Significant Reflections from a Person-centered Psychology Conference
Significant Reflections from a Person-centered Psychology Conference
Matthew J. Bolton, College of Arts and Sciences, Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, FL
In this guest post, I want to share some experiences and personal learnings that are of significance to me after attending and presenting my recent paper on mentorship at the 6th Annual Carl Rogers Conference hosted by the Center for Studies of the Person (CSP; which Rogers and others founded in 1968) from August 7-9, 2020.
For those unfamiliar, Carl Rogers (pictured on right) was a psychologist who pioneered the classical person-centered approach to psychotherapy. He believed that individuals in psychotherapy could see positive change if the therapist could foster a safe environment for psychological contact–not only between therapist and client but between the client and him or herself–and meet a number of conditions. The most primary of these are that the therapist is able to hold the client in a state of unconditional positive regard; is able to direct towards him or her a warm empathic stance; and is able to foster mutual genuineness (congruence) in the therapeutic relationship. Two underlying person-centered beliefs are that there exists an “actualizing tendency” which drives individuals, should they recognize and choose to act on it, to seek positive growth; and that individuals are inherently good. Person-centered therapy is inherently non-directive; this means the psychotherapist does not (typically, unless they are theoretically-integrationist) provide skills training or otherwise seek to influence the client’s beliefs, behavior, or thought processes. The client is considered his or her own expert and is, rather, guided through a process of self-learning via empathic reflecting, simile, and metaphor. Today, a family of person-centered approaches is housed, theoretically, under an overarching humanistic psychology umbrella.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the CSP hosted this year’s conference on the Zoom video platform and (quite masterfully, in my view) integrated the EventBrite website to advantage as a host site for materials. As a first-time person-centered psychology conference attendee, and particularly with this meeting being fully virtual, I was apprehensive and uncertain about what to expect. Little did I know just how inspirational and outlook-changing the experience would be.
With roughly 40 attendees from at least 12 countries–I observed participation from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, England, Hungary, Russia, Scotland, Taiwan, and the United States–and representing an even larger cultural background, the Zoom room was a multicultural extravaganza. Some participants only spoke Spanish; one, to my understanding, only spoke Russian, and there were other non-English languages represented as well. Yet–and this, to me, was a great positive aspect of the conference as it allowed meaningful dialogue between individuals who otherwise never could have hoped to communicate–the attendees all pitched in to translate for one another. Even the 90-minute presentation sessions, which we speakers could use either as open discussion forums or for more structured Powerpoint presenting, were translated if necessary. Yes, this slowed the pace considerably. No, we did not care–in fact, I quite liked the more intentional pacing of conversation and much appreciated the cultural sharing and learnings afforded by the situation.
I was struck, as well, by the format of the conference. Coming from the world of research and more generalized academic/professional conferences–with their poster and oral presentation sessions, coffee socials, and fast-paced, networking-related wheeling-and-dealing–I was unprepared for the person-centered encounter group. Encounter group is a term in person-centered psychology that refers to the group therapy format. The name is based on the notion that people are coming together, encountering one another and being together, for deep interpersonal sharing, intrapersonal reflection, and affective experiencing.
While the concept has been adapted in other contexts, person-centered encounter groups are not facilitated in the traditional sense; that is, there is not someone who sets the group on a certain course of action or discussion. The members of the group are left to establish their own course. Often, conflict emerges as power dynamics play out; nonetheless, the purpose of this process–and it very much is a process–is to allow each member a safe space to manifest his or her most authentic self. Each participant strives to operate from a person-centered place of unconditional positive regard, sensitive empathy, and congruence in order to most fully be with, and receive, the others in the group. The entire CSP Conference has historically been a giant encounter group, with larger and smaller group meetings occurring over a number of days. This year, the conference facilitated encounters by virtue of two large-group gatherings and five co-occurring small-group gatherings per day. For context, the small groups consisted of about ten people each.
To say I was deeply surprised by my encounter group experience is an understatement. It was fascinating to observe the group process, which transcended mere conversation and became something more, something far more meaningful and at times inexplicable. To properly experience an encounter group is to witness everyone in the group, including yourself, being with one another in a mindful, fully genuine, and self- and other-acceptant manner. It is hard to put this experience into words; it was certainly outlook-, if not life-, altering in many ways. I was thrilled, as well, to find common interests in my group, which included several educators. Outside of deeper sharing and reflection, from which I learned about myself and others and gained an even deeper appreciation for the person-centered approach, much of our conversation over the three days of the conference revolved around learning and education. We also spoke much about the ongoing racial tensions in America today, having watched a 1985 Carl Rogers therapy session with an African-American individual with the rest of the conference attendees.
I opted to use my presentation time as an open discussion to think out loud and talk, completely ad-libbed and improvised on the fly, about mentorship. Only two people participated, but productive discussion was had nonetheless. Altogether, the 6th Annual Carl Rogers Conference was, in my book, a great success. I look forward to future person-centered conferences, encounter groups, and networking and being within the person-centered sphere.