by Jennifer Taylor
The AGM is on Sunday 6th September 2026, 10.00am-12.00pm, over zoom, and is open to all members of tPCA.
Members will receive the zoom link and relevant papers two weeks in advance of the meeting.
Guest speaker: Maria Kontarini - www.mariakontarini.com
From Being to Doing: Person-Centred Leadership, Power and Organisational Life
The Person-Centred Approach has given us a profound understanding of what becomes possible when people meet one another with empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard. Within our community, however, we have often explored these conditions primarily through therapy, encounter groups and spaces devoted to being. What happens when we try to bring them into the doing of organizational life?
Organizations must make decisions, establish structures, manage resources and respond to financial realities. They involve hierarchy, leadership and unequal levels of responsibility and power. These subjects can feel uncomfortable—and sometimes almost taboo—within a community that values equality and non-directivity.
Drawing on experience in management, human resources and organizational development, Maria Kontarini will offer a person-centred perspective on leadership, autonomy, accountability and organizational life. The presentation will be followed by a participatory discussion inviting attendees to reflect on their own experiences of organizations and how the core conditions conditions were present, absent or needed.
Guest Speaker: Katie Clancy
Lessons from the ‘others’
Like all great discoveries, my own was completely unplanned. The thing I spent so long trying to hide, fix, and justify, became a portal through which life has expanded for me.
Living as a plural system of distinct selves is perhaps not common, yet it is not as rare as psychiatry would have us believe. At the heart of the person-centred approach is this challenge to psychiatry; that we are the expert on our experience, not those with expert status about what falls outside of the so-called ‘norm’. This idea has revolutionised the way I approach my experience of plurality, in coming to accept and embrace a way of being that is widely deemed to be mad. In doing so, I have been humbled in learning from the ‘others’ I share embodiment with.
As it turns out, the ‘others’ have a lot to say, about us, the world, and counselling. In honouring the person-centred approach and listening to the wisdom within ourselves, we seek to share some of our lived experience and the lessons we have learned so far.
Nominations for Trustees.
Any member, who wishes to stand as a Trustee (new Trustees are encouraged and welcome) - should submit the names of a proposer and a seconder (who must be members of the Association) along with a paragraph or two about yourself and what you bring to the role of Trustee to
Specific roles will be agreed by negotiation within the new Trustee Group after election and Trustees must be willing to engage in tPCA initiatives - this includes
- take part in the running of tPCA;
- take part in helping to organise tPCA events;
- attending monthly Zoom meetings with other Trustees;
As a Trustee you will be entitled to claim 10 hours of CPD per quarter and will almost certainly experience personal growth and learning! If you would like to find out more please contact Jenn (
Resolutions If you wish to put any resolutions to the meeting, these must be proposed and seconded (by members of the Association) and sent to
Proxy votes If you are unable to attend and would like a proxy vote, please email Jenn at
Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at