APPA client counselling (Marinoff)

Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage · Lou Marinoff · 1998 · New York

What it is

APPA client counselling is a form of philosophical practice, not a psychotherapy. Marinoff, APPA's founding president, presents it as the return of philosophy to its classical role of helping people with everyday problems, and calls it "therapy for the sane". APPA was founded in New York in 1998;…

Format

• Session count and format. Marinoff describes the following:
• Individual sessions of a standard 50-minute hour, seated in chairs, in person or by video.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• The APPA Code asks practitioners to avoid unnecessary sessions and to end once the client's goals are met to the client's satisfaction, or once further sessions would not help.
• Training and certification
• Primary certification as an Associate requires a master's degree or ABD in philosophy (or a Licenciatura in Hispanic countries). Fellow requires a doctorate.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• recordings that contain clinical material belonging in health records.
• continuing out of habit, and endings that leave untreated clinical symptoms (refer; see 4.17).
• adversity rehearsal feeding rumination or worry in anxious clients. Stop if distress escalates.
• a client who hears referral as rejection or as being called "crazy". Frame it as matching help to the problem.
• a client who wants verdicts rather than skills. It is working when the client brings a problem already partly analysed.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.