Atlanta Philosophical Counseling

About

Philosophers traditionally try to provide reasonable answers to difficult questions:

What do we know? What is knowledge, as opposed to mere belief?
Is there a God?
Do we have free will?
Are our minds our brains, or is there an immaterial part of us? Do we continue to exist after death?
What is the nature of morality? What actions are wrong, and why? What ought we do, and why? What is a good person?
What is a fair and just society?
Does life have meaning? What is a meaningful life? What is a good life?

Philosophers try to answer these questions with arguments: answers to questions like these that are conclusions, supported by premises or reasons. Philosophers use logic.

Logic-Based Therapists & Consultants are philosophers who apply these same logical methods used in addressing abstract questions to personal difficulties and challenges. They help us identify and evaluate the arguments that shape our lives. The 'conclusions' are our feelings: the 'premises' are the beliefs that contribute to these feelings.

Philosophical Consultants can help you (or a group or organization) try to think through some of the problems or difficulties you might be having. They can help you identify what you are thinking and how you are reasoning, and what forms of reasoning might be serving you well, and what forms of reasoning might be holding you back. They might also have suggestions for what sort of information you need to address your difficulty and how to find that information. The issue or issues you address with a Philosophical Consultant need not be ones that you consider to be of great emotional significance, but you still have some concerns, worries, fears and other feelings that motivate the concern.

A Logic-Based Therapist helps someone identify the pattern of reasoning that is leading to his or her troubling feeling-conclusions and then critique that reasoning. People sometimes have unpleasant feelings because they believe a claim that's false, or they believe something that there is insufficient evidence to believe, or they accept an assumption that's unreasonable, or they are holding themselves to a standard that they wouldn't expect others to follow and so they are being inconsistent and unfair, to themselves. A philosopher can help expose these mistaken and unproductive beliefs, and help someone come to a new, more productive understanding of themselves, their relationships and their world.

Philosophical counseling can be especially useful when the troubling issue has an explicitly philosophical dimension, such as:

a moral or ethical dilemma or question, at home or at work;
a concern about religious (or irreligious) faith and doubt;
a troubling contradiction or inconsistency;
concerns about a personally meaningful and valuable life, including employment;
clarifying your own views, your own understanding of difficult concepts and values.
seeking personal authenticity and autonomy: becoming your own person, in light of your own choices and values.

Any challenging emotional or relational issue can benefit from a patient, systematic, and caring and supportive investigation of how you feel and why you feel that way, and the application of philosophical techniques to reveal areas for positive change.

Please consider contacting Atlanta Philosophical Counseling to learn more or to set up an initial consultation. And please visit our Facebook page for news and updates of interest.

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