Philosophical counselling, also called philosophical consultancy or clinical philosophy, arose in name from the 1980s, through the works of practitioners like Gerd B. Achenbach and Ad Hoogenfijk, with earlier proto examples going back to the 1950s, but as a method, has its true historical roots in the Socratic tradition going back to Ancient Greece, in which philosophy was seen as a means to reach a ‘good’ or ‘meaningful’ life. For Socrates, at the root of all human action was the search for eudaimonia, loosely translated as ‘happiness’ or ‘wellbeing’. The Buddhist concept of enlightenment may be a close analogy to this, as would Abraham Maslow’s self-actualisation status within his hierarchy of psychological needs. Whatever you may call it, the principle remains similar, to reach for a state of psychological fulfilment by way of application of one’s intellect.

Modern counselling and psychotherapy work on this idea through a scientific understanding of cognitive and psychoanalytic perspectives on the mind. Cognitive behavioural therapy, for example, aims to mitigate the symptoms of mental health disorders by challenging thoughts or beliefs that have previously led to a problematic lack of emotional regulation, as well as developing coping strategies in a problem-solving context. This is very similar to the Socratic method, in which two thinkers would engage in a dialogue, and one would focus on challenging the validity of the other’s conclusions on the grounds of logical contradiction. The difference, of course, is that a professional psychotherapist will not sit and listen to a patient suffering from suicidal ideation and simply contradict their negative thoughts on the grounds that they are irrational, however true that may be, because, certainly where something as serious as mental health is concerned, tremendous care needs to be taken to avoid inadvertently pushing an already unstable individual into a position where they might be at a greater risk to themselves or to others. This is also why counsellors, psychotherapists and psychiatrists generally come from a highly trained, professional, and regulated background, as should any other medical practitioner.

The only real difference between philosophical counselling and psychotherapy, however, is in who it is practiced by and who and what it is used to treat. In this sense, it is akin to the difference between personal training and physiotherapy, where the latter seeks to alleviate suffering and promote patient recovery following an existing injury, whereas the former seeks to strengthen an already healthy body by alleviating stress and promoting muscle growth, joint flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness. It is still possible to injure someone through bad personal training of course, and so it is certainly not something to be undertaken by the unqualified, just as anyone can attempt to offer advice on life problems, but that advice might not lead to desirable outcomes, especially if it comes from a place of carelessness or irrationality. However, it should not be seen as the same thing as a medical treatment, for a physical injury, in the case of physiotherapy, or serious psychological trauma or mental illness, in the case of psychiatry and/or psychotherapy. Rather, philosophical counselling should be seen as therapeutic in a health building sense, rather than in a medicinal sense.

This does not make it any less important, quite the opposite in fact. Just as a strong, healthy body is more impervious to disease or illness, so too is a strong, healthy mind more impervious to mental illnesses due to chronic or acute stressors and/or psychological trauma. Developing cognitive mechanisms and coping strategies are, after all, an essential means by which we process, compartmentalise, and resolve problems of both a practical and an existential nature, and so developing the skills necessary to properly introspect and rationalise our thoughts and emotions stands us in good stead to learn and develop as we continue to encounter new and ever more confounding problems. Similarly, just like physical exercise, the act of intellectualising philosophical problems can be strenuous and difficult. In this sense, philosophical counselling should not be seen as a magic wand that will automatically sweep away life’s problems, far from it. Rather, it is a means by which the mind can be put on track to perform at a higher level, thereby making it easier to do what is necessary to solve those problems, and ultimately, to reach towards a state of psychological fulfilment.