Philosophical Counseling Training

David O'Donaghue, the director of the Lyceum Project, is now in a position of offering counseling training and assessment for philosophical counselors to help them be able to offer philosophy as a means of helping people in problems of everyday life through using techniques and paradigms of philosophy rather than psychology. For more information about David see the director's page.

The Lyceum will offer three and four day residential workshops. Topics will not only include important counseling skills training but also the direct application of philosophy in the counseling situation. The Lyceum will also offer a two-year mentorship program (see below). See out links to other Philosphical Counseling pages.

Philosophical Counseling Training Mentorship Program

This two year program is designed to train academically trained philosophers in the process of counseling individuals and groups in the resolving problems of human living with the tools offered by philosophy. It is not a substitute for professional training in psychological counseling. Philosophical counseling is take to be a field of its own, with its own techniques, areas of specialization and limitations. It is inappropriate to take this course of study for anything other than counseling work using philosophy. The course is:

• Individualized: The course of study will be specifically designed around the student's areas of interests and strengths and weaknesses and will focus on the specific philosophers and philosophical methods the student is most interested in.
• Applied: The course will always look to how particular theories and ideas can be applied in a counseling situation and among various populations and problem areas.
• Experiential: The course will explore how philosophy works in the student's own life and will emphasize personal reflection and processing to understand how it might work in other people's lives.
• Counseling oriented: The course will focus in teaching the skills of good counseling and group facilitation. This will include work in active listening, developing an empathic stance, reframing, recommending work outside the session, recognition of transference and countertransference issues and the maintenance of records.
• Professionally oriented: The course will address professional issues such as: professional ethics, networking with other health professionals, starting a practice, how and when to refer, and other practical matters about the work itself.

Description of the program:

The course is set up on eight training weekends over a two year period. The following areas will be covers in those weekends:

1. counseling skills training.
2. psychopathology and the domains of psychology as they relate to philosophical counseling
3. applying philosophical models, theories and thinkers in the counseling process
4. the resources and networks of current work done in practical philosophy
5. group facilitation
6. philosophical counseling applied in various institution and with various populations
7. professional ethics and issues
8. building a private practice
9. teaching about philosophical counseling in the community
10. the philosophy of philosophical counseling or guiding paradigms

The training is both didactic, research oriented and experiential. Students are asked to develop their own models and solutions to how philosophy can be utilized in helping people work through problems of living, using existing theories and new syntheses. Students are encouraged to research three major philosophers, write professional quality articles addressing the application of the theorists thought to counseling and then presenting to work at a professional conference. Likewise, students research three problem areas or special populations in order to gain an understanding of the needs presented and how philosophy might be able to address those needs. Students design programs to implement philosophy with these populations or problems and these can then be used as blueprints for the students future work in the field. Students also reflect on their own experiences with the role of philosophy in their own lives.

Students are given an opportunity to practice philosophical counseling skills with the instructor and volunteers from the community under supervision. They are also able to learn about and lead groups in public forums of philosophy, such as philo-cafes and Socratic dialogues. Students are asked to set up groups in their local areas and start offering public philosophical events and write up their experiences and assess their value. In the last six months of the program students may see individual clients and work with the instructor in supervision of these cases. At the end of the training the student will earn a certification of completion and should feel that he or she is capable of beginning a philosophical counseling practice and running public philosophical events in the community.

Requirements:

Normally students must have received their Masters degree in philosophy and preferably their Ph.D. Under special considerations students will be admitted at the undergraduate level, if they are able to show that they have done specific work in the counseling field and have intentions of continuing in a graduate program in philosophy. It is recommended that students have some course work and experience in the counseling field. Experience might include volunteering on a crisis telephone line, being a residential aide in a hospital or halfway house, volunteering in teen counseling, or working in some form of mental heath facility. This experience will greatly increase the student's appreciation of the sorts of problems that counselors see in their work.

Tuition:

The tuition for the full two year course is between $2,000 and $2,500, depending upon the amount of outside supervision necessary in the developing practice. The cost of each of eight weekends is $250 which includes overnight accommodation.

Education and Training Environment:

The Philosophical Counseling Training Mentorship Program is presented under the auspices of the Lyceum Learning Center. The Lyceum Learning Center, an non-profit organization, is committed to on-going, individualized and community-oriented adult education in the humanities and the sciences. Students at the Lyceum will be working cooperatively with the trainees in the philosophical counseling program in shared events and counseling sessions.

Philosophical counseling training

American Philosophical Counseling Association

Index of philosophical counselors

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