The transactional nature of philosophical counseling

Abstract

The counseling situation is a kind of exchange. There is an underlying transaction which takes place in counseling as a professional activity. However the nature of this transaction is not simple: it involves not just the transaction of expertise, experience and advice, but also a particular human interaction which makes the transaction part of the identity of both the client and the counselor. The paper explores this particular dialectic of exchange and transactional agreements in psychotherapy.