"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Burnout has been defined and measured in various ways by psychologists and medical professionals, but it is also true that “you know it when you feel it.” If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning; or spend most of your workday procrastinating; or wonder why what you are doing is valuable; or feel impatient with loved ones, colleagues, and strangers; or tend to give more energy to things than you get back, then you know you have burnout.
There is a path beyond burnout, and it begins with seeing that the burnout itself may only be the surface of the problem. Burnout comes about when we are out of tune with ourselves for too long.
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Philosophical counseling aims to help you find greater self-attunement through helping you to distinguish your own appreciation of the things you do from externalized metrics and collective judgments about them. From its perspective, the crisis of work dissatisfaction or burnout that you are experiencing is above all a call to deepen your self-knowledge.
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What does eudaimon mean?
The word "eudaimon" is an ancient Greek one and has two parts: εá½– + δαίμων. Εá½– means “good” and δαίμων means “spirit”. The word "eudaimon" was used by ancient Greek thinkers to refer to a person who had attained the truest kind of happiness. This was happiness that did not rely on wealth or physical pleasure, but on the rational and virtuous activity of the soul. Aristotle believed this was the highest human good and the only one we desired for its own sake.
Eudaimon Counseling is the name of my philosophical counseling practice. The goal of my practice is to help you ask the questions that will bring you closer to the sense of direction within you. We will create a space for you to examine the challenges you are encountering in your work life and in other settings, which tend to involve uncertainties of a philosophical kind - for instance, what is the principle by which I want to orient my career? or, what is the best way to handle disagreement in work relations? - in order to arrive at a stronger understanding of how to navigate through them.
Most forms of distress that people experience are not results of mental illness, but rather of not giving focus to the issues of meaning and purpose that come up in their experiences. At Eudaimon Counseling, we urge you to look at the problems that are coming up, examine the questions that lie buried within them, and empower your deeper, knowing self to find a more eudaimonic life-path. Start on this work now by filling out my Contact form below.
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ABOUT ME
KATERINA APOSTOLIDES
I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. At 18, I crossed the Atlantic and came to New Haven, CT, to begin college. There, I first developed a love of political philosophy and of the ancient Greek practice of philosophy as a way of living and building friendships with others. After graduating, I spent a year in New York City and then in Damascus, Syria, until I eventually found my way back to university, as I entered a PhD program at the University of Chicago. I eventually also gained experience as a Lecturer and Thesis Adviser in the college.
Unfortunately, a pattern of overwork combined with increasingly externalized assessments of myself in my academic career led to stagnation, social alienation and, finally, severe health issues.
I became a certified member of the American Philosophical Practitioners' Association in 2018, and started my philosophical counseling practice in New York City in 2019.
In my practice, I help individuals understand problems they deal with in their work lives, such as burnout or conflict in relations with others, in light of their guiding principles and sense of purpose.
Here's a recent interview with me.
TRAINING
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Yale University, B.A. 2002
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University of Chicago, M.A., 2010
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University of Chicago, 2016, PhD Candidate
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Certificate in Counseling from the American Philosophical Practitioners Association, 2018
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Certificate in Conflict Resolution from Cornell University, 2019
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100+ hrs training in Conflict Mediation
CONTACT ME
No problem is too small or too big to be the start of a philosophical conversation. Contact me if you want to book an appointment or are just curious to learn more.
E-MAIL:
LOCATION:
Now working online from Athens, Greece