The Importance Of Human Nature In Counselling

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Philosophy can be a very useful tool for everything from ethics, rationality, the mind, children, and even counselling. Many psychotherapists based their practices off philosophical theory and approach (Raabe, 2002, p. 7). As a result, of this philosophy can be applied and is appropriate in a counselling setting. Therefore, philosophy is going to be employed by a client to help her with her problems with her life as well as her reasoning. The client has come seeking help with her feelings of hopelessness and sadness; a medical doctor apparently diagnosed her with depression. The main issue the client seems to be having is that she is scared that she will return to her life of prostitution and drug abuse. In addition, she seems to have some …show more content…

This is a hasty conclusion because she feels as though her problem will lead to death and she acts as though it is completely out of her control. Her ideas about human nature are one of the causes of her issues. Some argued that one 's beliefs about one 's own human nature influence every aspect of their lives, including relationships, self-view, and view of society (Velasquez, 2014, p.55). This argument applies to the client 's case effectively because her view of human nature is causing her to believe that she will end up just like her biological mother. To help the client believe that her future and nature is in her own hands one could point to the beliefs of Kant, that the existence of the self is purely based on the ability to make decisions for ourselves (Velasquez, 2014, p. 100). Perhaps, one could also tell the client about the existentialist view that states humans can do whatever they want with themselves because there is no such thing as human nature, we are fully responsible for how we end up and we have complete control, we as humans have free choice as well as actions (Velasquez, 2014, p. 74). You could prove to the client that she has a choice in her actions as well as human nature by pointing out that she did choose to quit drugs and working as a prostitute for 2 years now even though her mother continued living that lifestyle. If the client had no control over her human nature, she would not have been able to quit for that time or any amount of

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