THE PHILOSOPHICAL HEALTH OF THE HEALER
A SMILE-PH Journey for Counsellors and Therapists
Live online cohort · 8 sessions · 75 min per session
WHAT HAS YOUR PRACTICE MADE OF YOU AS A WHOLE PERSON?
Counsellors and therapists are trained to hold space for others. But who holds space for them?​​
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Clinical supervision strengthens competence. Peer groups offer solidarity. Yet neither necessarily asks the deeper questions: What has years of professional listening made of you as a whole person? How has the work reshaped your body? Your sense of who you are? Your feeling of belonging or isolation? Your horizon of possibility? Your sense of purpose? Your capacity to think philosophically about your own practice?
This program creates a rare structure in which practitioners can examine these questions together in depth, without reducing them to technique, pathology, or performance.
Our method for you: SMILE-PH​​​
SMILE-PH (Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health) is a structured dialogue method developed by Dr Luis de Miranda at Uppsala University and in counselling practice.
Grounded in the CIPHER model, it explores six dimensions of philosophical health.
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01
Bodily Sense
Your lived relationship with your body. What does counselling do to your body? What does your body do to your counselling? Years of holding stillness, absorbing tension, and regulating your own nervous system in the presence of another's distress leave traces. This dimension invites you to attend to what your body carries, absorbs, and knows — before, during, and after session.
02
Sense of Self
Identity, coherence, authenticity. Who do you become when you sit in the therapist's chair? How has this role shaped your own self? The therapeutic persona can become so practiced that the line between professional presence and personal identity blurs. Here we explore whether the healer role has expanded or eclipsed the person behind it.
03
Sense of Belonging
Connection to others and systems. Where does the healer belong? Professional intimacy creates a paradox: you are deeply present to many, yet the confidentiality and asymmetry of the work can leave you feeling that you fully belong nowhere. This dimension examines where and with whom the practitioner finds genuine reciprocity.
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04
Sense of the Possible
Openness to change and new horizons. Has your practice expanded or narrowed your own horizon of possibility? Repeated exposure to suffering can quietly close down what feels thinkable or desirable in your own life, while breakthroughs in session can reopen it. How do you restore — and protect — your sense that things could be otherwise?
05
Sense of Purpose
Direction, meaning, vocation. What sustains your deep orientation when the work is demanding? Is there a greater purpose that gives your practice a backbone? Burnout often signals not exhaustion alone but a fracture in meaning — the moment when helping others no longer nourishes the helper's own sense of direction. We distinguish here between helping and healing, between routine and calling.
06
Philosophical Sense
Capacity for integrative reflection. Can you think your own practice philosophically — beyond technique? Protocols, evidence bases, and diagnostic frameworks are necessary but not sufficient for wisdom. This dimension asks whether you can step back from the tools of your trade and reflect on what it means to accompany another human being through suffering and transformation.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
This program is designed for:
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Licensed or certified counsellors
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Psychotherapists and psychologists
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Coaches and clinical supervisors
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Philosophical practitioners
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In short: practitioners who want to understand what their vocation has made of them and what it could still become.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW
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This is not supervision. This is not therapy for therapists. It is philosophical inquiry into the existential dimensions of your vocation.
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The program is not a training or certification in the SMILE-PH method. It is the method applied to you and your practice — though it can serve as a lived introduction to how SMILE-PH works.
What you receive
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Eight live online sessions of 75 min each (an introduction, one sense for each of the above senses, a conclusion).
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Pre- and post-program PHC assessment (Philosophical Health Compass)
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The e-book Philosophical Health: A Practical Introduction
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Co-creation with a small cohort (maximum 8 participants) designed for depth of dialogue
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Supervision by Dr Luis de Miranda, the creator of the method, philosophical counsellor, and Lynndal Daniels, clinical supervisor, certified in SMILE_PH
YOUR WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
PRACTICAL DETAILS
Send your application now to be considered for the 2026 cohort
Investment
$950 /
€850
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Duration & Format
Additional information
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Duration: 8 weeks (weekly sessions)
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Format: Online (Zoom)
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Session length: 75 minutes
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Cohort size: Maximum 8 participants
Download our PdF to learn more about the program here