The background to this article was a then-current British argument about 'reparative therapy'. In response, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy had sent a letter to all members reminding us that the practice is contrary to BACP’s Ethical Framework. So far, no problem. But the more I thought about the letter, the more it seemed an important piece of the cultural context was being overlooked:
People have come to expect choices when something about them is not the way they wish. We expect to be able to make changes and enlist help from others—that is a large part of what counselling is about. Such expectations are not issue-specific.
I began to explore the logic and consequences of this general kind of expectation from the perspective of a counsellor deeply averse to 'pushing rivers' or ‘fixing' what is, perhaps, 'different', but certainly not broken. That brought into clear focus two broad and radically different ways of practising counselling and psychotherapy.
There is no question that 'reparative therapy' is at best misguided, at worst abusive, and inseparable from homophobia. At the same time, things are more complex than BACP and popular debate were recognising, and those complexities have profound, ongoing implications. (2020-12-15)
| What A Tangled Web | Published: 2014 Download |
The 'Tangled Web' article was originally intended for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's "Therapy Today". It was twice censored by BACP before an expanded version was finally welcomed by "Self and Society". This brief addendum to the article chronicles my interaction with BACP. (2020-12-15)
| Tangled Web The Rest | Published: 2014 Download |
While waiting for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy to get over its problems with my 'Tangled Web' article (see above), I took its distinction between two radically different approaches to therapy and argued that current changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) were deeply incompatible with therapies of the kind that I practice. The article was published in the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors' "Insights Into Clinical Counselling". (2020-12-15)
| Is Dsm Pushing The River | Published: 2013 Download |
The British journal "Self and Society" has been good to me. More than once, I have had an article rejected by a journal with a tighter sense of 'academic style', and S & S has met me with open arms and appreciation.
This article is a case in point. It is an exploration—in some ways a 'meditation'—on congruence, on congruence's role in person-centred practice, and on the implications for counselling more generally. The article does not try to reference the huge literature on congruence. It explores just those sources and experiences which have shaped this counsellor's understanding and practice of congruence.
I wanted to work some things out, and when I had them worked out, they seemed worth sharing. (2020-12-15)
| Unpacking The Congruence Box | Published: 2011 Download |
'Offering clients person-centred relationship alone is not enough. We need to actively encourage, facilitate and teach the awareness and acceptance of experiencing...' That's what the "Therapy Today" editor added after the title of this article. I took the central ideas from 'Dr. Rogers and the Lego Spaceship' (listed below) and sought to present them to a wider audience. It is probably the best synopsis of my 'theoretical position' as a therapist. Thanks to the help of a Japanese Focusing colleague, this article also appeared in "The Japanese Journal of Humanistic Psychology", 2011, Vol.29, No.2, 55-60. I understand that the paired-down simplicity of my approach resonates with something in Japanese counselling culture.
| Focusing And The Person Centred Way | Published: 2011 Download |
I stopped trying to tell clients how long their counselling sessions should be while I was still a trainee. Several years later, I wrote an exploration of my reasons for doing so and the consequences I observed. (Published 2005 and listed below.) This is a subsequent update for the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors' "Insights Into Clinical Counselling". (2020-12-15)
| One Size Won't Fit All | Published: 2009 Download |
Third and last of the 'Dr. Rogers' articles, this presents a theoretical 'story' about person-centred practice and experiential focusing which treats them as indivisibly 'one thing'. I wanted a theoretical metaphor for counselling students who had never even thought of the two as separable. To achieve this, I exploit flaws in classical person-centred theory to ground further development, drawing from clinical practice, current literature, and my years helping those students become person-centred counsellors and focusing practitioners. I stress the importance of 'awareness' and 'acceptance'--acknowledging for the first time the influence of Buddhism on this aspect of what I am saying--and return to the 'culture of dissociation' introduced in 'Open-Centred Ecosophy'. What I say, here, was subsequently presented at the Focusing Institute's 'Advanced and Certification Weeklong', November 14-20, in Garrison, New York where I was heartened by its reception.
| Dr Rogers And The Lego Spacehsip | Published: 2009 Download |
Is it possible to run an authentic person-centred counsellor training program in a British University? Is it possible to engage with 'main-stream culture' in a person-centred way without that way becoming corrupt? I had been attempting to do those things for quite a few years when I wrote this article. It appeared in the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's "Therapy Today" alongside an editorial which asked whether what I was suggesting might not be true of person-centred practice and the British National Health Service. A few years on, I find myself thinking the same of the BACP itself. The article references Canadian experiences and counselling culture. Its concerns are certainly relevant in BC today.
| Render Unto Caesar | Published: 2008 Download |
A reflection upon the death of a client, this article was, perhaps, a little ahead of current readiness to take childhood sexual abuse seriously enough. The article argues that refusal to engage with our own woundedness usually underlies our capacity and preparedness to wound others. In a way, I am circling back to 'the problem of evil' which is explicit in 'Jonah and The Dark Side' and is inseparable from my environmental concerns. But really, this is about Mary.
| In Mermoriam Mary | Published: 2007 Download |
The 'Dr. Rogers' articles chronicle my evolving relationship with, and understanding of, 'person-centred practice and theory'. At the heart of that evolution is a recognition that 'classical' person-centred theory is flawed, but that the flaw offers more occasion for interesting developments than sorrow. The first, Moral Umbrella, article exploits the flaw to ally person-centred practice with ecosophy. This second article explores 'experiments in Experiential Focusing', includes a taxonomy of different Focusing modalities, and argues that person-centred counselling and Experiential Focusing are two inseparable sides of one coin.
| Dr Rogers And The Rebellious Right Arm | Published: 2006 Download |
An exploration of the relationship between a person-centred way of being and ecosophism (environmental wisdom) written explicitly for person-centred colleagues. It was written where I now live (almost) full-time.
| A Pilrgim At Candle Creek Falls | Published: 2006 Download |
Once I had the idea that 'person-centredness' and what I consider 'environmental sanity' go hand-in-hand, I sought to share that idea in different publications and with different levels of depth and emphasis. After all, it was my work in environmental philosophy which finally precipitated my move into counselling, and what human beings are doing to our lovely blue-green planet has troubled me all my thinking life. This version was written for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's "Therapy Today".
| Take 6 Core Conditions | Published: 2006 Download |
Chapter 7 of Moore J. and Campbell Purton (eds) 2006 "Spirituality And Counselling Experiential And Theoretical Perspectives". Ross-on-Wye; PCCS Books. The book grew out of a conference at which I used my opportunity to present to explore a connection between my work in environmental philosophy and my interest in person-centred practice. The formatting of this piece is a consequence of a parallel interest in heuristic enquiry, of the way in which heuristic enquiry helped me to become aware of different, sometimes dissonant, 'voices', and a desire to reproduce them on the printed page. Some have appreciated my efforts. Some abhor what I did.
| Open Centred Ecosophy | Published: 2006 Download |
The first of three 'Dr. Rogers' articles, this explores the connection between person-centred theory and practice and environmental philosophy in more depth, and in a more conventional format, than 'Open-Centred Ecosophy'. The question 'How big is the moral umbrella' ('What kinds of things are morally important in themselves?') has long interested me. It is a question with surprisingly important practical implications. And an expansion of the 'person-centred way of being' makes a very generous umbrella look very attractive. That in turn supports an approach to environmental issues equivalent to, but differently grounded than, Deep Ecology.
| Dr Rogers And The Moral Umbrella | Published: 2006 Download |
In some ways a sequel to 'Notes From Inside A Whale' (listed below), and a continuing exploration of 'group dynamics', this article is also a brief exploration of the 'problem of evil'. That last leads me to consider Rene Girard's ideas about imitation and rivalry and the role they may play within a counsellor training community.
| Jonah And The Dark Side | Published: 2001 Download |
Exploring evolving congruence and incongruence in a person-centred training community, I wrote this during my own initial counsellor training in the UK. The article seeks to make sense of my experiences not just in terms of person-centred theory, but by considering the contrasting nature of small and large groups, and by reference to a background culture of 'abuse and deprivation'.
| Notes From Inside A Whale | Published: 2000 Download |
Here for completeness. For 9 years--including a temporary divorce from things academic--I was a grad student at the University of British Columbia. Those years eventually yielded this dissertation. It found a publisher, but then the publisher's board decided that I was too far ahead of current opinion, and that publishing was too risky. I was already engaged in new projects and let the matter drop. Since then, much of what I say has been borne out by events and by research, but my central thesis, that the only way forward for human-kind is a form of Deep Ecology, remains far ahead of opinion. I used the work here as the basis for an Environmental Ethics course I wrote and taught for UBC's distance education for many years. It is also what finally propelled me into counselling and psychotherapy. It grounds some of the things I say in subsequent and more counselling-oriented publications.
| How Big Is The Moral Umbrellla | Published: 1995 Download |