Raabe critiques both existing theoretical conceptions of philosophical counseling and accounts of its practice. He then presents and defends an overarching model of philosophical counseling that captures the best conceptions and reports of practice.

The volume begins with an examination of the principles of philosophical counseling as they have been gathered from theoretical normative hypotheses and from accounts of actual practice. Raabe then presents a new model of philosophical counseling based on the combination of principles presented earlier and experiential data from his private practice. The volume concludes with sample cases from his own practice to illustrate the principles at work in a number of different applications of philosophical counseling. Practicing counselers as well as scholars and advanced students of philosophy, psychology, counseling, and educational guidance will find this work of particular importance.