Frequency of sessions
Some men are hesitant to make contact, out of a sense of the demands of the work. The demands are yours, not mine. Try one of a few sessions, and see what you think.
You are free to see me for a single session, or for a few, or ongoingly for short-term or longer-term work. The frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) is your choice. After the first session, I give clients the option to make another booking, or to think about it and then get back to me. With all my ongoing clients the session always ends with "When would you next like to see me?" That means that you are always free to see me sooner, or later, or to take a break.
I am that flexible, because I place a very high value on personal responsibility and freedom of choice, both for myself, and for my clients. This goes to the heart of the philosophical ethos: the freedom, responsibility, and dignity of the individual. The working relationship--the bond that we form--matters a great deal. However, I am responsible only for the quality of my work. I am not responsible for you in any way. You are an adult who is responsible for how well you use what I offer, and for any outcomes of our work. All achievements and their contraries are yours. You are not "in my care" to use the clinical phrase. Rather, I am a philosopher with whom you converse, as you cultivate wisdom and virtue.
Some men are hesitant to make contact, out of a sense of the demands of the work. The demands are yours, not mine. Try one of a few sessions, and see what you think.
You are free to see me for a single session, or for a few, or ongoingly for short-term or longer-term work. The frequency (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) is your choice. After the first session, I give clients the option to make another booking, or to think about it and then get back to me. With all my ongoing clients the session always ends with "When would you next like to see me?" That means that you are always free to see me sooner, or later, or to take a break.
I am that flexible, because I place a very high value on personal responsibility and freedom of choice, both for myself, and for my clients. This goes to the heart of the philosophical ethos: the freedom, responsibility, and dignity of the individual. The working relationship--the bond that we form--matters a great deal. However, I am responsible only for the quality of my work. I am not responsible for you in any way. You are an adult who is responsible for how well you use what I offer, and for any outcomes of our work. All achievements and their contraries are yours. You are not "in my care" to use the clinical phrase. Rather, I am a philosopher with whom you converse, as you cultivate wisdom and virtue.
Please note: this is not a clinical mental health service
Let us make a distinction between three kinds of professional:
With respect to the above categories:
You can find strong critiques of the first approach--the clinical services. Some claim that while their paradigm is valid, yet they engage in over-reach, medicalising all of life, reducing any struggle to a clinical disorder. Many such critics favour the paradigm of the second group, the therapists who view many struggles not as clinical disorders, but challenges in living, which above all require insight, personal growth, and so on. Our society is becoming increasingly clinical in its understanding of what good help is, and in what it funds, and how it litigates. It is cultivating people who see life in a clinical way, indeed who weaponise clinical diagnostic concepts, and who take offense at challenges toward them to exercise reason and personal responsibility. So I will not offer an opinion on these matters due to the legal risks which any professional faces.
What I will do, instead, is acknowledge that there are controversies in many cases, over whether a particular problem should be seen as a clinical problem, or a challenge in living. Furthermore, I acknowledge that many (not all) problems can be addressed from multiple angles (and sometimes a multiplicity of angles is better). The angle I offer is described on this website: whatever the concern, I help you cultivate reason, wisdom, and virtue according to the classical philosophical tradition. For some problems, that work gets to the heart of things. For other problems, such as a problem rooted in a medical condition, this is help in living well in the context of such problems which may be out of your control. If your concern needs other kinds of professional assessment and help as well as, or instead of, what I offer then that is for you to discern, and if you cannot discern it alone then I recommend consulting with a GP.
Let us make a distinction between three kinds of professional:
- Clinical professionals such as Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Clinical Social Workers and so on. They do psychological work, but of a clinical type. They work according to the medical model. They provide clinical assessments and diagnoses of disorders; associated treatments, over-sight of client well-being and risk; liaison, referral, formal reports, and authoritative letters for third party use.
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists: who also do psychological work, but of a well-being, life-improvement, and personal growth kind. They are not clinical professionals. Rather they frame your concerns as challenges in living, as experiences of the human condition, and use ordinary language to make sense of things. They work by eliciting insight, motivation, clarity, direction, and general emotional and personal growth.
- Philosophical Counsellors: who engage you in conversation that leads to increased reason, wisdom, and virtue, to overcome problems, improve your life, and improve yourself.
With respect to the above categories:
- I am not a clinical professional, I am not a member of the first group.
- I have qualifications and long experience as a member of the second group, but that now serves as a background which enriches my work. I draw on its tools and insights, whenever helpful.
- I am a philosophical counsellor, and this, and this only, is the service I am offering you.
You can find strong critiques of the first approach--the clinical services. Some claim that while their paradigm is valid, yet they engage in over-reach, medicalising all of life, reducing any struggle to a clinical disorder. Many such critics favour the paradigm of the second group, the therapists who view many struggles not as clinical disorders, but challenges in living, which above all require insight, personal growth, and so on. Our society is becoming increasingly clinical in its understanding of what good help is, and in what it funds, and how it litigates. It is cultivating people who see life in a clinical way, indeed who weaponise clinical diagnostic concepts, and who take offense at challenges toward them to exercise reason and personal responsibility. So I will not offer an opinion on these matters due to the legal risks which any professional faces.
What I will do, instead, is acknowledge that there are controversies in many cases, over whether a particular problem should be seen as a clinical problem, or a challenge in living. Furthermore, I acknowledge that many (not all) problems can be addressed from multiple angles (and sometimes a multiplicity of angles is better). The angle I offer is described on this website: whatever the concern, I help you cultivate reason, wisdom, and virtue according to the classical philosophical tradition. For some problems, that work gets to the heart of things. For other problems, such as a problem rooted in a medical condition, this is help in living well in the context of such problems which may be out of your control. If your concern needs other kinds of professional assessment and help as well as, or instead of, what I offer then that is for you to discern, and if you cannot discern it alone then I recommend consulting with a GP.