Hi I am looking to join or set up a small group for folk who are either diagnosed or self diagnosed as neurodivergent. To talk and share lived experience, share resources and review any interesting articles/ books. Probably meeting up online. Arrangements for meetings and how the group will run to be discussed.

WAPCEPC is excited to invite applications for three new WAPCEPC grants that aim to encourage research and the dissemination of research within the Person Centered and Experiential (PCE) community.

The three grants are:

WAPCEPC General Research Grant: For WAPCEPC members whose research projects are aimed at the investigation of the Person-Centered and Experiential (PCE) approach to stimulate worldwide research activities related to the PCE field. The maximum grant that will be awarded is €2,100.

WAPCEPC Student Research Grant: For WAPCEPC student members whose research projects are aimed at the investigation of the PCE approach. The main purpose of the Grant is to stimulate and support students’ research activities related to the PCE field. The maximum grant that will be awarded is €1,500.

WAPCEPC Translation Grant: For WAPCEPC members who seek an opportunity to translate their writing into English in order to publish in the Association’s Journal (PCEP). The maximum grant that will be awarded is €3,000.

Details about each Grant, including eligibility criteria and the application process, can be found at: https://www.pce-world.org/grants.html

The closing date for applications is Monday 15th January 2024.

Having worked with Human Diversity issues of various sorts across a working life of over 40 years I am deeply saddened by recent trends in increased prejudice, and consequent hate crimes, against gender, sex, and relationship diverse people.
 
 Othering is one of humankind's greatest crimes against humanity. 
 It may not always lead to crime - but even in lesser form it wears people down (for example with the generalised anxiety, hyper-vigilance and distress that results from alienation and bullying).
 
 I believe Person Centredness is the way forward - because it is people's very person-hood that is under threat. 

Moreover I believe encounter is one of the best methods of enabling understanding and precipitating genuine empathy.

 

Hence I am running a series of discussion afternoons based on reflections of GSRD people’s lives and relationships, factual and fictional.
 Inevitably this will involve contemplating mainstream (heterosexual and cisgender) responses to diversity – so hopefully there’ll be something for everyone.
 
 Each session will stand alone as well as contributing to the overall theme, and comprise visual presentation prior to discussion
 
 My hope is that each session will widen understandings and provide useful insights - both into our culture and ourselves; thus enriching both ourselves and our practice.
 

Among areas to be explored – sex work / kink, politics / private life, parents / children, disclosure /exposure, History / culture

 

Commencing Friday 24thNovember 2- 5.30pm (monthly thereafter - except for December)
Second session Friday 26th January

Falkirk

Maximum number of attendees 7 per session 

Donation in coin or cake appreciated but not essential

Hi everyone.  
I am currently undertaking a diploma in counselling supervision and as such I need to complete 20 hours of practice with at least 2 supervisees.   
Sessions would be recorded and I would share sections of them with my supervisor in order to reflect on my work.  
Is there anyone who would be interested in some additional, free of charge supervision? I could do this online or at the Wellbeing Rooms in Bearsden,
Glasgow, at a mutually convenient time.  If you are interested,or know someone who may be, please get in touch by email.  If you have any questions please do let me know.  My email address is contact@parkgrovecounselling.co.uk.  
Many thanks.  Katie

Louise's article appears in the July/August 2023 issue of Therapy Today

A group of prominent practitioners, writers, trainers and academics from the Person-Centred community in the UK, along with two organisations, have published an open letter calling on the SCoPEd organisations to provide a professional home on their PSA-backed registers for members who do not wish to be aligned with SCoPEd’s divisive and hierarchical framework.

Referencing the recent Impact Assessment’s recommendation that an ‘important space remain for those therapists who are unconvinced of SCoPEd’s desirability’, the letter lays out some of the main challenges to SCoPEd and proposes a way forward that would include those who do not see the framework as an accurate or ethical representation of their work as counsellors and psychotherapists.

Read the letter here: https://allianceblogs.wordpress.com/2023/04/19/person-centred-letter-scoped-framework/

6 day couples-counselling training for experienced (about Accreditation level) post-diploma counsellors. This training is unashamedly person-centred, which means that it will use person-centred theory as its primary reference point.  12 places and they often go quickly. 6/7 Oct, 20/21 and 3/4 Nov 2023.

For example:

·      What is your view of the person coming to counselling? Someone broken who needs to be fixed? Someone with an illness to be healed? Someone who is surviving (and trying to grow) in an unfavourable, perhaps even hostile, environment?

·      What is your view of the counsellor’s role? Fixer, healer, person-in-relationship? 

·      What is your view of the purpose of counselling? To reduce symptoms of distress? To return to “normal”? To adapt and grow in response to life experience? To empower? To effect change in their environment?

Exploring your assumptions and developing your understanding about the politics of counselling – in practice, in the profession, in wider society – is an ethical responsibility. 

How does the counselling profession contribute every day to structural inequalities in society? 

Some examples:

·      Access to counselling: time-limited for the poor, open-ended for those who can afford it

·      The medicalisation of psychological distress (Sanders & Tolan, 2023)

·      Therapy as the “opium of the masses” (Proctor, 2006)

·      Barriers to counselling training (eg academic, financial, structural) resulting in a lack of diversity at all levels of the profession. Likely to be exacerbated by the SCoPEd framework (BACP, 2023; Partners for Counselling & Psychotherapy, 2020; Person-Centred Group, 2023) 

·      A culture of volunteering to gain experience, even post-qualification

·      Lack of funding for counselling services resulting in insecure services for clients and precarious (if any) employment for counsellors 

·      Due to the erosion of well-paid secure working conditions, maintaining a healthy, nurturing work-life balance has become a luxury. This has an inevitable impact on our fitness to practice and meeting our ethical responsibilities as counsellors, supervisors, and trainers.

 
Crossing the University & College Union (UCU) picket line is not an apolitical action.

Withdrawing our labour is a hard-won right and one that is denied to many. We are using this right to seek action to address the following issues in Higher Education:

·      Staff facing poverty now (25% real terms cut in salary since 2009) and in the future (future pension benefits cut by 33%, on average)

·      Excessive workloads -> staff burnout

·      Precarious employment contracts -> chronic insecurity

·      Pay gaps particularly affecting Black, disabled, and female workers.

 

Whether or not your trainers are taking part in the UCU industrial action, make time to discuss the issues involved with them, along with the wider politics of the counselling profession.

PCCS Books (www.pccs-books.co.uk) publishes a multitude of titles on politics, race, ethnicity and gender: https://www.pccs-books.co.uk/products/category/politics-race-ethnicity-gender 

 

PCCS Books - 30th Anniversary Conference - Putting The Politics (Back) Into Counselling: Thursday 11th May 2023 (in person, online) https://www.pccs-books.co.uk/events/event/pccs-books-30th-anniversary-conference

 

National Counsellors’ Day Conference 2023 - ‘Social and Political Issues in Counselling and Psychotherapy. Holding space for difficult but necessary conversations!’: Saturday 24th June 2023 (online) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/national-counsellors-day-conference-2023-tickets-369426132507?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

*Pay what you can*

 

Therapy in Colour - A Collaboration Conference between BAATN, PCCS Books and Onlinevents: Friday 14th – Saturday 15th July 2023 (online)  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/therapy-in-colour-online-conference-tickets-458272454247?aff=odcleoeventsincollection *Student discount ticket*

 

BACP. (8/2/2023). https://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2023/8-february-scoped-adoption-announcement/

Partners for Counselling & Psychotherapy (20/7/2020) https://www.partnersforcounsellingandpsychotherapy.co.uk/pcp-scoped-update-july-2020/

Person-Centred Group (2023). Person-Centred Group's reaction to SCoPEd impact assessment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puZpLH5ZVz0 

Proctor, G. (2006). Therapy: Opium of the masses of help for those who least need it? In G. Proctor, M. Cooper, P. Sanders & B. Malcolm (Eds.) Politicizing the Person-Centred Approach (pp.66-79). PCCS Books.

Sanders, P. & Tolan, J. (2023). People not Pathology. PCCS Books.

We want to remind PCT Scotland members that you can now become an individual member of PCE Europe. This is to encourage co-operation in the international PCE community, and increase communication and access to information. You can read about the benefits of individual membership here:

 

Standard individual membership costs 25 Euro per year, or 15 Euro for those in financial difficulty. Currently half of all membership fees goes to support colleagues in Ukraine.

We hope that many of you will get inspired by this new opportunity!