What’s In a Name: Why is the Practice Named “Telos”?

While in the present day, “telos” is a Greek word meaning “end”, it has a history dating back over 2300 years to one of the greatest minds ever to walk the earth: Aristotle.

When trying to discern the nature of the world and the organisms that made it up, one of the lenses Aristotle used to organize his thinking and observation was through something's purpose, aim, or goal. To Aristotle, any action is undertaken to achieve some goal or purpose (for example, the purpose of going grocery shopping is to get food to cook or eat). Aristotle extended this by saying that a person or organism could be understood through the sum of the purposes and aims of the actions they undertook. The word Aristotle gave for this idea - an action or organism's purposes, aims, or goals - was its/their "telos." Aristotle stated that the telos of the acorn is to grow into a strong oak tree.

Purpose gets at the core of both why mental health challenges can be so disruptive and how treatment can be pursued. While the experience of mental health difficulties is unpleasant (to put it mildly), the real disruption and more significant impact lies in what it takes from us: experiences, relationships, opportunities, and our connection to ourselves. So successful treatment can't just be about reducing symptoms; it has to help someone return to pursuing that underlying purpose or aim - our telos.

We understand that getting help for these challenges is primarily a means to an end - a vital means, but a means nonetheless. While healing begins at the symptom level, its power gives us the opportunity to be the person we want to be and the life we want to live.