The Resolute Approach

Psychological therapy can help provide the essential and necessary tools, support and guidance to lessen and even alleviate much of the mental anguish and suffering that many of us routinely experience. Indeed, for many, simply gaining a deeper understanding of how the interplay of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours have lead to all manner of maladaptive and self-damaging outcomes - and how professional therapy can improve these outcomes - can be life changing.

In many cases, this is tremendously helpful and what is the basis for the vast majority of therapeutic interventions and clinical practices, namely cognitive-behavioural therapy, or CBT.

Although CBT is very much part of my ‘toolbox’ of approaches and I consider it and other primarily psychological interventions (see other psychological therapies and tools I use below) essential scaffolding in building mental and physical wellness, they typically are less useful in providing us with direction, purpose and meaning that are arguably far more essential in building a better life for ourselves and others.

Philosophical underpinnings of Psychological Therapy

In my view, classical philosophy, as opposed to contemporary philosophy, is generally more interested in discussing the question “what is a good life, why is it good, and how to live it". However, a psychologist might suggest that only the individual can determine ‘what’ a good life is, and ‘why’ that is so, for themselves, and therefore cannot offer a ‘how’ to live life in any general or standardised terms.

Further, what exactly constitutes ‘a good life’ is also highly subjective to the individual and inevitably draws out relative comparisons to others, which obscures what is truly important to you. In other words, since ‘good’ is a relative value judgment it is only ‘good’ in relation to its comparison - typically others. Suffice to say, using others to determine how I ‘should’ or ‘ought’ to be living my life will leave you feeling empty, listless, and devoid of the intrinsic motivation to be your best.

Therefore, the pragmatic combination of psychology and philosophy can drive us to ask the far more profound and compelling question:

“How do I live a better life?”

A ‘better life’ is an individual question to ourselves, “how can I do better than I am doing now”?

Hence, the power and motivation then lies within us. This is our purpose.

Finding Purpose

What constitutes a better life for the individual is by its very nature an introspective investigation - we have to be truthful to ourselves and simply ask. In many ways both psychological therapy and philosophical explorations can be incredibly useful to find our purpose. In therapy this will be our first goal - to find your purpose - what defines you as you and what makes you tick.

When I first began (informally) studying philosophy, in particular classical and existential philosophies, I was quite astonished by how pragmatic they were - these were not '“beard-stroking” esoteric thought experiments at all. It was evident that at the root of much of modern psychological therapy lies the deep philosophical underpinnings of classical philosophy.

For example, Albert Ellis, the creator of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) which is considered a precursor to Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), developed his therapy largely based on the classical philosophy of Stoicism.

Fundamentally, Stoicism teaches us Sommum Bonnum - that virtue is the highest good and to have a ‘better’ life is to live a more virtuous life:

“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.”

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher

Building Resilience and Purpose

Learning to live with purpose and virtue helps to build resilience in our lives, inoculating us from the slings and arrows of life before they set us back or harm us. I believe, by combining psychological knowledge, tools and practices and developing the four tenets of Stoicism - wisdom, courage, justice and moderation - we can build resilience in both mind and body.

Hence, our mission will be to develop the wisdom to understand what we can and cannot control, the courage to pursue and not avoid our desires, the justice to deal with others as we’d like to be dealt with ourselves, and to live with a sense of moderation in the face of craving, excess and vice.

Ultimately then, our goal is to live with greater gratitude, humility and acceptance and simply put:

“be the best me I can be”