S3, Episode 2: Phenomenology and Mindfulness in Practice

Unlock the secrets of lifelong learning and personal growth with an episode that will make you rethink mastery itself. Picture this: Gichin Funakoshi, the revered founder of Shotokan Karate, still learning the intricacies of a basic move in his 80s. What does this tell us about humility and the endless quest for understanding? Join Calvin as he explores how embracing continuous growth in counseling and psychology can transform helping others. Drawing from his 30-year journey in this field and the wisdom of philosophy, Calvin unravels how these insights have shaped his practice and can enhance your personal development.

Prepare to be intrigued by phenomenology, a fascinating branch of philosophy pioneered by Edmund Husserl, that offers a new lens to view counseling. We'll dissect how focusing on raw, unfiltered human experiences can elevate the counselor-client relationship and how this ties seamlessly into mindfulness practices. No matter where you are in your journey, this episode promises to equip you with the tools to foster self-awareness and craft a life of intention. Tune in for a rich conversation that marries ancient philosophical principles with modern therapeutic techniques, empowering you to navigate your own unique journey.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Greetings everybody and welcome back to the Counselor's Couch. I'm your host, calvin Williams, licensed professional counselor. You know 2024 has been an interesting year for me. I will soon be reaching my 30-year anniversary in this field. Wow, you know, it's kind of a long time.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Now, as I reflect on this journey, I've been exploring my why and I've mentioned this in previous episodes Not necessarily why am I a counselor, but rather why do I do what I do in counseling? This is actually what's led me down the road of researching stoicism and other philosophical principles this year. Now these philosophical principles of counseling and psychology help me to better understand how I can help others. It just now seems to be making some sense to me Now. I know that may sound strange, but it's true. I believe you have to do things for a while before they really start to make sense.

Speaker 1: 1:23

There's an interesting story I once heard about Gichin Funakoshi. He's the founder of Shotokan Karate. The story was that in his late years as an instructor he was well into his 80s or his 90s the students came into his dojo and found him performing a very basic block. Over and over again, he would slowly rotate his arm and his hand and measure the distance between his elbow and the placement from his rib cage. Now, for clarification purposes, this was a move that students learned on day one of training in Shotokan, when they approached him with concerns about his intensity, asking him if he was all right. He looked up from his work and he said huh, now I understand how this move works. I just love that story. Here we find the master and founder of a worldwide discipline of martial arts finally reaching an understanding of why and how something so simple worked.

Speaker 1: 2:24

It's the humility and openness to keep learning, searching and growing that I respect and appreciate, and it's something I've tried to emulate in my own professional development. I've always believed that when you think you know everything, you really don't know squat. So I continue to seek an understanding of personal and professional influences, which led me to an exploration of the great philosophers. Well, today we'll be diving into one of those fascinating concepts phenomenology, and how it relates to the practice of counseling. We'll explore what phenomenology is, how it shapes the way counselors engage with their clients and how it overlaps with mindfulness practices that we often find in the therapeutic relationship. But before we get started, let me remind you again that nothing in this podcast implies a therapeutic relationship between counselor and client. It is solely for education and entertainment, I hope, to empower you to become more self-aware and challenge you to create the life you desire. Counseling can help you overcome challenges, enhance your relationships and develop skills to lead the life you want.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Now, if you're considering therapy, then please reach out to a trained, licensed professional in your community. If you're interested in seeking counseling in the Monroe and Louisiana area, or if you live anywhere in Louisiana and you're interested in participating in teletherapy with state-approved professionals, well then contact the providers at HealthPoint Center. Change starts here. Psychology and Counseling Services. Healthpoint is a collaboration of independent professionals who are dedicated to improving your quality of life and guiding you on a positive path toward change. That's HealthPoint Center, located at 1818 Avenue of America, monroe, louisiana. Call today to inquire about services providers or book an appointment at area code 318-998-2700.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Well, it's that time again. So pull up a cushion, kick off your shoes and grab a cup of coffee. Let's get started with the session. What is phenomenology, besides being a mouthful of letters? Before we can connect phenomenology to counseling, let's break down what it means.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Phenomenology is a branch of philosophy that focuses on studying human experience from the first-person perspective. It was founded by Edmund Husserl in the early 20th century and its main goal is to understand how things appear to us in our everyday lives before we apply judgment or analysis. So imagine you're holding a cup of coffee. You can describe its temperature, its texture, its smell and its taste. All of these sensations are a part of your direct experience. Well, phenomenology says let's pause and really examine those experiences without applying any external labels. We focus on how things appear to us in their most raw form. Central to this is the concept of intentionality. In phenomenology, intentionality refers to the idea that consciousness is always directed toward something. It's never passive. When you think, you're always thinking about something. This helps us understand how experiences are always shaped by our mental focus, even in ways we might not fully realize.

Speaker 1: 5:58

So how does all this relate to counseling? Well, it turns out that phenomenology provides a powerful framework for how counselors approach their clients' lived experiences. Counseling is all about helping clients explore their emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Counseling is all about helping clients explore their emotions, thoughts and behaviors. What makes phenomenology relevant here is its emphasis on understanding the world from the client's perspective. Counselors especially those who are existential or humanistic in their approaches, not necessarily in diagnosing or labeling, but in helping the client explore and understand their own lived experience. In counseling, a therapist might ask a client questions like how does that situation make you feel? What do you experience in that moment? These are phenomenological questions. The counselor is trying to understand the client's subjective experience without imposing an outside interpretation.

Speaker 1: 7:05

One of the key techniques borrowed from phenomenology is bracketing, and it's what Husserl called the eposhe In therapy. This means the counselor puts aside their own assumptions and judgments to truly hear and understand the client's worldview. It's about creating a space where the client's experiences are the center of focus. For example, let's say a client is struggling with anxiety. Instead of focusing on diagnosing the anxiety or explaining it away as a biochemical imbalance, a phenomenological counselor would explore how the client experiences that anxiety. Is it a tightening in the chest? Is it a constant worry that something will go wrong? By focusing on these direct experiences, the client becomes more aware of their inner world, and often this awareness is the first step toward healing.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Now phenomenology isn't just a philosophical exercise. It has very practical implications, and one area where it intersects powerfully is with the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness and phenomenology share a lot of common ground. Mindfulness is all about staying present and bringing awareness to your thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations, without judgment. This is remarkably similar to the phenomenological idea of focusing on immediate experience and setting aside external judgments or assumptions.

Speaker 1: 8:35

In counseling, mindfulness techniques are often used to help clients stay grounded in the present moment. For instance, a therapist might guide a client through a body scan meditation, asking them to pay attention to sensations in their body. This brings the client into direct contact with their lived experience, much like phenomenology does. Both approaches help clients develop greater self-awareness. By focusing on what's rather than what should be, phenomenology and mindfulness both allow clients to experience their emotions and thoughts more fully without being overwhelmed by them. For example, a client dealing with depression might feel as if they're drowning in hopelessness. A mindful, phenomenological approach would guide the client to observe their thoughts and feelings. What does this sadness feel like? What does it manifest in your body, allowing the client to separate themselves from the overwhelming flood of emotions and become a curious observer of their own experience.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Next, we're going to take a look at some of the real-world applications of phenomenology and mindfulness in counseling. So how does a counselor actually apply phenomenology in practice? So how does a counselor actually apply phenomenology in practice. Well, phenomenological approaches can be found in several therapeutic modalities and strategies, and we're just going to highlight a couple of them. The first one is existential therapy.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Now, this approach, which was made popular by people like Viktor Frankl and Rollo May, is grounded in phenomenology. Frankl and Rollo May is grounded in phenomenology. Existential therapy is concerned with deep issues like meaning, freedom and death. Now, in this type of therapy, the counselor helps the client explore these existential themes meaning, freedom and death as they emerge in their lived experiences. For example, a client might struggle with feelings of meaningless or hopelessness, and the therapist would guide them through an exploration of what that sense of meaningness feels like for them and how it manifests in their daily life. In other words, how does this show up in your actions today? It might be a way that I would phrase it to my client has it impacted how you've acted today, your actions or even your inactions? Another modality would be humanistic therapy. Now, these are pioneers. Like Carl Rogers, they focused heavily on creating a nonjudgmental empathetic environment. Rogers' concept of unconditional positive regard aligns with phenomenology's emphasis on non-judgmental exploration of the client's experience.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Counselors using this approach rely on being fully present with their clients and understanding their inner world from a phenomenological standpoint. You know I might cultivate a curiosity about a client's behavior. Help me understand how you came to that conclusion. There's no judgment, simply an understanding of what the client was and is experiencing in that moment. And one more would be mindfulness-based therapies. Now, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy incorporate mindfulness into the therapeutic process. Both approaches encourage clients to observe their thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them, which ties back to the phenomenological idea of bracketing or observing experience without judgment. Bracketing or observing experience without judgment, whether it's through existential questions, humanistic empathy or mindfulness practices, phenomenology offers a rich framework for counseling. It empowers both counselors and clients to explore the human experience in a deeper, more meaningful way. When I work with my clients, I find that I engage an eclectic approach or a combination of strategies to meet my clients where they are in the process and help them establish skills to reach their goals and create the life they're seeking.

Speaker 1: 12:42

What makes phenomenology relevant for me is its emphasis on understanding the world from the client's perspective. I'm curious about how someone is experiencing the moment or the emotion. What did that argument with your spouse mean? What did it mean to you and where does it take you? Understanding this is an imperative part of finding resolutions to any external or internal conflicts that many people struggle with in their lives. It often comes down to the projection of our own meeting of the conflict onto our partners. Just because I experienced that moment in a certain way doesn't mean that other people will. Taking the conflict out of the binary realm of right or wrong, which we'll find in a phenomenological approach, helps Consider for a moment.

Speaker 1: 13:32

When we argue within a right or wrong or a win-loss mindset, what do you really win, and why is winning so important to you that you're willing to hurt the person you claim to care about? It's no longer about the person you love. It's about what meaning you place on winning or losing. When you sit with that idea for a moment, you can ask yourself if this is playing out in the moment or some other time in my life. If winning an argument means I'm in control, which often means I'm safe, then you will act in a manner that can be quite destructive in any relationship. Do I not feel safe with this partner I picked? Well, if so, then winning the argument is the least of your worries. However, if I understand that I don't feel safe because of conflicts or hurts. From my past, I can learn skills to engage in the moment and lean into the relationship with the person I trust.

Speaker 1: 14:34

An increased awareness of this style of processing can and will make a difference in how we navigate relationships in our lives. It will also improve your emotional intelligence, allowing you to engage your emotional responses as resources of information. Feelings don't need to be fixed. They need to be felt and experienced before we take action. Feelings will help you identify the problem that does need your attention, but that's an episode for another time. That's all we have for today's episode on phenomenology and counseling. I hope you gained some insight into how this philosophical approach can make a profound difference in therapeutic practices and in your life. Now, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and check out more episodes of the Counselor's Couch.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Today, I want to leave you with a quote from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. Today, I want to leave you with a quote from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of thinking that one knows, for it's impossible to get a human being to learn that which they think they already know. Remember, folks, life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. You are not alone. You're more capable than you will ever know. Embrace it. Live intentionally, love daily and laugh often. Do your best today and become what you can be, because, folks, the world needs you.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Please subscribe and follow me on whatever format you use to listen to podcasts, and remember to take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Give us a shout out and let me know what you think, and take a minute to share the episode with a friend or a family member. I do really want to get that message out there that you are not alone. Connection is key. If you have any questions or comments about this podcast, you can email them directly to calvin at calincwilliamslpccom, or you can reach me on Facebook at Williams Professional Counseling Services LLC. You can even check out my website at wwwcalvincwilliamslpccom. Or if you'd like to schedule a therapy session with me, contact us at HealthPoint Center, area code 318-998-2700. I always look forward to hearing from listeners, so please feel free to submit topics of interest, comments or questions. Keep coming back. Thanks again for stopping by and remember folks, there's always room for you on the counselor's couch.