Politicizing the Person-Centred Approach: An agenda for social change
ISBN 978 1 898059 72 1 (2006)
An international collection of papers offers critical analysis of the person-centred approach and its position on difference and diversity; class; culture and racism; sexuality; power and gender issues. Other contributions present a range of work including theory development; social change as a necessary and sufficient conditon for therapeutic personality growth; emotional literacy; work with refugees and asylum seekers; peace groups and ecopolitics.
CONTENTS
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
This book is overdue. A psychotherapeutic approach that takes itself seriously must examine, understand, voice and — most essentially — make use of, its political impact. … the [person-centred]approach itself, a social criticism by its very nature, is a foundational programme for a ‘therapy’ of society, for socio-political change. Doing is a way of being, and Politicizing the Person-Centred Approach is not only a call to leave the ivory tower and contextualize the consulting room, it is an important step in helping practitioners to do so. It is a scholarly, fascinating, accessible and most stimulating call to social action. Peter F Schmid
