Abstract

Philosophical counseling is a helping profession that relates to the ancient concept of philosophy as a discipline with therapeutic potential. Unfortunately, there is no empirical evidence supporting the claim of therapeutic effects philosophy is supposed to have. Philosophical counselors do not have any exclusive methods – distinctive from the procedures used in psychotherapy – that we could find as sources of therapeutic effects. Philosophical counselors often do not understand the processes that generate therapeutic effects and mistakenly attribute these effects to the usage of their philosophical “methods”. Lack of knowledge in the fields of psychology and psychiatry that philosophical counselors show begs the question whether philosophical counseling is not harmful in some cases. There is no reason to solve the issue of relationship between philosophy and psychotherapy by establishing separate field of philosophical counseling. Instead, the aim should be to help psychologists and prospective psychotherapists acquire proper philosophical competences – in terms of philosophical skills and knowledge.