Developing the person in context: inherent connections between the highs and lows of human flourishing

Abstract

The PCE 2024 Conference theme was Person, Paideia, Politeia: Developing the Person of the PCE Therapist. The person-centered approach is fundamentally an approach that is educational and developmental more than medical or remedial. Rogers’s persons of tomorrow suggest a type of development where maturing persons will become seekers, seeking out the challenges to come. Specific dramatic and subtle existential (e.g. nuclear war, climate change), mental health (e.g. public health emergencies, income inequality), generational (e.g. rise in mental health problems) and cultural (e.g. smartphone ubiquity, acceleration of change) challenges may be predicted at various likelihoods and responded to with ignorance or preparation. Specific person-centered concepts (e.g. changingness, extensionality) offer pathways for development to seek out and meet those challenges.

Department(s)

School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1080/14779757.2024.2441989

Keywords

actualizing tendency, education, formative tendency, Person-centered therapy, persons of tomorrow

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Journal Title

Person Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies

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