Overview
The word ontology sits in the name of our practice — Baraka Ontology Clinical Counselling — and almost no one who walks in the door knows what it means. That is fine. The word is academic; it comes from Greek; it sounds, on first encounter, like the kind of thing that is meant to keep ordinary readers out. I want to bring it in. This article is the demystified version. Not what ontology means in the philosophy seminar.
What it means in our practice, and why we put it in our name. The everyday meaning In the broadest sense, ontology is the study of being — what exists, how it exists, what makes something the kind of thing it is.
Evidence summary
As an academic discipline, this can become very technical very quickly, with elaborate distinctions between essence and existence, particular and universal, substance and attribute. None of that is what we mean. What we mean by ontology, in our practice, is something simpler and more practical.
It is the level of attention that asks not what are you doing or what are you thinking or what are you feeling, but how are you- And not how-are-you in the social greeting sense. How-are-you in the deeper sense: who are you being- What is the quality of your presence in this moment- From what place inside you are you living- These questions sound abstract. They are not.
Care considerations
They are some of the most concrete questions a human being can be asked. What it looks like in real life Consider a small example. You are at a difficult meeting at work. Your colleague says something that lands wrong. Several responses are available to you. You can speak up immediately and sharply. You can stay quiet and stew. You can ask a clarifying question. You can leave the room and return when you are calmer.
The doing-level question is what should I do- The cognitive-level question is what am I thinking- The emotional-level question is what am I feeling- The ontological-level question is different. It is: who am I being right now- Are you being someone who is hurt and protecting-
Next steps
Someone who is performing competence- Someone who is genuinely curious- Someone who is small and frightened- Someone who is connected to your deeper steadiness- The answer to this question shapes every other answer. The action you take from a place of fear is different from the action you take from a place of clarity, even if the actions look identical from outside.
The thoughts that come from a contracted, defended self are different from the thoughts that come from a settled, present self. The feelings that arise when you are being one kind of person are different from the feelings that arise when you are being another. Ontological work is the work of paying attention at this level.