As I continue to develop my philosophical counseling practice, I have been receiving a lot of questions regarding the difference between philosophical counseling and therapy. The two definitely overlap and often intertwine, but there are specific differences between them. Each wants clients to come away from therapy or counseling as a better person, on more solid footing, with better coping skills and the capacity for self-care and self-realization. Where the emphasis is different however, is in the underlying purpose or mechanism of each. Therapy, at its core, is concerned with mental health, the treatment of underlying traumas, and a reduction of symptoms caused by some past trauma or some underlying psychopathology. It concerns itself largely with emotional regulation. Therapy, in its more basic form, assumes that there is some kind of pathology at work — which can have its roots in a past traumatic event or in some physiological psychopathology which can be regulated or managed via psychopharmacology or any one of a number of cognitive or narrative therapies. Therapy works through the emotional and cognitive dimensions of traumas and psychopathologies, with an emphasis on emotional behaviors and narratives.