Programs

•  Introductory programs
•  Programs with theoretical emphasis

These programs start with Rogers' theoretical premise that the organism acts as a unified whole and that self-actualization results from setting a precise set of conditions that facilitate each person's ability to direct their own movement in life.

Introductory programs

Going Global

Participants in Going Global come together to reflect on our personal connections to global issues using the transformational format of the person-centered approach pioneered by Carl Rogers. These workshops are staffed by Peggy Natiello, Colin Lago, John Wilson, and myself.

Registration is now open for Going Global 2015 to be held November 1-6 at Sedona Mago Retreat, Sedona, AZ, USA. Information at: http://goingglobal.exchange

Moving Beyond Hate

Exploring the Unity of Body & Mind with the Person-Centered Approach

What does it mean to live as a fully functioning person in an embodied way? We often say that a person has a body, or uses a body, or does things to or for the body. We speak as if it (our body) were a "thing" while knowing "it" is more than a thing. The the mind/body split is deeply rooted in Western culture and philosophy. It leads us to a mechanical self concept that results in unhealthy consequences. This program offers an exploration of the unity of body and mind both experientially and through understanding the way we think.

Living in Your Body: A Person-Centered Approach

This intensive training is intended to introduce participants to a repertoire of expressive movement possibilities invite participants to deeply enhance their own bodily self-awareness, emotional congruence and ability to envision future life possibilities. The training is grounded in non-directive, person-centered theory and emphasizes the immediacy of bodily felt process, participant self-direction and participant choice.

Programs with a theoretical emphasis

Strengthening Congruence, Empathic Understanding and Unconditional Positive Regard through Body Awareness

What does it mean to live as a fully functioning person in an embodied way? This intensive training is intended to introduce participants to a repertoire of expressive movement possibilities that are likely to enhance participants’ own bodily self-awareness, emotional congruence and ability to envision future life possibilities. These practices offer psychotherapists possibilities which can be offered to clients within the context of individual, couple and group psychotherapy. The training is grounded in person-centered theory and values, emphasizing immediacy of bodily felt process, participant self-direction and participant choice. It is however, likely to be relevant to psychotherapists from a variety of schools of thought that utilize empathic-relational approaches to psychotherapy.

Body-Beingness in Person-Centered Theory and Practice: Countering the Context of the Western Canon

What does it mean to live as a fully functioning person in an embodied way? We often say that a person has a body, or uses a body, or does things to or for the body. We speak as if it (our body) were a "thing" while knowing "it" is more than a thing. These linguistic vestiges of the mind/body split are deeply rooted in culture and philosophy. These formulations can also lead us to a mechanical self concept that results in unhealthy consequences for us. In order to create a person-centered model of health and wholeness, we need to pay particular attention to the body's place within the theory.

The Psychology of Women and Carl Rogers' Phenomenological Theory of Self-in-Relation

Current theoretical work on the psychology of women concerning empathy and the self-in-relation was embedded in and articulated by Carl Rogers and his colleagues over the past 40 years.

I refute the critique from scholars at the Stone Center and others, that Rogers’ theory replicates the individualistic male model. We consider how they have overlooked or misrepresented his theory as it pertains to self-in-relation, the contextual power in empathic understanding and the practice of collaborative power at work in communities. I place places Rogers’ theory of personality, therapy and interpersonal relations in its historical context. While psychoanalytic and human developmental models are burdened with theoretical inventions to explain behavior based on male constructions of reality, Rogers’ theory posits our “lived-experience in relation” as the proper starting point for understanding the developing human being.

Thus, person-centered theory is in a unique and advantageous position to explicate women’s experience. Reconceptualizing our taken-for-granted assumptions about women, power, and empathy is a complex task in a culture where Post-modernists and Creationists coexist. The task may be made slightly less daunting if we catch up to the theoretical base developed and evolved in the person-centered approach. Revisiting Rogers yields rich results.