Politicizing the Person-centred Approach: An Agenda for Social Change

Explores the interface between the Person-Centred Approach and radical political theory and activity. This work also explores the contribution that a critical analysis of social and political factors can make to the practice of person-centred therapy, and examines the contribution this therapy can make to the sphere of socio-political theory

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 conscientizacao - 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

Dr. Gillian Proctor is an independent Clinical psychologist and person-centred psychotherapist, offering individual therapy and supervision. She is an assistant professor in counselling at the University of Nottingham, providing Counselling for Depression courses to NHS counsellors. She is also an associate lecturer at Huddersfield university and a research supervisor at several other institutions. She has a particular interest in ethics, politics and power and the importance for counselling of the insights from sociology and philosophy to broaden and deepen our understandings of relationships and ethics. Her latest book is 'Values and ethics in counselling and psychotherapy' (2013) published by Sage.