Post date: 02-Jul-2012 21:35:52
Written by Dion Van Werde
Antwerp, July 2012
Since Garry Prouty’s death in 2009, the Network is looking for a new balance. Coordination could be more intense and networking more active. However:
We continued organizing the yearly International Network Meeting, with approximately 20 to 25 persons participating each year. It is held at Psychiatric Hospital Sint-Camillus in Belgium since 13 years now. This year’s meeting is scheduled for October 26 and 27 (info dion.vanwerde@sint-camillus.be).
At the coming World Conference in Antwerp, several members of the Pre-Therapy International Network will be present and/or presenting. On Monday the 9th e.g. as well Lisbeth Sommerbeck, Wendy Traynor, Dion Van Werde, Ton Coffeng, Pete Sanders and Paul Dierick with Dion will be offering presentations, workshops and a panel. Marlis Pörtner is excused but has sent in her material to be presented in the panel.
Mathias Dekeyser, also member of the Pre-Therapy Network and head of the Flemish Person-Centered Association will be there too. Also Jean-Marc Priels, Luc Roelens, Carl Adams, Alexia Grauls and Alice Zischka. Also Lorna Carrick, Elisabeth Freire and Peter Pearce – former members of our Network, will be presenting… Others may have registered meanwhile too. This is to say that besides being interested and committed to Pre-Therapy, our members are also actively present at the core of the PC movement.
We had some problems with our website (www.pre-therapy.com) and had to change to a new server, with all the delay and loss of energy that goes with it. An updated bibliographical list is continuously available at our website under ‘references’.
The books on Pre-Therapy and contact work have a steady sale (see www.pccs-books.co.uk).
We are organising an advanced programme on Pre-Therapy and contact work in France and in French, asked for by IFRDP (www.ifrdp.com) and open for anyone who is interested. It will consist of 3 times 3 days, starting early December 2012.
Some of our members were and are participating in the 2012 Metanoia London programme ‘Person Centred Work at the Difficult Edge: A Practitioner Certificate’ (www.metanoia.ac.uk) and are engaged in a project to write a book about the topics dealt with.
Dion Van Werde updated the chapter Garry and he wrote for a next edition of The Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling.
Jill Prouty and Dion are working together with Korean therapists to develop a memorial issue on Garry for their journal. It will include transcripts of discussions and meetings Garry had over there.
Besides all this, individual members are continuously active in spreading, promoting and researching Pre-Therapy and its many translations to different people and professionals in different settings and serving a divers clientele.
Dion Van Werde
Coordinator of the Pre-Therapy International Network