A
central inspirator for my philosophical
counseling practice is Pierre Hadot. Hadot's recurring theme is that
philosophy in Antiquity was characterized by a series of spiritual exercises
intended to transform the perception, and therefore the being, of those who
practice it; that philosophy is best pursued in real conversation and not
through written texts and lectures; and that philosophy, as it is taught in
universities today, is for the most part a distortion of its original,
therapeutic impulse.