This international collection of chapters offers critical analysis of the PCA and difference and diversity; class; culture and racism; sexuality; power and feminism. Other contributions present a range of work involving social change as a necessary and sufficient condition for therapeutic personality growth; emotional literacy; sociotherapy; work with refugees and asylum seekers; peace groups; ecopolitics and spirituality.

     Politicizing the Person-Centred Approach is primarily aimed at practitioners and, to some extent, students, of the person-centred approach who have an interest in political issues and concerns, but will also be of interest to service users, practitioners and theorists in the field of critical psychiatry and critical psychology, who may be interested in developing the theoretical foundations of their work and expanding their theoretical and practical horizons.

 

 

1. Opening Remarks — Gillian Proctor

2. Politics and Therapy: Mapping areas for consideration — Pete Sanders

 

The Politics of the PCA

3. First Change the World, or First Change Yourself? The Personal and the Political Revisited — Clive Perrett

4. Is There a Political Imperative Inherent Within the Person-Centred Approach? — Seamus Nash

5. Person-Centred Therapy and Time Limited Therapy — Pauline MacDonald

6. Rethinking Person-Centred Therapy — Khatidja Chantler

7. The Cultural Situatedness of Language Use in Person-Centred Training — Rundeep Sembi

8. Personal Reflections on Training as a Person-Centred Counsellor — Lois Peachey

9. Therapy: Opium for the masses or helps those who least need it? — Gillian Proctor

10. Socialist Humanism: A progressive politics for the twenty-first century — Mick Cooper

11. The Spectacular Self: Alienation as the lifestyle choice of the free world, endorsed by psychotherapists — Pete Sanders

12. The Radical Humanism of Carl Rogers and Paulo Freire: Considering the person-centered approach as a form of conscientização — Maureen O’Hara

13. Psychotherapy: The politics of liberation or collaboration? A Career Critically Reviewed — Dave Mearns

 

Socio-political issues and the therapy relationship

14. Person-Centered Therapy with Children and Adolescent Victims of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Brazil — Elizabeth Freire, Silvia Koller, Aline Piason, Renata B da Silva and Deborah Giacomelli

15. Not Just Naming the Injustice: Counselling asylum seekers and refugees — Jude Boyles

16. Disability, Multidimensionality and Love: The politics of a counselling relationship in Further Education — Suzanne Keys

17. South Asian Women and Mental Health Services — Kamer Shoaib

18. Person-Centred Therapy, Culture and Racism: Personal discoveries and adaptations — Indu Khurana

19. White Counsellor Racial Identity: The unacknowledged, unknown, unaware aspect of self in relationship — Colin Lago and Sheila Haugh

20. Clients’ Experiences of How Perceived Differences in Social Class Between Counsellor and Client Affect the Therapeutic Relationship — Jane Balmforth

21. The Person-Centred Approach: A vehicle for acknowledging and respecting women’s voices — Bea White

 

Person-Centred Approach and Social Action

22. A Passion for Politics in Carl Rogers’ Work and Approach — Gay Barfield

23. Transformation in Transylvania — Reinhold Stipsits

24. The Centre: A Person-Centred Project in Education — Fiona Hall-Jenkins

25. Politicizing School Reform Through the Person-Centered Approach: Mandate and advocacy — Jeffrey Corneluis-White and Randel Brown 26. Emotional Literacy and the Person-Centred Approach — Mike Hough

27. What Does It Have To Do With Client-Centered Therapy? — John K Wood

28. Taking Sides – Or Not? — Rosemary Hopkins

29. A Personal View of How Activism is Relevant to the Person-Centred Approach — Mae Boyd

30. Toward a Person-Centered Politics — John Vasconcellos

31. Concluding Remarks — Pete Sanders