On this page I share a little about myself and my philosophical and therapeutic background, to help you decide if I might be right for you.
Most of my adult life has been dedicated to explorations of what matters most in life. As teenager I dropped out of high school, left my small town in the Mallee, and moved alone to Melbourne where I made a living as a musician for a couple of years. During that time I became drawn to existential and spiritual questions, which I explored at first through Christian mysticism. This led to me entering a monastery in Italy which focused on Russian Orthodox mysticism, in which I spent a year. Afterwards I returned to Australia where, while working in a factory by day and discovering and reading philosophy by night, I made my way into The University of Melbourne, where I studied and eventually taught philosophy.
As I discuss on the counselling page, 'philosophy' is an ancient Greek word meaning love of wisdom. To be a philosopher is to love wisdom, and to seek to be more wise, to live more wisely. We do not say that we are wise, rather we are lovers and pursuers wisdom, and while we are always very imperfect yet we are always seeking to grow in wisdom. An ancient philosopher seeks wisdom for themselves, and they seek to become skilled in guiding others toward widom. Wisdom is a virtue (in ancient Greek arete, i.e. a human excellence) and so wisdom implies the other virtues as well: courage, justice, temperance, love, gratitude, and so forth. Philosophy in this ancient sense - the tradition of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - is not primarily academic scholarship, although that has its own legitimacy. Rather, "the love of wisdom" is a way of life. Philosophy is a way of life. The goal of philosophy is eudaimonia, sometimes translated as "a good spirit" and sometimes "a good flow of life." The eudaimonic life is one of deeper happiness and meaning. It is contact with and nourishment by what is true and good in life. To lack wisdom is to become attached to unworthy things - material situation and objects, our ego, and so forth - and so to be tossed about on the seas of life, and lost in the associated emotional storms - anger, despair, addiction, paralysis, superficiality. To develop wisdom is to shape ourselves around what most matters, and to steer our ship well. The Love of Wisdom (philosophy) is not only for clever types, rather it is for anybody who wants to reflect, to become more wise, to grow in the virtues - in what is best in themselves - and who want eudaimonia, a truly happy life.
During my undergraduate years studying philosophy, I saw a counsellor for a bout of depression and found it beneficial. My only complaint - not their fault - was my sense that what I really needed was a form of help which combined counselling and philosophy. That is, my depression was in some ways psychological, for example having to do with the trauma I left behind when I left that teenage home, but it was also philosophical, in the sense that I needed a deeper sense of meaning, value, purpose. Life is in part suffering, but we can deal with a heck of a lot of that, if we have an adequately meaningful and purposeful sense of life, as well as the wisdom and skills for pursuing that.
Later, I was teaching philosophy at a couple of universities but experiencing similar frustrations with academic philosophy itself. I come from a poorer, rural background of farmers and tradesmen, and so have a very practical bent. At the same time, I grew up in the Mallee staring at distant horizons, and from a very young age I developed a philosophical feeling for life, which grew out of that very hard but evocative and timeless landscape. My love of philosophy was not a love of intellectual chatter - nobody around me had been anywhere near a university or even a highbrow bookshop. Rather, my love of philosophy was a love of strong and deep living. I was fortunate groing up to have experienced the presence and example of certain older men and women who had lived hard, poor lives, and who were also thoughtful, wise, and good. These were my philosophers; lovers of wisdom.
In the light of the above, when I came across both the Philosophical Counselling movement I knew I had found my vocation. Here was a life as a philosopher, and a way of sharing philosophy, with anybody who wants it, regarding the real pain and aspirations of their lives. So I studied counselling, eventually to masters level. As I did so, I came across the psychotherapeutic tradition known as Existential Therapy. I also discovered a love of psychotherapy more generally, with its honed insights into the many aspects of people which, otherwise, make no sense. I have been a qualified counsellor now for almost two decades, offering Philosophical Counselling, Existential Therapy, and general broad therapeutic skills, and this has become my career.
At the beginning of my therapeutic career I decided to spend a decade getting as much experience as possible, regarding both mainstream therapeutic approaches and the many common issues that people bring. I did that for twelve years by working in counselling organisations. I worked as a counsellor with: a suicide prevention service, focused both on crisis intervention (I spent a lot of time talking people back from bridges and the like); a men's counselling service, with a special focus on rural and isolated men; two Australian Defense Force counselling services; a bereavement after suicide service; and workplace counselling (EAP), providing counselling to employees and coaching to managers. During these years I was a voracious learner, and took deep dives into the many mainstream schools of counselling and psychotherapy, by (informally) studying and applying those approaches, and by experiencing them as a client. This included the varieties of the humanistic, psychoanalytic, and cognitive-behavioural therapies. A consequence is that I now possess knowledge and skills from across all the mainstream therapies, without adhering dogmatically to any one of them. In 2012 I began a private practice, as the space to focus on Existential Therapy and Philosophical Counselling, which I did part-time while working in the above organisations, while also teaching academic philosophy.
Stepping back in this story to fill out another dimension, my own spiritual, religious, or worldview journey after Christianity included some years engaged with Buddhism. I practiced meditation for two hours every morning and focused my philosophical studies - for example my Honours thesis - on Buddhism (a comparative study between that and Platonism). The two consistent philosophical traditions which, however, have been my focus since I returned from Italy and discovered philosophy at the age of 20, are Platonism and Stoicism. I am a Platonist and a Stoic in my bones, so to speak.
Platonism is a tradition of profound insight into the ways that value permeates our lives, often outside of our awareness or surface experience. In that respect it is a philosophy for making the implicit explicit. It has been invaluable for helping my clients recognise the implicit, rich presence of meaning and value in their lives, even when they have been habitually blind to that and have come to me in a state of despair. Later Platonism, sometimes called Neoplatonism, is the intellectual framework upon which much of Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism was based. As one scholar put it, "the history of Western mysticism is the history of Platonism." The platonists whom I have spent the last quarter of a century reading and reflecting on include Plato, Plotinus, the Platonically-inspired mystics in those aforementioned religious traditions (for example Meister Eckhart), Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Raimond Gaita, and Christopher Cordner (my thesis supervisor).
Another tradition which has been my constant companion and guide throughout my adult life is Stoicism. In particular I am referring to Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Ancient Stoicism is a rational spirituality, aimed in part at radical freedom from fear and suffering, which is achieved by attaching ourselves purely to the ultimate realities of existence: the divine within us and in the universe. The "Modern Stoicism" movement of the last two decades is a secular variant, which aims to inspire and guide us to live a life of reason and virtue, leading to a life of meaning and happiness, even in the context of a chaotic, materialist, and often nihilistic world. While some modern stoics are a little dishonest and dense when it comes to the spiritual nature of ancient stoicism, nonetheless I am passionate about both forms. Which is to say, I am passionate about goodness and meaning and growth regardless of the context, including spiritual versus secular. Goodness is goodness, whatever the worldview. So I draw on both traditions, ancient and modern, working skillfully and respectfully with the worldview of my client. Of course, I care very much about truth, but a quarter of a century of reflection and reasoning has given me a healthy scepticism about the stories we tell, and the storms we make in our teacups. As Marcus Aurelius wrote: "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one!" Stoicism, spiritual or secular, is a profound guide to goodness and freedom by means of reflection and investing in our better possibilities.
For a long time I wrote and presented on philosophical perspectives on therapeutic issues at both conferences and on a popular blog, which led to offers of academic teaching in counselling, however I eventually gave up all teaching - philosophical and therapeutic - in favour of pure counselling. In truth, I quite rightly do not see myself as an academic, even though I am a philosopher. An academic philosopher is only one form of a philosopher - typically the kind who is concerned with scholarship. There are of course some academics who are mere pedants, but there are also many who do brilliant, rigorous work which enlightens the rest of us. Nonetheless, I am a therapeutic philosopher. That is where my talents and passions lie. Philosophy for me is a way of life: contemplation, aliveness to existence, informed by the wisdom of the ages. Today I work solely in private practice, with a focus on Philosophical Counselling and Existential Therapy.
That's enough about me. Some years ago I left the city and my city office and moved back to the country, buying a cottage by a forest in central Victoria, from where I see people by phone and video. I balance this career with working again as a musician. I have also another website and service, where I provide philosophical guidance and counselling for those who want to take a specifically Stoic (and perhaps Platonic) path.
Most of my adult life has been dedicated to explorations of what matters most in life. As teenager I dropped out of high school, left my small town in the Mallee, and moved alone to Melbourne where I made a living as a musician for a couple of years. During that time I became drawn to existential and spiritual questions, which I explored at first through Christian mysticism. This led to me entering a monastery in Italy which focused on Russian Orthodox mysticism, in which I spent a year. Afterwards I returned to Australia where, while working in a factory by day and discovering and reading philosophy by night, I made my way into The University of Melbourne, where I studied and eventually taught philosophy.
As I discuss on the counselling page, 'philosophy' is an ancient Greek word meaning love of wisdom. To be a philosopher is to love wisdom, and to seek to be more wise, to live more wisely. We do not say that we are wise, rather we are lovers and pursuers wisdom, and while we are always very imperfect yet we are always seeking to grow in wisdom. An ancient philosopher seeks wisdom for themselves, and they seek to become skilled in guiding others toward widom. Wisdom is a virtue (in ancient Greek arete, i.e. a human excellence) and so wisdom implies the other virtues as well: courage, justice, temperance, love, gratitude, and so forth. Philosophy in this ancient sense - the tradition of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - is not primarily academic scholarship, although that has its own legitimacy. Rather, "the love of wisdom" is a way of life. Philosophy is a way of life. The goal of philosophy is eudaimonia, sometimes translated as "a good spirit" and sometimes "a good flow of life." The eudaimonic life is one of deeper happiness and meaning. It is contact with and nourishment by what is true and good in life. To lack wisdom is to become attached to unworthy things - material situation and objects, our ego, and so forth - and so to be tossed about on the seas of life, and lost in the associated emotional storms - anger, despair, addiction, paralysis, superficiality. To develop wisdom is to shape ourselves around what most matters, and to steer our ship well. The Love of Wisdom (philosophy) is not only for clever types, rather it is for anybody who wants to reflect, to become more wise, to grow in the virtues - in what is best in themselves - and who want eudaimonia, a truly happy life.
During my undergraduate years studying philosophy, I saw a counsellor for a bout of depression and found it beneficial. My only complaint - not their fault - was my sense that what I really needed was a form of help which combined counselling and philosophy. That is, my depression was in some ways psychological, for example having to do with the trauma I left behind when I left that teenage home, but it was also philosophical, in the sense that I needed a deeper sense of meaning, value, purpose. Life is in part suffering, but we can deal with a heck of a lot of that, if we have an adequately meaningful and purposeful sense of life, as well as the wisdom and skills for pursuing that.
Later, I was teaching philosophy at a couple of universities but experiencing similar frustrations with academic philosophy itself. I come from a poorer, rural background of farmers and tradesmen, and so have a very practical bent. At the same time, I grew up in the Mallee staring at distant horizons, and from a very young age I developed a philosophical feeling for life, which grew out of that very hard but evocative and timeless landscape. My love of philosophy was not a love of intellectual chatter - nobody around me had been anywhere near a university or even a highbrow bookshop. Rather, my love of philosophy was a love of strong and deep living. I was fortunate groing up to have experienced the presence and example of certain older men and women who had lived hard, poor lives, and who were also thoughtful, wise, and good. These were my philosophers; lovers of wisdom.
In the light of the above, when I came across both the Philosophical Counselling movement I knew I had found my vocation. Here was a life as a philosopher, and a way of sharing philosophy, with anybody who wants it, regarding the real pain and aspirations of their lives. So I studied counselling, eventually to masters level. As I did so, I came across the psychotherapeutic tradition known as Existential Therapy. I also discovered a love of psychotherapy more generally, with its honed insights into the many aspects of people which, otherwise, make no sense. I have been a qualified counsellor now for almost two decades, offering Philosophical Counselling, Existential Therapy, and general broad therapeutic skills, and this has become my career.
At the beginning of my therapeutic career I decided to spend a decade getting as much experience as possible, regarding both mainstream therapeutic approaches and the many common issues that people bring. I did that for twelve years by working in counselling organisations. I worked as a counsellor with: a suicide prevention service, focused both on crisis intervention (I spent a lot of time talking people back from bridges and the like); a men's counselling service, with a special focus on rural and isolated men; two Australian Defense Force counselling services; a bereavement after suicide service; and workplace counselling (EAP), providing counselling to employees and coaching to managers. During these years I was a voracious learner, and took deep dives into the many mainstream schools of counselling and psychotherapy, by (informally) studying and applying those approaches, and by experiencing them as a client. This included the varieties of the humanistic, psychoanalytic, and cognitive-behavioural therapies. A consequence is that I now possess knowledge and skills from across all the mainstream therapies, without adhering dogmatically to any one of them. In 2012 I began a private practice, as the space to focus on Existential Therapy and Philosophical Counselling, which I did part-time while working in the above organisations, while also teaching academic philosophy.
Stepping back in this story to fill out another dimension, my own spiritual, religious, or worldview journey after Christianity included some years engaged with Buddhism. I practiced meditation for two hours every morning and focused my philosophical studies - for example my Honours thesis - on Buddhism (a comparative study between that and Platonism). The two consistent philosophical traditions which, however, have been my focus since I returned from Italy and discovered philosophy at the age of 20, are Platonism and Stoicism. I am a Platonist and a Stoic in my bones, so to speak.
Platonism is a tradition of profound insight into the ways that value permeates our lives, often outside of our awareness or surface experience. In that respect it is a philosophy for making the implicit explicit. It has been invaluable for helping my clients recognise the implicit, rich presence of meaning and value in their lives, even when they have been habitually blind to that and have come to me in a state of despair. Later Platonism, sometimes called Neoplatonism, is the intellectual framework upon which much of Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism was based. As one scholar put it, "the history of Western mysticism is the history of Platonism." The platonists whom I have spent the last quarter of a century reading and reflecting on include Plato, Plotinus, the Platonically-inspired mystics in those aforementioned religious traditions (for example Meister Eckhart), Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Raimond Gaita, and Christopher Cordner (my thesis supervisor).
Another tradition which has been my constant companion and guide throughout my adult life is Stoicism. In particular I am referring to Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Ancient Stoicism is a rational spirituality, aimed in part at radical freedom from fear and suffering, which is achieved by attaching ourselves purely to the ultimate realities of existence: the divine within us and in the universe. The "Modern Stoicism" movement of the last two decades is a secular variant, which aims to inspire and guide us to live a life of reason and virtue, leading to a life of meaning and happiness, even in the context of a chaotic, materialist, and often nihilistic world. While some modern stoics are a little dishonest and dense when it comes to the spiritual nature of ancient stoicism, nonetheless I am passionate about both forms. Which is to say, I am passionate about goodness and meaning and growth regardless of the context, including spiritual versus secular. Goodness is goodness, whatever the worldview. So I draw on both traditions, ancient and modern, working skillfully and respectfully with the worldview of my client. Of course, I care very much about truth, but a quarter of a century of reflection and reasoning has given me a healthy scepticism about the stories we tell, and the storms we make in our teacups. As Marcus Aurelius wrote: "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one!" Stoicism, spiritual or secular, is a profound guide to goodness and freedom by means of reflection and investing in our better possibilities.
For a long time I wrote and presented on philosophical perspectives on therapeutic issues at both conferences and on a popular blog, which led to offers of academic teaching in counselling, however I eventually gave up all teaching - philosophical and therapeutic - in favour of pure counselling. In truth, I quite rightly do not see myself as an academic, even though I am a philosopher. An academic philosopher is only one form of a philosopher - typically the kind who is concerned with scholarship. There are of course some academics who are mere pedants, but there are also many who do brilliant, rigorous work which enlightens the rest of us. Nonetheless, I am a therapeutic philosopher. That is where my talents and passions lie. Philosophy for me is a way of life: contemplation, aliveness to existence, informed by the wisdom of the ages. Today I work solely in private practice, with a focus on Philosophical Counselling and Existential Therapy.
That's enough about me. Some years ago I left the city and my city office and moved back to the country, buying a cottage by a forest in central Victoria, from where I see people by phone and video. I balance this career with working again as a musician. I have also another website and service, where I provide philosophical guidance and counselling for those who want to take a specifically Stoic (and perhaps Platonic) path.
