As a result of researching on the Venezuelan episteme (along with Dr. Alejandro Moreno), it was found that Venezuelans perceive themselves as “in-relationship”; they do not conceive themselves as individuals.
In consequence, as a Clinical Psychologist, I started thinking about the implications of these findings on the therapeutic relationship and the way empathy is established.

Rogers considered empathy and relationship concepts from a modern paradigm where the person is an individual self; but Venezuelan therapists need to overcome the phenomenology and take into account what has been lived and shared in the same life-world and hermeneutic horizon.

When the IAPT (Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies) funding was announced it caused an initial ripple of delight- which soon became a dreadful shock as surgery’s lost their counsellors and CBT seemed to be the only choice for free on delivery ‘psychological therapy’ in the NHS.

Then Counselling for Depression (CfD) emerged and when I read the manual I was excited to recognise the person-centred approach throughout. It was then I decided to do my best to support its development as it was clear the funding allocated to it was temporary and unless it was taken up, the person centred approach in free on delivery services would not survive.

The world faces substantial challenges: from globalization to climate change and the planet’s limited resources, from religious warfare and terrorism to new ways of inter- and intra-national relationships and community, partnership and ‘family’ building – to only name a few.

This calls for a considerable change in the self-understanding of us humans. I am convinced that we have the potential to deal with the encounters ahead constructively, if we indeed understand and approach them as encounters, we have to face and are able to do so.

Today, it takes just an instant to be electronically connected to human suffering half way around the world. Amidst endless streams of variously sourced information, we absorb the world, and make choices in response. Amidst cynicism, corporate dominance and competing narratives, how is it possible to “be the change we want to see in the world?” What are we to do?  How is it possible for us to have hope for this hour in which we live?

Our theme, ‘Going Global’, can easily arouse anxiety and helplessness when we consider the scale of the challenges facing the world today. However, “we start from where we are”, even when that includes despair and panic, by endeavouring to approach our experience with compassion and acceptance. The Person-Centred community has much to contribute here and now, especially if we can reach out beyond the confines of therapy into the world.

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Unable to resist shouting ‘I told you so!’ from the front of a room somewhere in the Royal Agricultural University, Pete Sanders, does just that.

He revisits some old stuff, brings some new stuff, and asks whether the end has come for diagnosis. Again!

This is an important, but often neglected area of Person Centred Counselling. There is very little theoretical writing which is exclusively person centred, on this subject. This presentation is unashamedly person-centred and will focus on PCA theory as it is applied to couples work.

Our two presenters are both very experienced in the field with more than 40 years experience between them. They are both Senior Accredited members of BACP.

In Rogers’ theory the natural consequence of therapy is for the client to experience greater congruence between experience and awareness, unconditional positive self regard. As a consequence of being received by the therapist experience of UPR and empathic understanding for the client, the client comes to experience these conditions towards others. Through my research I have provided empirical support for this aspect of our theory. Not only this, the research suggests that when the therapeutic relationship is characterised by the mutual experiencing of therapeutic conditions outcomes are also improved.

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Rory talked to us about the philosophy of the Person Centred Approach and why even though the core conditions are almost universally accepted in the therapeutic world the approach is still a radical paradigm challenging societal norms.

Across a range of healthcare, educational and third sector contexts, counsellors and psychotherapists are increasingly being asked to use outcome monitoring forms, such as the CORE-OM, to evaluate the effectiveness of their practice. For many of us …

This online conversation is with Lynette Green and Max Hope. Lynette is a person-centred psychodramatist and Max is a person-centred educator.

During this online discussion, they talked about the benefits of using psychodrama as a tool for learning as well as their own views of person-centred education. They addressed the dilemmas of being open to being led by a group whilst also having their own agenda (in terms of content and method).

Peggy Natiello authored “The Person-Centered Approach: A passionate presence” as a challenge to those who practice the person-centered approach “to recognize and fully engage the philosophical belief system, the passionate style of living and the integrity that person-centeredness demands.” Her challenge extends to both therapists working one to one and those who would enter the encounter group experience.