Three partner organisations have joined together to host the 6th PCE Europe symposium (The Counselling Unit at the University of Strathclyde, the Association for Person-Centred Creative Arts, and Person-Centred Therapy Scotland).

Those three would like to welcome you to participate in the symposium which will take place in Glasgow and online from Friday 21st until Sunday 23rd November 2025. In addition, there will be a pre-symposium meeting on the afternoon of Thursday 20th November to which symposium delegates are warmly invited.

The theme of the symposium will be: Growing in Difficult and Challenging Places. The Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals is already closed except for Lightning Talks, Posters and Online-Only submissions. The organizers are ready for you to register. Have a look at the outline programme and registration information on the website.

Symposium theme

The actualising tendency is an underpinning drive, organismic wisdom and creative energy that promotes growth and actualisation. Growth can occur even in the most hostile and limited circumstances. Person-centred and experiential (PCE) approaches are vibrant and creative: surviving, thriving, fighting and flourishing even in the most difficult places. There is growth and development in our practice, in our communities, in our training, in our research, and in theoretical perspectives of the approach. Change and growth is an inevitable and trustworthy organismic response, it can take unexpected, surprising, creative, and challenging directions. Understanding and promoting this creative process of growth is central to our approach. 

The conference theme will explore the growth and development of our approaches with a focus on creativity and the actualising tendency. 

Questions will be explored, such as: 

• Where are the growing edges in PCE approaches?
• How is the actualising tendency expressed in difficult circumstances?
• How are we responding to problems and challenges in our practice, and in our communities?
• How is our approach developing in the context of digital world?
• How are our PCE practices evolving?
• How are therapists and clients growing and developing?
• What are the challenges, creative responses and developments in PCE training?
• In what directions might the future growth of PCE approaches develop?

The PCE Europe team has created a new type of event for the PCE community, the PCE Europe Community Meetings. They are intended as a supplement to the Symposium that takes place every two years in the years in between the symposiums. The upcoming one will take place in Lednice, Czech Republic (March 16-20, 2026).

PCE Europe Community Meetings will create a space to

• discuss important issues of our profession, organisations, strategies
• think about our identity and our development as an organisation (membership, ethics...) and as a community
• concentrate on special topics (ethics, research...)
• Roundtables (facilitated by PCE Europe committees, delegates or individual members)
• Open discussions in the plenum

Especially for

• delegates, board members and members of organisational members of PCE Europe
• individual members of PCE Europe
• various partners of PCE Europe and of the approach
• also open for interested other people

The focus is on strengthening the community network, stimulating communication and actively contributing to the identity of the approach.

For further information please have a look at:

https://www.pce-europe.org/community-meeting

A warm welcome to Cologne and online to PCE2026: „A changing world.“

The seventeenth World Conference on Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling „PCE2026“ will take place from July 8th to 12th 2026 in Cologne at the Maternushaus. The pre-conference will take place from July 6th to 8th 2026 at the TH Cologne. The PCE conference is the biennial event of the World Association for Person-Centered & Expreriential Psychotherapy & Counselling (PCE World).

A CHANGING WORLD

… what it does with us and what we do with it

Perspectives of Person-centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling

The person-centered and experiential approach offers a unique and hope-inspiring perspective on how to elicit and support sustainable change. In light of today’s challenges and developments with which we are faced as individuals, societies and also as psychotherapists, counselors, practitioners and researchers, the need to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for change is both our best hope as much as our responsibility. Climate change, military and culture wars, racism and discrimination, digitalization, fake news, social media and artificial intelligence – we are amidst rapid and persuasive changes which affects us as persons and which are often at odds with the way we see or we want to see us. Clearly, all of these changes are of our own doing and thus, we are not only responsible but also our one and only hope for a change to the better.

We want to invite you to the PCE2026 conference in Cologne to experience, share, discuss, elucidate, understand, question, celebrate and feel how we become agents of change in this time of pressing and alarming changes. This will be done by both acknowledging and fostering our rich clinical, theoretical and empirical basis in psychotherapy, counseling and personal change as well as employing these treasures as a point of reference to face a changing world.

To facilitate this process, the program of the PCE2026 consists of keynotes and workshops as well as ample room to meet, gain new insights, think ahead or just have fun together. We will use dialogue keynotes between renowned external experts and scholars of our community to elucidate current and future challenges: the climate crisis, humanitarian crises and social justice, artificial intelligence and social media. These new formats are complemented by the proven setting of experiential, scientific, practice-based and creative workshops as well as encounter groups to ensure a safe and lively space for development. Our aim is to allow the exchange between the various players, deepen self-awareness and to further the development of the person-centered and experiential approach. It is our specific aim to attract and support students, young clinicians, upcoming researchers and to include people and perspectives from diverse backgrounds, understanding and cultures.

Submission of abstracts for the diverse conference formats start on June 1, 2025. You can look forward to a colorful program. More Information soon on: https://pce2026.com/

See you soon in Cologne!