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Philosophical Consultancy is a relatively new movement in philosophy which applies philosophical thinking and debating to the resolution of a person’s problem. Gerd B. Achenbach and Ad Hoogendijk are two, German and Dutch philosophers who established themselves as consultant philosophers in the 1980s (Achenbach 1984, 2002; Hoogendijk 1988) and led the way to a number of other developments all over the world. They proposed an alternative to psychotherapeutic culture by working exclusively within the field of existential investigation with clients or patients, whom they called ‘visitors.’

Achenbach argues that it is life that calls to thinking, rather than thinking that informs life. The act of philosophising can, therefore, give direction in its own right, as living precedes thinking and practice precedes theory.