Dave Hansen

I have been in love with the person-centred approach since stumbling across Carl Rogers at the beginning
of my undergraduate degree in 2007. I read ‘The Carl Rogers Reader’ and it felt like someone had put into
words something that I had always felt intuitively – a lovely experience!

My degree was a preparation for going into teaching, but it wasn’t long after qualifying as a teacher that I
turned towards training to be a therapist, having had my career in mainstream teaching ruined by reading
too many progressive education books. I’ve been happily qualified as a therapist since 2017.

I had another moment like the one I described when reading Rogers in around 2021 when I read the
Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF). While not explicitly tied in with the PCA, I find the
principles of the PTMF to be complimentary to the approach and it also makes the radical/political
elements of it more explicit. Alongside the person-centred approach itself, I am very interested in the
broader politics of mental health and the implications of the approach in a wider context.

I should probably address that I am also qualified as an EMDR therapist, which some may find
controversial! At heart though, I see it as a slightly more structured and focused way of allowing the
actualising tendency to do its thing – a little bit like Focusing, in that way. Unfortunately it is often
dressed up in quite medicalised language which I personally stay away from.

As well as a therapist in private practice, I work for at a residential mental health crisis house. It is run by
a survivor-led charity and offers person-centred support to people who would otherwise need a hospital,
but it is decided would benefit from a less medicalised and more ‘homely’ environment. I’ve also worked
as a tutor and a counselling service manager.

In my spare time I like to read, write, play and watch football, and I am also a keen (if not proficient) DIY
enthusiast.