comprises particulate matter (PM), metals, black carbon and gases such as ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). In addition to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, PM exposure is linked with increased risk of neurodegeneration as well as neurodevelopmental impairments. Critically, studies suggest that PM crosses the placenta, making direct in utero exposure a reality. Rodent models reveal that neuroinflammation, neurotransmitter imbalance (...) and oxidative stress are triggered following gestational/early life exposure to PM, and may be exacerbated by concomitant mitochondrial dysfunction. Gestational PM exposure (potentiated by mitochondrial impairment in the metabolically active neonatal brain) not only impacts neurodevelopment but may sensitise the brain to subsequent cognitive impairment. Having reviewed this field, we conclude that strategies are urgently required to reduce exposure to PM during this sensitive developmental period. (shrink)

Philosophical counselling is typically conceptualised as a praxis going beyond academic and theoretical philosophy. However, two problems soon follow, namely the lack of agreed-upon methods and a substantial neglect of different philosophical traditions informing its practice. In this article, I propose reconceptualising philosophical counselling as a distinct method through which academic philosophy can be practised. This allows me to introduce an understanding of African philosophy, inspired by African philosophers Chimakonam and Serequeberhan, that might encourage the philosophical counsellor to render academic (...) philosophy more applicable to the counselee. Moreover, it allows for embodied voices talking from an embedded African lifeworld to create new and more relevant concepts that emerge from that lifeworld. (shrink)

Critiques existing theoretical approaches and practices of philosophical counseling and presents a new model.

Philosophical counseling is an educational activity in which philosophers engage in dialogue with clients who wish to address questions or manage problems that arise during the course of everyday life. This chapter offers three contrasting perspectives on the question of what philosophical counselors do: first, an institutional scope of practice for philosophical counseling; second, an anecdotal list of common issues for which clients seek philosophical counseling; and third, a heterogeneous set of views by several pioneers of philosophical (...) counseling. From what we have seen thus far, it may already be clear that there exist both parallels and anti‐parallels between philosophical counseling and psychotherapy. First and foremost, anyone who wants to become a philosophical counselor should earn an accredited graduate degree in philosophy in whichever area of specialization captures their interest. (shrink)

Everyone confronts questions about personal meaning and purpose, family and relationship conflicts, work-related frustrations, midlife crises, life-altering health problems, hard choices, and many more challenges in daily living. -/- Can philosophy help with any of these issues? Advocates of “philosophical counseling” argue it can. Philosophical counseling is the application of philosophical methods, concepts, theories, arguments, and insights to concerns that are traditionally addressed by psychology-based counseling. -/- This essay describes a leading approach to philosophical counseling, known (...) as Logic-Based Therapy (LBT), that has been developed and used since the 1980s. (shrink)

Informed consent is a key condition for prenatal screening programmes to reach their aim of promoting reproductive autonomy. Reaching this aim is currently being challenged with the introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in first-trimester prenatal screening programmes: amongst others its procedural ease—it only requires a blood draw and reaches high levels of reliability—might hinder women’s understanding that they should make a personal, informed decision about screening. We offer arguments for a renewed recognition and use of informed consent compared to (...) informed choice, and for a focus on value-consistent choices and personalized informational preferences. We argue for a three-step counselling model in which three decision moments are distinguished and differently addressed: (1) professionals explore women’s values concerning whether and why they wish to know whether their baby has a genetic disorder; (2) women receive layered medical-technical information and are asked to make a decision about screening; (3) during post-test counselling, women are supported in decision-making about the continuation or termination of their pregnancy. This model might also be applicable in other fields of genetic (pre-test) counselling, where techniques for expanding genome analysis and burdensome test-outcomes challenge counselling of patients. (shrink)

Informed consent is a key condition for prenatal screening programmes to reach their aim of promoting reproductive autonomy. Reaching this aim is currently being challenged with the introduction of non‐invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in first‐trimester prenatal screening programmes: amongst others its procedural ease—it only requires a blood draw and reaches high levels of reliability—might hinder women’s understanding that they should make a personal, informed decision about screening. We offer arguments for a renewed recognition and use of informed consent compared to (...) informed choice, and for a focus on value‐consistent choices and personalized informational preferences. We argue for a three‐step counselling model in which three decision moments are distinguished and differently addressed: (1) professionals explore women’s values concerning whether and why they wish to know whether their baby has a genetic disorder; (2) women receive layered medical‐technical information and are asked to make a decision about screening; (3) during post‐test counselling, women are supported in decision‐making about the continuation or termination of their pregnancy. This model might also be applicable in other fields of genetic (pre‐test) counselling, where techniques for expanding genome analysis and burdensome test‐outcomes challenge counselling of patients. (shrink)

The role of translation in philosophical counselling has not yet been sufficiently acknowledged, despite the importance it might play in multilingual contexts such as South Africa. In these contexts, translation becomes fundamentally philosophical. Concepts and ideas are firstly formulated in one language and translated into another, situated within a philosophical framework. However, this presents a unique challenge: philosophical counsellors are not necessarily translators. To mitigate this potential problem, I argue that philosophical counselling is best conceptualised as incorporating the practice of (...) transcreation – a process of co-creating and co-cultivating meaning through a radical re-interpretative engagement. I turn to two African philosophical traditions to illustrate but also ground this process of transcreation, namely, Tsenay Serequeberhan’s hermeneutic philosophy and Jonathan Chimakonam’s conversational philosophy. Serequeberhan’s notion of a sifting and sieving or a cultural filtration and fertilisation of a living past demonstrates that philosophical inheritance is not passive reception but active reinterpretation, listening, and responding to contemporary needs. Similarly, Chimakonam’s method of conversationalism emphasises how knowledge must be “forged” through dynamic and radically reciprocal conversations grounded in a conversational dialect. With the help of these perspectives, I argue that philosophical counselling embraces a similar process of transcreation, shifting its focus to a radical reciprocity and cross-pollination of co-creatively cultivating different ways of thinking. (shrink)

School Counselling in a Chinese Context discusses research in school counselling in the Chinese context of Hong Kong schools and various educational settings, and provides a contextualized understanding of counselling issues. This book highlights key contextual conditions for counselling in Hong Kong a Chinese society. The sub themes addressed in the book include school practices and teacher perspectives on guidance, counselling, behaviour support and school discipline; whole-school guidance program for identity construction; school counselling for ethnic minority students; contextual influence of (...) the use of play therapy; school counselling for students with minority sexual orientation; Chinese cultural influence on counselling, etc. The book also develops new theoretical orientations to understanding various issues of counselling as arisen in the Chinese society of Hong Kong and helps school practitioners to develop culturally responsive approaches to school counselling for personal growth, spiritual and emotional education. The themes addressed in the book include: School practices and teacher perspectives on guidance, counselling, behavior support and school discipline School counselling for ethnic minority students Contextual and cultural influence of the use of play therapy School counselling for students with minority sexual orientation Chinese culture influence on parental participation in counselling School Counselling in a Chinese Context will be of interest to postgraduates and researchers in the field of Counselling, school psychology, child development and Chinese studies. ". (shrink)

In this paper, we deal with the issue of contradictory beliefs, particularly with regard to Philosophical Counseling: both voices from the philosophical tradition (with no claim of being exhaustive!) and concepts developed by philosophical practitioners will be considered, in order to make clear what a wide range of resources for dealing with contradictions is available to the philosopher who may wish to engage in Philosophical Counseling. Among the philosophical practitioners, we devote special consideration to Ben Mijuskovic and Gerd (...) Achenbach, and this for two main reasons: first, because the issue of contradiction plays a central role in their concept of Philosophical Counseling and, accordingly, it is given special consideration in their writings; second, because their approaches to Philosophical Counseling are so different that by looking at them one can get an impression of the variety of the positions one can adopt in Philosophical Counseling with respect to the issue of contradiction. (shrink)

Multicultural Counseling: Responding With Cultural Humility, Empathy, and Advocacy is divided up into three sections. The first section is comprised of four chapters and explores the counselors' worldview. The second section is made up of 19 chapters that encapsulate the clients' worldview. The third section includes four chapters that demonstrate the application of multicultural counseling by broaching race and culture; providing culturally responsive assessment, diagnosing, and treatment planning; finding a supervisor who prepares advocates; and designing a culturally sensitive (...) workplace. Each chapter opens with questions designed to have counselors consider their beliefs, attitudes, and judgments and how they might show up in their work with diverse clients. Chapters include clinical case scenarios where students can conceptualize cases using empathy, humility, and advocacy. A distinguishing feature of this book is that it includes cultures that may have been overlooked elsewhere. The authors also sought to include various faiths in this text-such as agnosticism, atheism, and indigenous spiritual practices-with hopes that counselors' first experience with such would be in this book rather than on their couches with clients. Another chapter is dedicated specifically to transgender people. The goal of this book is to give learners the framework to begin to understand who the people are that they will be serving. (shrink)

This volume describes the main theoretical aspects of this practice based on an open-ended dialogue between a philosophical practitioner and a client or a group ...

During the last years, more and more countries have introduced a practice of assisted dying in their medical system and regulated it by separate laws or by additions to the existing body of criminal law. In this respect, the two neighboring countries, Germany and Switzerland, are exceptional cases. In both countries, there exists a long‐standing and largely uncontested legal prohibition of euthanasia, but only minimal state regulation concerning assisted suicide. Right‐to‐die organizations face the challenge of filling the gap by defining (...) their own rules. In this, the largest right‐to‐die organizations in both countries are advised by individual ethicists or ethics committees, with the mission to uphold ethical standards. The paper compares the role of ethical counseling in these organizations (in which the authors are the heads of the respective ethics committees) and describes the scope of their counseling work and the extent of their responsibility for maintaining an ethically defensible practice. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 28, Issue 2, pp 103 - 131 Although the distinction between counsel and command in Hobbes’s works, especially _Leviathan_, has been often acknowledged, it has been little studied. This article provides background and analysis of this critical distinction by placing it in conversation with the works of Henry Parker and in the context of the English Civil War, especially as regards the discussion of prudence, interests and crisis. In so doing, three conclusions can be drawn. First, it (...) becomes clear that for both Parker and Hobbes, counsel serves as a foundation to their arguments about the placement and function of sovereignty. Second, in grounding their arguments about sovereignty in the discourse of counsel, both authors – intentionally or unintentionally – undermine the previously critical discourse of counsel. Finally, we see that especially Hobbes’s engagement with and overthrow of the discourse of counsel profoundly alters of the terms and focus of modern political debate, moving from a ‘monarchy of counsel’ to a discussion of political sovereignty. (shrink)

Counseling Ethics for the 21st Century prepares students to address ethical issues arising in contemporary counseling practice. Drawing on their own clinical and practical experiences, authors Elliot D. Cohen and Gale Spieler Cohen present detailed, realistic, and engaging clinical case studies along with a comprehensive five-step model that can be used to manage the complex ethical problems raised throughout the book. Each chapter focuses on particular virtues in the context of examining a particular counseling issue, including online (...) counseling, digital record keeping, and social media. Students will be empowered to define problems, identify relevant facts, conduct ethical analyses, and make the best decisions for their clients. (shrink)

Counselling : Philosophical? Awakening Socrates in you is an engaging exploration of philosophical counseling, a practice that reconnects philosophy with everyday life. Drawing on both Western and Eastern traditions, The book bridges abstract philosophical concepts with real-word dilemmas. It invites readers to navigate real-life challenges, ethical dilemmas, and existential questions through self-discovery and practical wisdom.

Philosophical counselling is an approach that aims to assist people to deal with life events in an effective manner. As such, it is of interest to nurses who are concerned with helping clients who require assistance effectively to manage life events. The approach utilizes both ancient and contemporary philosophical promises and theories. On the promise side, it offers the belief that philosophy can be concerned with providing answers to the question of how people ought to live a good or healthy (...) life. On the theory side, it offers the belief that philosophical inquiry and theory can help people towards such answers. Thus the theory and practice of philosophical counselling is relevant to nurses whose practice aims to promote in their clients a good or healthy lifestyle. The practice of philosophical counselling, in a substance abuse centre, will be explored to demonstrate the theory and methods of the approach. (shrink)

Genetic counseling has long relied on the principles of non-directiveness and patient autonomy, yet these ideals become strained when patients face decisions that will fundamentally alter their identities and values. Such decisions, known as transformative experiences, challenge the basic assumptions underlying informed consent: patients cannot predict what the experience will be like or who they will become afterward. This essay argues that the transformative experience framework exposes the inherent epistemic limits in traditional models of autonomy and informed consent within (...) genetic counseling. By examining the evolving historical trajectory of non-directiveness and analyzing two clinical cases—prenatal decision-making after a Down syndrome diagnosis and predictive testing for Huntington disease—the essay demonstrates why counselors cannot fully preserve neutrality or facilitate value-aligned decision-making in these contexts. The incorporation of a transformative experience framework provides a more realistic and ethically coherent basis for supporting patients, enhancing decisional authorship, and potentially reduces regret. Reframing non-directiveness as an embedded, relational process rather than an isolated ideal offers a more philosophically honest and clinically useful foundation for modern genetic counseling practice. (shrink)

This study investigated challenges, counselling needs and coping strategies of students with visual impairment in regular secondary schools in Nigeria. The descriptive survey of cross-sectional design was employed for the study. Five hundred and twenty-seven students with visual impairment in regular secondary schools were included in the survey by using purposive and captive sampling techniques. The findings of the study revealed that the challenges of students with visual impairment in regular secondary schools include inability to access modern technologies, ( X¯ (...) $\overline {\rm{X}} $ = 3.73), inappropriate teaching methods ( X¯ $\overline {\rm{X}} $ = 3.64), non availability of special curriculum ( X¯ $\overline {\rm{X}} $ = 3.57). It is therefore recommended that teachers and school authorities should ensure that students with visual impairment are taught to develop effective study habits and techniques of self-activity. (shrink)

In the current era patient autonomy is enormously important. However, recently there has also been some movement back to ensure that trust in the doctor's skill, knowledge and virtue is not excluded in the process. These new nuances of informed consent have been referred to by terms such as beneficent paternalism, experience‐based paternalism and we would add virtuous paternalism. The purpose of this paper is to consider the history and current problematic nature of counselling and consent. Starting with the tradition (...) founded by Hippocrates we trace and seek to understand how relevant aspects of the patient‐doctor relationship have evolved under the influences of subsequent moral theories. Finally we tentatively endorse certain modes of counselling in the current era in order to promote morally sound, good clinical practice. (shrink)

This chapter describes the relation between humanism and counselling. It explores this relation by proceeding in two directions, departing from different starting points. The chapter discusses some important approaches to counselling which are rooted in the humanist worldview. It reflects the diversity of traditions and heritage on which humanism draws. The chapter deals with a further exploration of the question of how to understand humanist counselling nowadays: which counselling practices may be called humanist and which not, and what are essential (...) features of humanist counselling practices. It focuses on some central ideas and principles of humanism instead of on the diversity of humanist thought. The chapter uses the work of the Dutch philosopher and humanist Peter Derkx to identify this shared humanist inspiration in terms of more specific key aspects of humanist counselling. Derkx presents four principles as central characteristics of humanism as a worldview. (shrink)

I offer a method for philosophical counseling that is contrasted with Marinoffs. This version of philosophical counseling is primarily epistemic and suggests therapy as the examination of the justification of a client's beliefs, with a goal of enabling the client to change belief systems if the client so chooses.

We often talk loosely of the “tyranny of the majority” as a threat to the workings of democracy. But, in ancient Greece, the analogy of demos and tyrant was no mere metaphor, nor a simple reflection of elite prejudice. Instead, it highlighted an important structural feature of Athenian democracy. Like the tyrant, the Athenian demos was an unaccountable political actor with the power to hold its subordinates to account. And like the tyrant, the demos could be dangerous to counsel since (...) the orator speaking before the assembled demos was accountable for the advice he gave. With Dangerous Counsel, Matthew Landauer analyzes the sometimes ferocious and unpredictable politics of accountability in ancient Greece and offers novel readings of ancient history, philosophy, rhetoric, and drama. In comparing the demos to a tyrant, thinkers such as Herodotus, Plato, Isocrates, and Aristophanes were attempting to work out a theory of the badness of unaccountable power; to understand the basic logic of accountability and why it is difficult to get right; and to explore the ways in which political discourse is profoundly shaped by institutions and power relationships. In the process they created strikingly portable theories of counsel and accountability that traveled across political regime types and remain relevant to our contemporary political dilemmas. (shrink)

Method in philosophical counselling is still a contentious topic. That is, there is no consensus on whether the philosophical counsellor should have a method in her practice to help the counsellee resolve philosophical problems. Some philosophical counsellors claim that there should not be any rigid adherence to method(s) as this will render philosophy too dogmatic. Philosophical counselling, in light of this view, promotes a kind of mutual philosophising sans definite goal with the counsellee. What I call "dissentient philosophical counselling" takes (...) this claim even further: the philosophical counsellor lives/practices her philosophical counselling, that is, she embodies and practices philosophy as a way of life. This view is posed as a response to contemporary conceptualisations of philosophical counselling where the philosophical counsellor might stand in a disembodied relationship with her method(s) and tries to have a conversation "from nowhere". Dissentient philosophical counselling, even though more focused on living philosophically , still suffers from certain shortcomings. In this paper, I firstly showcase how even the seemingly innocuous but important question "How might one live?" suffers from a lack of much needed nuance. And secondly, I introduce, via a fictional narrative, a provisional way of practicing this reworked dissentient philosophical counselling. I do this by, firstly, introducing African conversational philosophy, via its method of conversationalism, and secondly, I introduce a peculiar version of Pyrrhonian scepticism especially regarding the notion of bios adoxastōs (life without dogma). (shrink)

Philosophical practice or counseling has been described as a cluster of meth­ods for treating everyday problems and predicaments through philosophical means. Not­withstanding the variety of methods, philosophical counselors seem to share the following tenets: 1. The counselee is autonomous; 2. Philosophical counseling differs from psychological counseling and 3. Philosophical counseling is effective in solving predicaments. A critical examination shows these to be problematic at both theoretical and practical levels. As I believe that philosophical practice is a (...) valuable contribution both to philosophy and to psychology, though not devoid of potential dangers and misuses, I suggest that philosoph­ical counselors reconsider the theoretical and empirical validity of their tenets. Using my experience as a philosophical counselor, I attempt in this paper to contribute to this task while introducing the reader to what are, in my opinion, the main problems in the field. (shrink)

Philosophical counselling, Ran Lahav and others claim, helps clients deepen their philosophical self‐understanding. The counsellor's role is the minimalist one of providing the client with the philosophical tools needed for reflective self‐evaluation. Respect for the client's autonomy entails refraining from intervening with substantive moral criticism, theories, and methods; the client's ways of working out fundamental questions like ‘Who am I and what do I really want?’cannot be assessed by the counsellor in terms of their truth‐value, but only in terms of (...) whether they reflect the client's autonomous choice to express him/herself in a certain way. I argue that this view, which is informed by an anti‐realist account of self and life‐history, undermines the distinction between self‐knowledge and self‐deception. Once interpretive and criteriological free rein is given to the client, and once personal, pragmatic and aesthetic considerations take precedence over truth‐value, then the way is left open to clients to generate the most morally convenient self‐interpretation to suit their current needs. I defend the view that truth matters in philosophical counselling; more specifically, that there is a basic distinction between true and false forms of self‐understanding. To do this, I offer a broadly realist account of self and reflective self‐evaluation. If this is right, then philosophical counsellors shoulder a significant burden of responsibility in helping their clients achieve an accurate, defensible, action‐guiding and truth‐oriented self‐understanding. (shrink)

This study aims to measure the latent mean difference in perfectionism and marital satisfaction by counseling help-seeking attitudes. The respondents were 327 married graduate students from a research university in Malaysia. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The respondents completed the Almost Perfect Scale- Revised, Dyadic Almost Perfect Scale, Marital Satisfaction Scale, and Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychology Help Scale. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examined the instruments and the results indicated that construct validity (...) were achieved. The latent mean difference in perfectionism and marital satisfaction by counseling help-seeking attitudes were tested using multigroup invariance analysis. The respondents with negative attitudes toward counseling help-seeking (n = 159) reported a higher latent mean in perfectionism but a lower latent mean in marital satisfaction compared to those with positive attitudes toward counseling help-seeking (n = 168). The implications of these findings for counseling services are discussed. (shrink)

This commentary shows how philosophical counseling offers an alternative way for consultants to facilitate "closure" in bioethical disputes.

In the current era patient autonomy is enormously important. However, recently there has also been some movement back to ensure that trust in the doctor's skill, knowledge and virtue is not excluded in the process. These new nuances of informed consent have been referred to by terms such as beneficent paternalism, experience-based paternalism and we would add virtuous paternalism. The purpose of this paper is to consider the history and current problematic nature of counselling and consent. Starting with the tradition (...) founded by Hippocrates we trace and seek to understand how relevant aspects of the patient-doctor relationship have evolved under the influences of subsequent moral theories. Finally we tentatively endorse certain modes of counselling in the current era in order to promote morally sound, good clinical practice. (shrink)

ObjectiveTertiary education can be stressful for many young people, who consistently report high levels of distress. The issue has major implications for campus health services and mental health policymaking more widely. The present study proposes to map student counseling services in Europe.MethodsThe sample of institutions was sourced, using standardized data extraction, from the European Tertiary Education Register (ETER). Then, each institution’s website was analyzed for information about the availability of student counseling centers and the services provided. Data extracted (...) from the ETER database were: ETER ID, national identifier, institution name, English institution name, number of students, legal status (in English), institution category (in English), and institutional website. Data extracted from institutions’ websites concerned the availability of students’ psychological centers and the services provided. Analyses were carried out using the SPSS Statistics software package (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States), version 26.ResultsOverall, it was found that most institutions do not provide mental health counseling services for their students. Institutions of medium dimensions showed a higher probability of reporting students’ psychological centers than small institutions. Moreover, private institutions and public institutions were more likely to report having such centers, while private government-dependent institutions were less likely. Universities of applied sciences and universities were more likely to report having them, while other institutions were less likely. Regarding provision according to geographic area, compared to Northern Europe, every other European region was less likely to report featuring such centers. Most institutions reported offering counseling, career counseling, or not otherwise specified psychological services, but only a small number reported providing services such as psychotherapy, psychiatric services, or counseling for learning-specific disabilities.ConclusionIt is critically important to catalog European data on student counseling centers and services, to encourage tertiary education institutions to invest in such services as key sites for mental health promotion. Indeed, professionally trained staff and the possibility of long-term treatment options would go a long way in supporting students who might not otherwise have access to treatment. (shrink)

This paper presents a comparative analysis of Confucian and Socratic philosophical practices, emphasizing their application in one-on-one counseling sessions. The study begins with an exploration of the origins and development of both traditions, highlighting their philosophical sources, practical methodologies, social impacts, and professional advancements. Through a detailed comparison, it identifies the similarities and differences between the Confucian emphasis on ritual propriety and moral cultivation and the Socratic focus on critical inquiry and self-examination. The integration of these approaches is proposed (...) to enrich philosophical counseling, offering a more holistic and culturally sensitive practice. By envisioning the figure of a philosophical counselor who embodies both traditions, the paper suggests a model that fosters personal growth, ethical living, and societal harmony. The study concludes by acknowledging limitations and proposing future research directions, including empirical studies on the effectiveness of integrated counseling methods, exploration of group practices, cross-cultural adaptations, professional training, and the incorporation of modern technology. This research contributes to the literature on cross-cultural philosophical engagement and its applications in contemporary counseling practices. (shrink)

Philosophical counseling is a diverse and burgeoning type of mental health service delivery. Despite competing approaches to theory and practice, the field has largely strayed from an ethical critique of its methodology and counselor training requirements. This article outlines several ethical considerations and training recommendations that are proposed to bolster the quality and effectiveness of philosophical practice. As philosophical counseling gains increasing recognition in North America, recently established national organizations in philosophical practice may profit from revisiting their interim (...) codes for professional conduct Proposed training suggestions for counselor preparation may further assist institutions and board-regulated agencies in establishing competent and acceptable standards of client care. (shrink)

The book is concerned with the shifting notions of self and identity and develops a Foucauldian analysis that examines these inherently philosophical notions in...

This is a study of the two letters of Thomas More to Nicholas Wilson writ-ten while the two men were imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation illuminates the role of comfort and counsel in the two letters. An article of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa theologiae is used to probe More’s understanding of conscience in the letters.

Can philosophy help ordinary people confront their personal or interpersonal problems of living? Can it help a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, or someone going through a midlife crisis, or someone depressed over the death of a significant other, or who suffers from anxiety about making a life change? These and many other behavioral and emotional problems are ordinarily referred to psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, or other mental health specialists. Less mainstream is the possibility of consulting a (...) philosophical counselor or practitioner. Yet, there is presently a steadily increasing, world-wide movement among individuals with postgraduate credentials in philosophy to harness their philosophical training and skills in helping others to address their life problems. But is this channeling of philosophy outside the classroom into the arena of life a good idea? Are philosophers, as such, competent to handle all or any of the myriad emotional and behavioral problems that arise in the context of life; or should these matters best be left to those trained in psychological counseling or psychotherapy? Through a diverse and contrasting set of readings authored by prominent philosophers, philosophical counselors, and psychologists, this volume carefully explores the nature of philosophical counseling or practice and its relationship to psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Digging deeply into this relational question, this volume aims to spark more rational reflection, and greater sensitivity and openness to the potential contributions of philosophical practice. It is, accordingly, intended for students, teachers, scholars, and practitioners of philosophy, counseling, or psychotherapy; as well as those interested in knowing more about philosophical counseling or practice. (shrink)

This paper approaches philosophical counseling practice from the idea that philosophy itself is primarily a way of living and only secondarily a subject matter to be grasped and comprehended. Three things are shown to follow from this view: first, charging a fee for access to this practice is inimical to the practice itself; secondly contrary to scientific 'objectivity' as the means to truth-speaking this view of philosophy calls for a consciously articulated autobiographical expression or personal admission on the part (...) of the philosophical practitioner; and, finally, an understanding of philosophical counseling practice emergesfrom this view of philosophy that is depicted as naturally occurring therapeutic interacting. (shrink)

This article investigates National Defense Education Act and National Defense Education Act-related calls in the late 1950s for the training of guidance counselors, an emergent profession that was to play an instrumental role in both the measuring and placement of students in schools by “intelligence” or academic “ability”. In analyzing this mid-century push for more guidance counseling in schools, this article will first explore a foundational argument for the fairness of intelligence testing made by Educational Testing Service psychometrician William (...) Turnbull in 1951, and then later taken up and employed by other National Defense Education Act-era advocates of testing and grouping. Secondly, this analysis will proceed to National Defense Education Act expert testimony, examining here assertions of the necessity of guidance counseling in schools, and an emergent and shared vision articulating the role guidance counseling was supposed to play in school life. A pattern or structure to this vision emerges here. According to its advocates, guidance counseling would not only inform the self-understanding of the measured individual, but it would also work to condition the ideology of individual intelligence across numerous layers of social life around the student: through peer group, through teachers and school administrators, and finally through home, family, and the wider community. (shrink)

Various approaches and methods are used in philosophical counselling. Two main trends can be observed: the first is the use of contemplative methods and the second constitutes approaches based on dialogical critical thinking. The author defends the idea that developing philosophical counselling on the basis of critical thinking presupposes that it is possible for counsellor and client to hold a philosophical dialogue where the relationship is one of expert/lay person. J. Šulavík has described this relationship in greater detail. In the (...) Socratic model, the philosopher and the lay person hold a dialogue whereby they ascertain opinions via inductive comparison and by defining things, creating a shared concept. While the Platonic and Enlightenment models were grounded in the authority of the expert philosopher, in the Socratic and postmodern models, the expert philosopher loses the power to manipulate those who know “less”. Lay people are not passive consumers of a particular “optimal” philosophy but through their own “philosophising” create philosophy and tailor it for themselves. While philosophising, therefore, the philosopher does not take on the role of “producer” of philosophy but of “adviser” (consultant). It is therefore supposed that people have a general need for philosophy and that ultimately they should create and reflect upon their own philosophy. (shrink)

This paper will first introduce the development of professional ethics of counseling and psychotherapy in mainland China. Ethical awareness is often limited due to variations in training experiences. Aligning with ethics codes can also bring challenges due to nuances within Chinese culture. Furthermore, the authors discuss the ethical challenges regarding the principles of multiple relationships, informed consent, and confidentiality in the context of Chinese culture. These ethical issues are often discussed within an individualistic cultural frame and presentation from a (...) collectivist culture offers a unique perspective in the ethics literature. (shrink)

The majority of women who freeze their eggs for non-medical or social reasons, commonly referred to as elective egg freezing (EEF), do not eventually utilize their frozen eggs. This would result in an accumulated surplus of unused frozen eggs in fertility clinics worldwide, which represents a promising source of donation to infertile women undergoing IVF treatment. Rigorous and comprehensive counseling is needed, because the process of donating one’s unused surplus frozen eggs involves complex decision-making. Prospective EEF donors can be (...) broadly categorized into those who have achieved motherhood and those who remained childless and have given up on motherhood aspirations. A two-step systematic counseling protocol is proposed. Firstly, it is imperative to verify and ensure that these women do not want to conceive any children with their surplus frozen eggs before proceeding with further counseling and signing of consent forms. Secondly, various motivating and dissuading factors in the donation of unused surplus frozen eggs should then be comprehensively discussed with egg freezers to facilitate informed decision-making. Key motivating factors for donation include reciprocity in wanting to share the joys of motherhood among egg freezers who already have children, goodwill to help others in need, and avoiding the wastage of surplus frozen eggs after expending so much money, time, and effort. Key dissuading factors include fear of accidental incest between natural and unknown donor-conceived offspring, as well as apprehension of unexpected future contact with unknown donor-conceived offspring due to either donor anonymity being abolished in their jurisdiction or widespread consumer DNA testing. (shrink)

ABSTRACT A new phenomenon in the philosophical discipline, philosophical practice—or counselling—is introduced to the reader through the description of three different approaches to philosophical practice. What is common to these approaches is that an academically trained philosopher philosophises together with a ‘sane’person—the visitor—on questions and problems relevant to the visitor. The essential difference between this and psychological counselling is that philosophers do not use therapeutic methods or make diagnoses. The philosophical practitioner triggers in his dialogue partner a didactic philosophical process, (...) which enables the visitor to become an authentic thinker and eventually to arrive at philosophical answers by her/himself. The effectiveness of the language used in philosophical practice is not so much in applying philosophical ideas or theories as in the philosophical knowledge, skills and attitudes attained by the visitor. (shrink)

Philosophical counseling can be understood as the facilitation of personal narratives in which an individual’s moral frameworks are clarified and re-prioritized. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s notion of narrative, hyper-goods and moral frameworks, and applying them to a case study, this article shows the different roles family can play in the formation of a personal narrative.

Many philosophical counselors seem to be counselors who use or point to phil­osophical texts or use abstract indeed logical or rational methods when working with a client. I want to introduce the idea of a counseling philosopher, who uses the client’s own concrete experiences as the basis for philosophizing with the client about the nature of the client’s dilemma - using ‘the between’ (Buber) as that special creative space where one em­ploys the art of philosophizing to the unique situation. (...) Otherwise, the particularity of that client gets subsumed under theory or methods, much like what has happened in psychology and which gave rise to Achenbach’s criticisms of psychology/psychiatry. The dialogical of which Buber and Friedman speak is the give and take between client and counseling philosopher of understanding and expanding perceptions confirmed through the actual relationship. Philosophy as an art (and not a method) helps us restore the trust Buber talks about which allows us to engage the world directly and not through categories of thought grounded in psychological or philosophical texts and theories. (shrink)

A detailed discussion of issues in philosophical counseling for the practitioner and general public.

The article aims at organizing multifaceted discourse on the concept of nondirectiveness in the practice of genetic counseling. The analysis of areas where nondirectiveness was invoked and discussed reveals the problematic confusion of different meanings of the term that often leads to false conclusions about the relations between the professional standards and the practice of genetic counseling. The article offers clear and comprehensive description of different approaches to nondirectiveness and various ideas associated with the term. Normative consequences of (...) various meanings attributed to nondirectiveness are explored. The article concludes by presenting important but unsolved problems regarding both theory (the meaning of nondirectiveness and its operational definition) and practice of genetic counseling (the scope and content of the norm of nondirective counseling). (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a clinical approach to the counseling of distressing subjective paranormal experiences, usually referred to as anomalous or exceptional experiences in the academic field. These experiences are reported by a large part of the population, yet most mental health practitioners have not received a specific training in listening constructively to these experiences. This seems all the more problematic since nearly one person in two find it difficult to integrate such experiences, which can be associated with (...) different forms of psychological suffering. After having described briefly several clinical approaches already developed in this area, we outline the main aspects of clinical practice with people reporting exceptional experiences, in particular the characteristics of the clinician’s attitude toward the narrative of unusual events. We then present the core components of a Psychodynamic Psychotherapy focused on Anomalous Experiences (PPAE) based on three main steps: phenomenological exploration, subjective inscription and subjective integration of the anomalous experience. Such an approach, based on a non-judgmental and open listening, favors the transformation of the ontological shock that often follows the anomalous experiences into a potential source of integration and psychological transformation. (shrink)

Survival after solid-organ transplantation has improved significantly, and many contemporary transplant recipients are of childbearing potential. There are limited data to guide decision-making surrounding pregnancy after transplantation, variations in clinical practice, and significant knowledge gaps, all of which raise significant ethical issues. Post-transplant pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of maternal and fetal complications. Shared decision-making is a central aspect of patient counselling but is complicated by significant knowledge gaps. Stakeholder interests can be in conflict; exploring these tensions can (...) help patients to evaluate their options and inform their deliberations. We argue that uniform, evidence-based recommendations for pregnancy after solid organ transplantation are needed. Conducting research, including patient-engaged studies, in this area should be priority for the transplant community. (shrink)

Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran. By Louise Marlow. 2 vols. Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Pp. xv + 344, viii + 384. $220, £150.