Philosophical inquiry will also be conducted into issues prevalent in most forms of counselling, such as the meaning of life, suicide, the problems inherent in diagnosing, sexual orientation, the differences between male and female discussion styles, professional neutrality, feminism, e-mail counselling, growing old, dream interpretation, and the concept of normalcy in relation to medication. On the practical side, participants will learn how to sort out the often intertwined problems and concerns encountered in counselling into manageable issues in order to help the client think them through and perhaps arrive at an appropriate course of action. At times the writings of famous philosophers will be consulted but this will always be in direct relation to real-life issues rather than merely hypothetically or theoretically. A number of actual philosophical counselling case studies will also be discussed. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Space is limited.