People who are having problems of living often seek help from psychologists or other mental health professionals; and sometimes they seek help from spiritualists such as priests, ministers, and rabbis.  Rarely, however, do people stop and say, “What I really need is to talk to a philosopher.”  Yet many problems of living are essentially philosophical at their core.  They raise the sort of questions that professional philosophers have studied in great detail.  Confronting a midlife crisis, the apparent meaninglessness of one’s own existence, the unknown, change, responsibility, commitment, freedom (or the loss of it); distinguishing between faulty thinking and rational thinking; and even making a moral decision—such are the bread and butter of philosophy.  That is, these issues raise, in a practical context, the basic questions of philosophy-- the nature of human existence, reality, knowledge, truth, value, reason, and morality. 

So why not ask a philosopher!  This is the keynote of a contemporary movement slowly gaining headway called “philosophical counseling or practice.”  Philosophical practitioners use their training in philosophy to help people confront their problems of living, philosophically.