With Sarah Rossi and Katie Murray
This workshop explores the potential for person-centred counsellors to facilitate ‘the self-actualising tendency of the socially positioned individual’ (Anne Kearney, 1996), within a counselling training and practice framework which often favours a middle class worldview. Consequently this creates significant barriers to people with less socioeconomic capital accessing both counselling service and the training necessary to become counsellors.
Rogers’ radical original vision of the person-centred approach, to foster clients’ awareness of the internal and external systems contributing to distress, thereby increasing personal power to change, has been challenged by the tendency of some counsellors and training providers to display an ‘apolitical’ stance. Oppression based on social class is not recognised as a discreet form of discrimination, notably absent from the Equality Act (2010) as a protected characteristic. As a result, the barriers to equitable access to counselling and counselling training become even more entrenched and continue to go unchallenged.
In this workshop, we will examine how social class influences the experiences of both clients and counsellors, in training and practice, within and outwith the counselling setting. We will highlight existing literature that illustrates the complex ways current approaches to addressing distress, perpetuate systemic inequality. This will be an open and experiential workshop designed to foster discussions about how, as person-centred practitioners, we can resist these challenges by incorporating social awareness into our understanding and practice. Participants will also have the opportunity to engage experientially with the topic through creative activities.
Sarah Rossi is a person-centred counsellor based in Glasgow, working with adults and children.
Katie Murray is an experienced counsellor and supervisor based in Edinburgh. Qualifying in 2017 from University of Strathclyde, she worked in the third sector before setting up in private practice in 2019. She is part of The Next Chapter, a collective of therapists working across Edinburgh offering counselling and supervision. Her interest in the impact of social class emerges from her personal experience and continues to be alive as a practitioner. She presented her workshop Opening the conversation: Experiential workshop exploring social class and class consciousness in counselling training and practice at the 2025 PCE Symposium, Glasgow.
This workshop is the first of PCT Scotland’s 2026 programme. As before, each of the workshops will be a stand-alone event but the series as a whole is designed to develop, enhance and promote understanding of the Approach. Each of the presenters will be attending the workshops as facilitators of the group process. It is possible to attend any or all of the workshops.
The cost of each workshop is:
PCT Scotland Members: £50.00 per workshop
Non-members: £70.00 per workshop
For all enquiries and for bookings, please contact Barbara Malinen at bookings@pctscotland.co.uk
It is possible to join PCT Scotland and this will reduce the cost of the workshops as well as allow access to other benefits of membership. More information at www.pctscotland.co.uk
All of the events will be held at The Spark, 100 Wellington Street Glasgow G2 6DH. It is a dedicated training space close to both Central and Queen Street stations giving easy access to public transport.
Cancellation Policy
It will be possible to cancel your booking up to 15 days before each event. After that we will not be able to refund any tickets unless someone else is able to take your place.
