23/11/2025
I’ve just returned from the 6th PCE Europe Symposium in Glasgow, and my heart feels a little larger, a little softer and, a little kinder. Carl Rogers used to say that when a person feels deeply heard, they begin to change; this weekend it felt like a whole community was being heard in lecture halls, corridors, coffee queues, and in that unofficial “ni****ne support group” shivering together outside the . I met people whose work formed the backbone of how I sit in the therapy chair today, and suddenly they were not just authors but warm eyes, tired smiles, and long grounding hugs. There were tender words after talks: “Your work touched something in me”, “Me too”, “Can we stay in touch?” and authentic sharings about pain, politics, faith, q***rness, hope, and why we still believe in this strange, beautiful thing we call therapy.
I return with new ideas for research and practice, a mind stretched by theory and debate, and a heart full of faces, stories, hugs, jokes in the cold, and shared humanity. To everyone I met in Glasgow: thank you for the trust, the playfulness, the nerdy conversations, and the gentle reminder that our work is always bigger than any one of us. May we keep growing in all these “difficult and challenging places”… together!