The Future of PCA: How to Serve a Changing World

I’m a psychologist and person-centered psychotherapist, and I’ve been working in private practice for more than 10 years. Through this work, I’ve gained valuable insights into the complexities of human relationships, the power of empathy, and the resilience people show in the face of challenges. I’m also an encounter groups enthusiast. Working with groups in a person-centered approach has deepened my understanding of relationship dynamics and the conditions that foster growth and change.

Brian Rodgers is a senior lecturer and programme director for the counsellor education programmes at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Brian has been involved with counsellor education over the last two decades at a number of institutions including Auckland University of Technology, University of Queensland in Australia, and University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

He is past Chair of the World Association for Person Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling (PCE World), and is still actively involved in a number of the association’s initiatives. Brian’s research interests include person-centred and experiential counselling, pluralistic practice, client directed and outcome informed practice, integration of research into practice, client’s experience of therapy/research, technology and counselling/psychotherapy, bi-cultural approaches to counselling/psychotherapy, collaborative learning and counsellor education.

Carol Wolter-Gustafson received her Doctorate from Boston University’s Department of Humanistic and Behavioral studies. She taught graduate courses in client-centered theory and practice, philosophical foundations of education, and human development.

Her work in the Person Centered Approach is focused on the theory and practice of using its inherent power to help us cultivate pathways away from the divisive us/them thinking and rhetoric that are personally and systemically destructive and traumatic, and towards facilitating more inclusive perspectives and practices necessary for constructive personal and social change.

She has advanced these themes at International PCA Conferences and Forums, at invited lectures, at University programs in Mexico, the UK, and Brazil, and in journal articles and chapters published by PCCS Books, Springer, and Sage. Since 2011, she has co-facilitated Going Global workshops in the UK, Italy, the USA, and online. She maintains a psychotherapy practice in Boston.

Colin Lago, D. Litt, was Director of the Counselling Service at the University of Sheffield, U.K., from 1987 – 2003. He now works as an independent counsellor/psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor. Trained initially as an engineer, Colin went on to become a full time youth worker in London and a teacher in Jamaica before becoming a counselling practitioner. He is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Deeply committed to transcultural concerns within psychotherapy, he has published articles, videos and books on the subject. To balance professional demands he loves to run, bike and dance!

In relation to this talk, Colin notes that he was fortunate to come into the profession in its early days, 1977, the same year as BAC emerged from the Standing Conference! Colin first came across the work of Carl Rogers whilst initially training as a youth worker in his early twenties, (some seven years before he trained as a therapist). He found Carl’s books by accident whilst perusing the college library shelves and was immediately impacted by the resonance inside himself of these ideas ‘which spoke to him directly’. They helped to affirm his own confidence in his beliefs and approach to others.

Inevitably, there are many strands to this developing story, as with everyone’s biography, but Colin was fortunate in joining with his new colleague who already had worked with Rogers in international gatherings. Inevitably, attendance at international conferences and large group experiences soon followed, enabling Colin to meet colleagues from many parts of the world. Such connections form the background against which this presentation will be based.

David Murphy, PhD., is a Chartered Psychologist, Full Member of the Division of Counselling Psychology, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Registered member of General Psychotherapy Council. He is Professor of Psychology and Education and Director for the Centre for Research in Human Flourishing at The University of Nottingham, England. He is a person-centred psychotherapist, supervisor and researcher.

Emma Tickle is Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham and the Course Leader for the Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD) programmes. Emma trained as a PCE therapist at Diploma and Masters level at the University of Nottingham. As well as counselling education Emma has taught Psychology, co-produced and delivered courses for the NHS Recovery College and provides Continuing and Professional Development and Clinical Supervision. Emma has clinical experience working as a PCE counsellor in multi-disciplinary teams in education, health, and corporate contexts, and runs a small private practice. Emma is currently undertaking her PhD exploring PCE as a resource towards Social Justice while applying a Social Justice lens to the PCE approach. Emma contributes to the Centre for Research in Human Flourishing at the University of Nottingham.

Fabienne Chazeaux has been facilitating in Person-centred Psychotherapy training programs in France and in the UK for more than 10 years.

Fabienne is currently working on the Temenos Counselling & Psychotherapy Programme and the ACP France European Certificate in Psychotherapy Programme.

She has a private practice in Paris and online where she offers Psychotherapy for children and adults and supervision to individual Psychotherapy practitioners.

Fabienne is currently offering group supervision for psychologists who specialise in working with children and young people who have been orphaned and psychologists and support workers who specialise in working in an educational setting with children and young people who are living with Autism.

Fabienne is also an experienced business coach and works with senior leaders and leadership teams within global corporations, she also offers individual and group supervision to coaches.

Fabienne is an accomplished artist and has a special interest in how the creative arts can support therapeutic process. Fabienne has developed creative therapeutic tools which she uses with students, supervisees, psychotherapy and coaching clients.

These tools have been developed to be particularly powerful in supporting therapeutic movement where there are no words available, which is often the case for clients who have experienced body and relational trauma or who find themselves paralysed within seemingly intractable organisational settings.

Gay Barfield, PhD, formerly licensed MFT, was in private practice in Hawaii for nearly thirty years and taught the person-centered approach at the University of Hawaii until her retirement. Over the decades Gay has published extensively on person-centered education, feminism, politics, peace and social change as integrated within and from the person-centered approach.

Along with many other women in the early 1970s, as a former long time fellow of the Center for Studies of the Person (CSP), she established the first person-centered women’s center in the San Diego area. She also created the “Living Now” Summer Institutes in La Jolla, California which run for 22 years until 1998. In 1984, alongside with Carl R. Rogers, she co-founded and co-directed the Carl Rogers Institute for Peace at CSP, applying person-centered principles to several then current international crises, leading to Dr. Rogers’ Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 1987.

Gay has received numerous honors recognizing her contributions to different fields. In 1992 she received an award from the County of San Diego for ‘improving human relations’, particularly for a series of cross-cultural ‘Living Room Dialogues’ on inflammatory US/Mexican border issues. In 2010, on her retirement from the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH), she was awarded with a Certificate of Appreciation for her many contributions to the MA in Counseling and Psychology Department. In 2024, the statewide Hawaiian Islands Association for Marriage and Family Therapy created a perpetual annually rotating award named the ‘Dr Gay Barfield Distinguished Service Award’, honoring her as the initial recipient. In 2024 she also received an Award of Outstanding Service to the Department of Communication from UHH.

In retirement, she continues to periodically mentor/mentress MA graduate students at the University of Hawaii in Hilo and other therapists in practice. During the last five years through ongoing zoom gatherings, began during COVID, Gay together with other person-centered elders and colleagues from several younger generations has been the principal initial catalyst of the Peace Project in the 21 st Century; a continuing ongoing effort to apply person-centered principles to today’s multiple challenges and changes worldwide.

Jan Hawkins has a background in psychology, teaching and training in the PCA. Since 1991, she has been in private practice as a Person-Centred therapist, supervisor, group facilitator and trainer. Jan ran groups for Survivors of childhood abuse during the early nineties, controversially offering groups with women and men together, and for those who had experienced any type of abuse. Many students and supervisees reported their difficulties in locating good, practical and developmental training for practitioners focussing on the issues raised by a history of childhood abuse. In response to this expressed need in 1994 Jan created, and co-facilitated, a Diploma course in Counselling Survivors of Childhood Abuse, the first initiative of its kind in Europe. Since then, through FDP, Jan has continued to run post counselling training Diploma courses and study days with a conviction that experiential learning is imperative for the continued development and deepening of the core attitudinal qualities of the Person-Centred practitioner. She has been particularly keen to encourage Person-Centred therapists to extend their practice to people with learning disabilities, many of whom suffer silently from their legacies of childhood abuse.

I have been learning and practicing person-centered approach for 50 years. It is just like PCA is living in myself and I am living in PCA. Through this experience I am interested in PCA on these areas.
1. Human and Organizational Development: It may call Bifocal approach, Human Development and Organizational Development.
2. Adapting PCA into social work, social work with individuals, with families, with groups, with organizations and communities. I believe PCA will contribute to make social work more humanistic.
3. Humanistic Education. I ever worked at a small alternative school named “Play Mountain Place” in Los Angeles as an intern teacher for two years. This school has been influenced by Carl Rogers’ ideas. I learned many things from this school. Now, I am teaching my learning to Japanese child caregivers.
4. Buddhist counseling, “Dharma-based person-centered approach.” I learned PCA and Shin- Buddhism (Pure-land Buddhism) from Professor Saiko Gisho. Now I am awakening both are deeply connected in myself. Saiko called this approach, “Dharma-based person-centered approach.” This gives me the deepest awareness.

I am a person-centred psychotherapist and sound therapist in private practice in Austria. I have further training in person-centred group therapy, trauma therapy and person-centred creative arts. For many years I worked in geriatric and palliative care units using Pre-Therapy and nonverbal methods with clients in persistent vegetative state. I am tutor at the Peter Hess Academy (Austrian Institute for Sound-Massage-Therapy) and since 2019 chair of the board of PCE Europe.

Marcia Alves Tassinari, Psychologist, Specialist in Clinical Psychology, Master’s and PhD in Psychology. She founded the Center for Studies of the Person in 1975, remaining at the institution for 35 years. She founded and remained for 10 years at GFH – Human Flourishing Group. She taught higher education from 1976 to 2021 at private universities. Visiting professor and consultant for several Specialization courses in Psychology and Training of Person-Centered Psychotherapists in Brazil. Since 1975, she has practiced clinical psychology in a private practice, consulting adults, couples and families. Founding partner of the Conexão Formativa Project, where she coordinates the Specialization course in Clinical Psychology in the Person-Centered Approach, in addition to being a teacher, organizer of Psychological Duty courses (Stand by Service), Study Group and organizes all national and international events of the Conexão Formativa Project. National and international speaker. Author of several books and articles, including: Humanist Dialogues: Meeting of Three Generations – volume 1; Empathy: the ability to shed light on human dignity and On Call and the Psychological Urgency Clinic; Humanist Dialogues: Meeting of Three Generations – volume 2.

Being a person-centered practitioner is the melting pot of diverse personal and professional experiences across psychotherapy, diplomacy, politics, business consultancy, and life in seven different countries. These varied experiences have profoundly shaped my perspective and practice.

My journey includes serving as a diplomat in Bosnia and NATO, witnessing and navigating the aftermath of war, and embarking on an ongoing process of personal and collective healing. This path has fueled my search for understanding the factors that lead to conflict and my commitment to finding ways to contribute to greater peace and justice in the world.

One way I have pursued this commitment is by practicing the person-centered approach in my daily interactions—within the therapy room, my family system, personal relations, and as a group facilitator—which has reinforced my hope in the innate human capacity for growth and constructive action when nurturing conditions are present.

Building on this foundation, I acknowledge that the challenges we face today demand not only personal agency but also collective action, which we envision to nurture within the Peace Project in the 21st Century. The Peace Project is the current iteration of what began in the 1980s as the Carl Rogers Institute for Peace, co-founded and co-directed by Carl Rogers and Gay Barfield.

Since November 2022, alongside Gay Barfield, fellow person-centered practitioners, and participants, we have been gathering as global citizens from diverse backgrounds. United by our shared commitment to peace and social justice, we aspire to create ripple effects at every level—personal, interpersonal, and intercommunal.

Martín Lange is a counselor and FOT who works in private practice with individuals and groups based on the Person-Centered Approach. He has been facilitating counselor training for 20 years. He is part of PCE7, a group of Person-Centered professionals dedicated to organizing Encounters and forums, training professionals, and workshops for the community in general.

Nicola Blunden has worked in the South Wales valleys for more than two decades as a therapist and supervisor. She has specialist experience working with trauma, cancer, domestic violence, and disability. She practises in anti-oppressive and co-productive ways, co-creating a new, unique therapy approach with each client, according to their wishes and needs. Nicola has researched and published writing on plural identity, improvisation, ethics, decolonisation, and pluralistic research. Most recently, Nicola proposed a framework for pluralistic integration in person-centred therapy, for the third edition of Tribes of the Person-Centred Nation (Cooper 2024). Over the past ten years, Nicola has supported, and learned from, hundreds of trainee counsellors and supervisors in her course leader roles at the University of South Wales, the Metanoia Institute, and UWE Bristol. Nicola is a passionate advocate for epistemic justice, particularly for disabled clients and therapists, whose voices continue to be suppressed in our profession.

Dr. Norman Chambers holds directorships of both the Multicultural Counseling and Consulting Center, a community-based counseling center, and the Carl Rogers Institute of Psychotherapy Training and Supervision, an institute whose principle focus is providing opportunities for the study and the development of person-centered counseling and psychotherapy. He is licensed in both Clinical Psychology and Marriage, Family, Therapy. He has been a practicing Clinician for more than five decades. Of particular note, is his vast amount of experience working therapeutically with underserved and culturally diverse populations.

Additionally, he has had more than four decades of person-centered organizational development, trainings, and consultancies on the local, national, and international levels. Dr. Chambers has been Professor Emeritus from San Diego State University since 2005. He has had extensive experience serving as a facilitator of learning. He holds a Ph.D. from United States International University.

I am a European Certified Person Centred Therapist, a Certified Focusing Oriented Therapist and Trainer, and a Certifying Coordinator of The International Focusing Institute New York. I graduated in the U.K. as a Sociologist and Political Scientist (1978) and then found myself in the world of Finance and Shipping both in Rotterdam , Holland and Greece. but after 23 years (for personal reasons)I began in 2002 a training in Greece in Focusing, and then as a Person Centred and Focusing Oriented therapist, I qualified in 2007 and continued as a trainer in training. In 2009 I returned to University and completed my M.A. in Focusing Oriented Therapy and Research Methods at UEA. I also completed during these 2012 at the Center for Partnership Studies , with Dr. Riane Eisler a Certification in Caring Economics Leadership Program : Women’s Empowerment Track.

In 2012, I left my Shipping and Finance life behind and since then, I have continued to be involved in the Person Centred Approach and Focusing. I am happily ensconced in teaching and training Focusing Groups, Certified Focusing Professionals and Focusing-Oriented Therapists, as well as offering individual therapy sessions. I have continued my learning into the fields of Thinking at the Edge, Philosophy of the Implicit, Somatic Trauma Therapy, and Polyvagal Theory, all of which I incorporate into my life and into all levels of my training programs and sessions. I find that each of these approaches are relevant to today’s ever-changing times, in fact I believe that their development and practice are a response to our intricate and often confusing world. I also feel that a good sense of humor is imperative to our therapeutic modes and wholeheartedly believe in E.Gendlin’s “The Politics of Giving away Therapy” and my guiding light is Roger’s view that “a person is a fluid process, not a fixed and static entity: a flowing river of change, not a block of solid material: a continually changing constellation of potentialities, not a fixed quantity of traits.”

I worked closely with Carl Rogers from 1978-1987 on many person-centered staffs. Dr. Rogers served as my major doctoral advisor and mentored my dissertation on the nature of learning that occurs in person-centered experiences. My doctoral and post-doctoral research and writing have addressed significant questions about the person-centered approach.

Known for my person-centered group work, I am an international consultant, serve on the graduate faculty at Prescott College, and have written many articles on client-centered therapy and the person-centered approach. My book, “The Person-Centred Approach: A passionate presence”, was written to clarify and demonstrate the importance of this often misunderstood and quite a radical approach to psychotherapy, counseling, education, and group work.

Sarah Henry is a published author, person-centred counsellor and counselling tutor. She is a contributor to the book People Not Pathology: Freeing Therapy From The Medical Model (PCCS Books, 2023), with a chapter focused on the overmedicalisation of Black people. Sarah has also presented nationally about the impact of race and ethnicity within the counselling and tutoring relationship. Born in England to a Black British mother and Jamaican father, Sarah’s formative experience was a notable dynamic of complementary and clashing norms. Elements of this disparity continue into adulthood and inform her work, both implicitly and explicitly.

Sheila is person-centred therapist, facilitator and consultant/supervisor. Until very recently, she was the Director of Studies Course Leader for the MSc Contemporary Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Applications at the Metanoia Institute in London. She is a former convenor of the BAPCA, and former member of the board of the WAPCECP. She works in the UK and in the Czechia where she has lived for the last 14 years. She was a member of the UKCP Training and Universities College and was involved in the process of getting the titles ‘person-centred psychotherapist’ and ‘client-centred psychotherapist’ registered in the UKCP. She is co-editor of two books and author of a number of chapters, the most recent being Bozarth, J. D., & Haugh, S. (2024). Unconditional Positive Regard. In M. Cooper, G. di Malta, M. M. O’Hara, Y. Gololob, & S. Stephen (Eds.), The Handbook of person-centred Psychotherapy and Counselling (3rd edition, pp. 200–211). Bloomsbury Academic.

I started my studies in international business marketing, and loved its creative aspects: coming up with new concepts, communicating ideas in a powerful way, and finding solutions to problems. However the reality of doing business quickly caught up with me, and I decided to focus on another nurturing factor: interacting with people. Education offered me the best outlet, and since 2002 I have been facilitating learning, first as a private tutor in France, then as a university professor in Japan, and now at an international school in Luxembourg.

I participated in my first intensive group encounter in 2013 (La Jolla Program). Since then, I have been an advocate of the student-centered approach, as well as a dedicated practitioner, even if I prefer describing it as a way of being to borrow C. Rogers’ expression. Lastly I have shared with my students the three pillars of the person-centered approach as a path to a meaningful life, and it has been the most gratifying though challenging experience of my career. 

I am a person-centred therapist, supervisor, trainer and researcher living in Glasgow, Scotland. I work as a lecturer in counselling at the University of Strathclyde and am director of the Strathclyde Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Clinic. I have been actively involved in the national and international person-centred community for 20 years, and am currently a co-editor of the international peer-reviewed journal, Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. I was a co-editor of the third edition of the Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling, which was published in October 2024.

Will Stillwell, Ph.D., is a long-time member of the professional-personal community, The Center for Studies of the Person, in La Jolla California. There, somewhat retired now from his consulting and academic career, he continues his thirty-seven year association with work at The La Jolla Program. In the Program’s encounter process — originally inspired and supervised by Carl R. Rogers — participants share, risk, and learn to build safe and supportive personal and social enviro0nments together. He is author of a number of articles and books. Through his directorship of the Rogers Memorial Library he has curated and edited a number of video productions concerned with Person-Centered approaches.