What is Philosophical Counselling?
Have you ever felt lost?
Have you sometimes wondered what the purpose of what you are doing is and why you are doing it? Whether it matters, after all?
Have you felt listless and without a reason to speak, act, know, be or connect? Was it your fault? Could it be theirs? Perhaps it’s no-one to blame, as such, but instead something that needs rethinking?
Perhaps you need a therapist. Perhaps you don’t.
Philosophical counselling is not therapy. I would define therapy as psychological and psychic ways to enhance well-being. Philosophical counselling, on the other hand, is to ask: “why?” and get some answers. Your answers, in fact. Your philosophical response to your own life and your own way to live. It likely will empower you. If that brings well-being then great, but this isn’t the main objective. The purpose of philosophical counselling is to see more clearly and see also in new ways. I’m obviously not talking about upgrading your glasses. Seeing in the sense meant here is to understand better.
Often people haven’t been supported to think. Perhaps their life was too busy, too exciting, too engaging and too successful for them ever to be thrown into reflective mode. But then something happens. It could be a big thing or a small thing but, philosophically, it’s huge and it needs working through. That’s what Thomas Kuhn, the famous philosopher of science (and he wasn’t a philosopher himself so don’t feel you need qualifications or specific training to think - just support and the right kind of dialogue will get you going) called an “anomaly” or “crisis.” A moment in time where what previously made sense no longer does.
The good news is that ahead of you lies the revolution. Like all good revolutions it could do with some organisation to manage the inevitable chaos and upheaval.
That’s my role. To support you transitioning into a better understanding of your existence and life, thought by thought.
Light on.
“The answers you get depend on the questions you ask.”
― Thomas S. Kuhn
What is philosophical counselling for universities?
I support people connected to a university, or various universities, via a course of study, employment or interest, from anywhere in the world.
My clients all have a relationship to the university for the sake of living a good life.
When problems strike, I help them to not lose their investment in university involvement.
There are many ways to lose. I help people win.
My clients have invested something important to them in their relationship to universities. For some that is money and lots of it. For others it is energy, life’s purpose, time. Whatever the case it involves active sacrifice: of money, relationships, opportunities, self-hood or other valuable aspects of one’s existence.
When problems occur - and they often do, such is the nature of the university - this investment is put into peril.
I help you secure your investment. This can be done via forms of thinking in response to your issues. The thinking involved is in relation to the university in particular ways and also has specific content, because of how the university is in the world. It holds a unique place in our existence and has great power. How the university can affect us personally is not easy to understand, nor come to terms with. The landscape is complex; the impacts can be severe. One example is that people do kill themselves. Statistics of student and staff death because of the university are available and counselling services in university spaces are on the rise in response to demand, due to increasing stress levels.
That kind of problem in universities shouldn’t be happening but, due to the existential power of the university to define our identity and self-worth (if we let it), it does. As a lesser version of this strong claim (which is extremely hard to empirically prove) that university experience can kill you, let me suggest a lighter version: University can make you nervous.
Who are my clients?
I see private clients who come to me independently of a university and people for whom the cost of our sessions is paid for by a university’s human resources department.
I also work with students about to enter a university, one on one or in schools, or students about to leave and give up their degree, and parents at the point of funding their children’s education.
Academics needing support with certain aspects of the university environment have an opportunity at Light on Thinking to discuss their problems in the light of them as forms of existential questioning. Some scholars (established or newly PhD qualified) have decided they do not need, nor want, the university, but want to talk through this response and future. Everyone I work with is seeking to find meaning in their life and faces the university as a topic for discussion.
I do not advise. I am not a career counsellor. I listen to your story and I ask why you think the way you do. We explore other ways to think about your situation, which often involves holding the university to account but also, inevitably, involves you taking responsibility for your responses. Any solutions you reach are always those you find. Crucially for a service that costs you money the ultimate aim is that it can save you money in the short and long term because your decisions and thinking around the expense (in all senses) of being in relationship to the university are clarified.
Together our work in a philosophical counselling session is to engage actively with principles of how to think. We ask a lot of questions in response to your feelings and your story. We look at research and philosophy to do with the university. We consider and develop your thinking, using thought as a form of working on oneself, to elucidate and untangle issues connected to university experience.
How am I qualified to help you?
My qualifications for helping you are more than 30 years active and intense philosophical practice as a thinker with mastery over ways to use thought to navigate life. Practice makes perfect and thinking is a practice, just like sport or playing a musical instrument. I have a BA Hons degree in Philosophy from Durham University (1995) and an Education PhD, involving Alternative Education philosophizing, from Birmingham University (2011). My thesis was investigating what happens to the self of adults when they discover children don’t have to go to school. In other words, I researched the philosophical effect of freedom in the soul, in the context of education as a system of the world.
A profound understanding of universities as machinery and within systems of education comes from my own experiences in universities as an undergraduate (1992-1995), postgraduate (2006-2010) and academic researcher and teacher (2010 - 2018) of education, including education done otherwise than the norm. I am now an independent scholar involved in various academic activities to do with research, real world impact and publishing, such as co-editing a book series in my field, having been the founding editor of an online open access journal and developing journalistic responses to academic research and its uses (2009 - variously ongoing). Also, from research and university involvement, I have undertaken to better understand how universities can relate to us in more productive and positive ways, based on what we want for ourselves in the manner of self care. I published the book Playing the University Game - the art of university-based self-education in 2022 (Bloomsbury) and with this publication I begin my phase of taking thinking about the university into the public domain.
That book is for people who want to succeed in universities. Some readers find universities emotionally violent or problematic and perhaps haven’t yet named them as such, but can feel that something isn’t comfortable. They maybe simply struggle in some way. Or, maybe they don’t struggle, but are researching how to make their university time efficiently experienced (i.e. work-life balance) and enjoyable.
I offer a philosophy of approach to winning the complex game of university success through positive strategies and focusing on what really matters to win. The book is a how-to guide towards the specifics of self care for university joy and achievement. A complicated game, so the book serves as a way to navigate through.
In philosophical counselling we will be using ideas and advice from that book to serve you, if appropriate. You are recommended to buy a copy and read it before we meet. Frankly, you may find this is a very cheap way to get the philosophical counselling you need. The book is designed to support you to care for yourself and make the most of university facilities and experience.
If the book isn’t enough, here I am.
What happens in a session?
When we meet we first look at the stories you have to tell. We are seeking to identify thoughts in those stories which can be examined for their philosophical aspects. We are aiming to develop your ability to think about your situation (whatever it is), so that you can take control back (whatever that means, or might look like to you). Our ultimate aim is to hold a philosophical conversation about you and the university that makes sense to you and makes sense of you, in ways that bring you peace, purpose and composure.
Sessions happen by zoom, or in person, by special arrangement.
Get in touch
Get in touch to make an appointment. I offer an initial 15 minutes free consultation to see if we are a fit and if philosophical counselling is what you need.
Sessions cost between £60 and £150 an hour. This is a sliding scale based on income and ability to pay.
Philosophy may seem like a luxury service for those with time to spare. It is not.
By knowing more we live better.
If you would like to talk about your experience of universities, get in touch to arrange an initial free connection.
