My Certification
I am trained as a philosophical client counselor by Lou Marinoff, Ph.D. and J. Michael Russell, Ph.D., and certified by the American Philosophical Practitioners Association. I have received counseling supervision from Dr. Peter Raabe. In my practice, Inner Wisdom, I provide face-to-face consultation in Southeast Michigan and by telephone appointment.
My Philosophical Background
In my doctoral study at Vanderbilt University, I specialized in feminist theory, existentialism, phenomenology, and ancient philosophy. These subjects continue to be my intellectual and lived passion.
Both European and North American feminist thinkers have influenced my reasoning. How can we begin to examine values without taking into account the cultural and social systems that most immediately influence people's values and opportunities for self-fulfillment? Since my doctoral work, I have embraced the analyses of oppression developed not only by feminists but also by thinkers who show how oppressive social systems interlock to produce cultural climates that are toxic to fair and just social systems. In my own thinking, I try to take account of the ways that gender, sex, race, class, ethnicity, and disability can unfortunately become the vehicles by which a society divides people in the haves and the have-nots. I also bring recent concerns about gender identity and sexual identity to bear in counseling practice. There is an important movement to heighten the understanding, acceptance and inclusion of diversity in gender and sex identity, and I support these efforts.
My study of social oppression and theories of justice has an important role in my philosophical counseling practice. On this basis, I offer clients alternative ways of thinking about the causes of their suffering or moral dilemmas. Contrary to what some social conservatives say, this is not about schooling people in "victimization." In my practice, I work to foster our liberation from thought patterns that are toxic to social justice and to the transcendence of the self from these cultural blinders.
My love of ancient philosophy is rooted in my study of Plato, Aristotle, and Stoicism. Socrates (who became Plato's mouthpiece in his infamous dialogs) is an ideal template for how practical philosophy ought to be done: in everyday life with ordinary people, about the ultimate questions facing all of us. How should one live? What is a just society? What is the meaning of life? These are questions that were plumbed by Socrates as he appears in Plato's dialogues. Most of the time, or at least in Plato's earliest dialogues, Socrates did not arrive at the ultimate answers. His approach involves a line of interrogation that usually ended up confounding his dialogue partners in confusion and contradiction. Regardless of how one interprets these dialogues, this type of questioning has its own rewards: it sharpens one's reasoning abilities, hones the capacity to make distinctions and provide definitions, and opens one to the wondrous horizon of what one does not know, yet must investigate.
Aristotle and the Stoics follow in Socrates' footsteps. The western philosophical tradition will always be indebted to Aristotle for his precise demonstration of the ways that reasoning can be practical and ethical in application and can take into account the emotions in the process of deliberation. My philosophical counseling practice is deeply influenced by Aristotle's insights into the nature of practical reasoning and his focus on the development of personal character as a crucial part of ethical deliberation. The Stoics took the Socratic mandate of the examined life and Aristotle's emphasis on the cultivation of personal character, and developed a precise account of suffering and the ways that philosophical examination of the self can have the therapeutic effect of alleviating suffering.
Although Stoicism is often criticized for how it turns its back on the causes of suffering that are external to the self, I see the method of radical introspection provided by Stoicism as also its most important contribution. Stoics plumb the depths of much our own reasoning powers can liberate our emotions from attachment to the worldly sources of our pain. Although I would not promote to any client a zealous application of this philosophy, Stoic remedies are worth a look and clients often partially adopt some of Stoicism's techniques.
Nineteenth and twentieth century existentialist and phenomenological approaches, especially the work of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Husserl , Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty provide the foundations of my understanding of the nature and structure of
My Teaching
I teach in the Philosophy Program and the Women's Studies Program at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. My regular courses are Ancient Philosophy, Philosophies of Life, Ethics, Feminist Theories, and Contemporary European Philosophy. I also teach Ethics and Feminist Theories online at Eastern Michigan University. My teaching uses class discussion and debate. In my online courses, this happens through the Virtual Café featuring asynchronous class discussions.
I would not have my current philosophical identity, anchored as it is in social analysis, without the twentieth century work of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt. French philosopher Michel Foucault investigated and exposed the bureaucratic and governmental power exercised by modern penitentiaries, psychiatric and medical institutions. He also wrote thought-provoking critical histories about the development of our modern concepts of normalcy, sexual identity, and mental illness. I view Foucault's analyses as a quite recent precursor to today's philosophical counseling critiques of the power exercised by pharmaceutical, medical, and psychiatric institutions over the self-image and self-worth of ordinary people. Foucault reminds us by his historical hypotheses of how this power came to be, and ways in which it can be understood and its harmful effects dismantled by our deliberate social actions. German philosopher Hannah Arendt witnessed the rising tides of totalitarian regimes in Europe, emigrated to the United States to escape the rise of Nazism and co-founded contemporary American schools of social thought. Her contributions to the philosophical analysis of social injustice are far-reaching, as is her account of the crucial importance of contemplation as a key to deliberate and reasoned social action. Both Foucault and Arendt draw on ancient sources in their accounts of practical reason, and their writings are very influential in my own life and most likely permeate how I talk about social injustice and political power with clients who are interested in those topics.
I also offer the Socrates Cafe as a free event that spreads the wonder of philosophical dialog and helps me to meet like-minded people in the community. I am available to facilitate this event to any group that wishes to pursue philosophical inquiry.
Socrates Cafes
Socrates Cafes are a type of public discussion popularized by Christopher Phillips, Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001). Centuries ago, in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., a method of philosophical inquiry that can be embraced by everyone to kindle the childlike sense of wonder was practiced. Socrates brought to his fellow citizens a way of discussion that often left curious souls with more questions than they had at the beginning, but at times helped them to come up with at least tentative answers. This is a type of philosophy in which the person leading the question ca learn more from the other participants than vice versa, in which questions often are the answers. As Phillips puts it, "There is always more to discover: That is the essence, and magic, of what I have come to call 'Socratizing.'" Phillips encourages trained philosophers to follow his lead and to offer Socrates Cafes in their own locales, so that is what I am doing as an active member of Phillips' national organization, the Society for Philosophical Inquiry.
My Socrates Cafes happen monthly in local bookstores and libraries. Everyone is welcome. This is a free event to promote the wonder of philosophical dialog and for me to meet like-minded people in the community.