PCE Europe Christmas Newsletter
by Kathy Engler
In the last 6 months, the PCE Europe board has again been busy with several projects. Much was accomplished in the last years but still more needs to be done in our fast changing political and economic environment.
EVENTS
Ethics in the Mental Health Caring Professions
This 3-day workshop took place at the beginning of November in Cyprus.
As mental health professionals we come very close to people and our working instrument is the relationship itself and the setting/framework that we create. This workshop has shown, how a better understanding of Ethics is related to the quality of your clinical practice. The participants gained great insight and skills to avoid or solve ethical issues. For mor information, please do not hesitate to contact Paul at members@pce-europe.org.
Community Meeting
Right after the Ethics seminar, we convened for another 4-day workshop in Cyprus to discuss important issues of our profession, such as PCA as a brand and our Certification standards. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact Leonore or Paul. As a direct result, a Marketing Committee was created to promote and lobby for PCA on an international level and within other associations, such as EAP. For more details, please see our attached community meeting minutes.
Encounter Groups
Our virtual Encounter Groups have experienced wide success, and we continue to hold them on a monthly basis. Participation is free for Individual members. For further information see https://www.pce-europe.org/encounter or please contact Leonore at chair@pce-europe.org.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Advisory Board
The board has created an Advisory Board, which will be a valuable consulting support for our many projects to develop and strengthen our brand.
Science & Research Committee
We invite you to join the Science and Research Committee of PCE Europe. The committee will meet once a month for one hour, with our first roundtable discussion scheduled for January 20th, 2025, at 11:00 am European Eastern Time UTC+02:00. During this initial meeting, we’ll set our goals and begin building our team. Our vision includes creating a network for collaborative research projects and addressing critical issues, such as the World Health Organization’s prioritization of CBT and BT modalities. For more information, please contact our board member Alex Vallidis on research@pce-europe.org.
ZOOM LINK https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82316210731?pwd=IsyWnsDiJRq yZeCZrcaMEyWWXcnU97.1
Participation in the EAP Board Meetings
The EAP Autumn Board meetings were held online from 17-19 October 2024. 2025-meetings are planned to take place face-to-face again, first in Vienna and then Prague.
In addition to the board meetings, our board member Ewa Kaczorkiewicz also attended several committee meetings, such as GAP (Grandparents Advisory Panel), the Membership Committee or the EWOC meeting.
Complementary to the traditional topics of the meetings, the attention of the participants was focused on, among other things:
the need for greater involvement, visibility and agility on the part of the member organisations, both national and representing modalities (lobbying for legislation, the idea of 'stakeholders'):
EAP activities outside the organisation (e.g. reaction to the WHO document, support to national organisations in parliaments, interviews)
the establishment of an EAPTI chamber to represent the interests of accredited training institutes in the EAP forum.
changes in the organisation: project to change the form of the ECP certificate to digital, attempt to protect the ECP trademark, acceptance of lay members in selected positions (e.g. treasurer)
joint symposia of EAP and UUAP, the Ukrainian national organisation (sixth in November this year).
Our board member Alex Vallidis also attended several EAP meetings such as the SARC committee and the ETSC committee to reinforce our presence and influence on ongoing projects.
For example, the SARC Committee is working on a project aimed at bolstering existing competencies with the latest scientific evidence. This initiative seeks to ensure that the competencies align with contemporary research findings, enhancing their relevance and applicability within clinical practice.
Whereas the ETSC Committee examined recommendations from the TAC committee regarding revisions to the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP) document, specifically focusing on flexible timeframes for clinical practice or clarification of prohibition of double roles.
Please do not hesitate to contact Ewa (treasurer@pce-europe.org) or Alex (research@pce-europe.org), should you be more interested in the detailed discussions.
New Organisational Member
We are very happy to welcome a new organisational member to PCE Europe:
Mundo Counselling: Mundo Counselling - Inicio, based in Spain.
And last, but not least, the board is working on several projects to further the person-centered and experiential approach. We are therefore looking for member support, big and small, to support us. For further information on our committees and working groups, please see: https://www.pce-europe.org/committees.
We wish you all a peaceful holiday season!
Kind regards,
Leonore Langner