“The Philosopher is the concept’s friend…philosophy is not a simple art of forming, inventing or fabricating concepts…philosophy is the discipline of creating concepts…Concepts are not waiting for us ready-made like heavenly bodies…They must be invented, fabricated…and would be nothing without their creator’s signature.” - Gilles Deleuze
Explore and Transform Your Guiding Concepts: Why Everyone Benefits from Philosophical Coaching
AdvocatesROC believes that coaches are the ultimate partners in progress. Coaching is a joint creative endeavor that inspires clients to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaches provide unconditional support while encouraging clients to explore choices, set goals, identify core values and desires, and develop their personal vision. Our goal is to focus reflection and position clients to address limiting beliefs, articulate goals and design strategies to close the gap between where clients currently are and where they ultimately want to be. It is a solution-focused and forward-looking process; it trusts that the answers a client seeks reside within the client.
Philosophical coaching integrates philosophy into life & executive coaching practice. Philosophy enhances coaching because critical thinking is an essential component to set goals and to address limiting beliefs and other impediments to success. It also helps us to cultivate an open and curious mind and draws upon centuries of wisdom to empower us to design approaches to life's difficult questions, decisions and events. Our approach to coaching, therefore, integrates a rigorous and sustained attention to philosophical frameworks to uncover assumptions, articulate goals and help the client develop strategies to progress in their personal and professional lives. Techniques are tailored to each client and may include critical thinking exercises and concept analysis to 1) explore their worldview(s), 2) identify and investigate concepts and principles that shape their thought, and 3) develop goals that align with their identified, personal ideals.
Dr. Purnell is a certified professional coach (C.P.C.). She is also an affiliate member of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association and completed training in philosophical counseling techniques. Her core areas of philosophical expertise are in the areas of social and political philosophy, professional ethics, and the philosophy of law. The thinkers and schools of thought that have inspired her, challenged her and/or otherwise helped her to navigate life's challenges over the course of her life include Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, Rawls, classical liberalism, Stoicism, feminist theory (all "waves"), critical theory, Marx, critical race theory, the philosophy of nonviolent resistance & civil disobedience, Gramsci, Alain Badiou, Foucault, Nietzsche, Edmund Burke, Kierkegaard, postcolonial theory, bell hooks, American pragmatists, Buddha, Simone Weil, and contemporary thinkers exploring the foundations of human rights (including Appiah, Nussbaum and Shue).For more information about her, please click here.
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Clients are accepted globally and sessions are conducted in-person, via Skype or by phone. Please click here to schedule an appointment for individual coaching. We also offer group reflections on personal and professional development through our in-person "resiliency retreats." To register for one of our upcoming retreats, please click here.
For those who are interested in learning more about philosophical practice, please check out these resources:
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Maria deVenza Tillmann's article "On Understanding Self and Others Through Dialogue."
"To do philosophy is to explore one's own temperament, yet at the same time to attempt to discover the truth." -Iris Murdoch