pce2026

25/05/2026

🧡Encounter & Community Meetings at PCE2026🧡

If you studied the programm of the PCE2026 Conference, you found out that there are several slots of „Community meeting“ as well as „Encounter group“ offers.

„What is it about?“, you might ask.

We are delighted, that the „Encounter (Group) Organizing Committee“ will open the doors for the Community meetings, as well as for all the Encounter offers at the PCE2026 Pre Conference and the Main Conference.🙌🏻

There is a difference between these formats.
👂🏻🦻🏼🎼🗣️💭🦻🏼👂🏻

So, feel invited to learn about them… https://pce2026.com/encounter-organizing-committee/

What‘s your resonance in this moment..? 🤗🪞🫶🏻

04/05/2026

Welcome to Cologne!
The PCE World Congress is taking place here this year – and we’re excited to welcome you!

To give you a feel for the city and a taste of what the congress is all about, we’ll be showing you everything Cologne has to offer in the coming days: culture, unique places, a vibrant atmosphere, and true highlights.

We’ll take you along and provide you with impressions and information step by step – so your anticipation grows a little more each day. ✨

04/05/2026

29/04/2026

Are you ready for the congress?
Have you already secured your ticket?

We are ready – and truly looking forward to welcoming you in Cologne.

The World Congress PCE will take place in July:

Pre-Conference: 6–8 July
Main Conference: 8–11 July

A space for encounter, reflection, and connection – for everyone working in a person-centred way.

See you in Cologne.

19/02/2026

Many have already secured their tickets for PCE2026 and are surely already making preparations for their journey and choosing good accommodation. Hopefully, this will also increase the anticipation!

🧳We hope you enjoy planning your trip and look forward to the conference and your stay in the beautiful Rhineland and especially the colourful Cologne!
Cologne in particular, has a lot to offer these days. 🌈ColognePride takes place the weekend before the conference, and 🎶🎸🎺the Even Flow Festival takes place the weekend after.
Please also take a look at the tourism tips and links that we have provided for you on our homepage. 🕶️🎡💃🏼🕺🏼🖼️🎭👨🏻‍🎤

Good reasons to plan your trip in time.
You can find recommendations for a pleasant stay on our website under www.pce2026.com/accommodation

🏩🛎️The modern local youth hostels are just as recommendable as the conference centre and the various hotels that you can find on the map.

We recommend booking accommodation early to secure a cosy bed for your rest. 🛌🥐☕️

On behalf of the hospitable kölsch hosts around 🤗

26/01/2026

At the Pre-Conference, we run ourselves warm. Participants can expect a good and inspiring time.
In keeping with the tradition of PCE World Conferences, the Pre-Conference is often held at a different location than the main conference and in a way is smaller in scale.
We are delighted to be able to host this year’s Pre-Conference there in cooperation with TH Köln. 🙌🏻
The Programm is in the 2nd slide and here www.pce2026.com/pre-conference
A workshop will take place in one room and an encounter group in the other. More on this in the next posts.


💢🔎🫀🧠👂🏻
We would like to introduce you to the moderator of the second workshop: Robert Elliott.

💖🎯
Workshop 2: Emotion Focused Therapy in a Changing World: A Person-Centered-Friendly Introduction

Overviews of EFT generally emphasize differences between EFT and PCT. This hands-on workshop takes the opposite approach of focusing on common elements, offering a PCT-friendly introduction to EFT.

Robert Elliott (preferred pronouns: they/them) is professor emeritus of counselling at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toledo (Ohio).
Their main interests are practice, supervision, training, and research on EFT and related therapies. Their books include Learning emotion-focused psychotherapy (2004/2025) and Emotion-Focused Counselling in Action (2021), as well as 200 journal articles and book chapters. Robert is past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and previously co-edited the journals Psychotherapy Research, and Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies.
They have received the Distinguished Research Career Award of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and the Carl Rogers Award from the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

22/01/2026

At the PCE2026 Pre-Conference, we run ourselves warm. Participants can expect a good and inspiring time.

In keeping with the tradition of PCE World Conferences, the Pre-Conference is often held at a different location than the main conference and in a way is smaller in scale.
We are delighted to be able to host this year’s Pre-Conference there in cooperation with TH Köln. 🙌🏻
The Programm is in the 2nd slide and here www.pce2026.com/pre-conference
A workshop will take place in one room and an encounter group in the other. More on this in the next posts.

🏫💭👂🏻💬🔬
Today, we would like to introduce you to the moderator of the first workshop: William R. Miller.

🎤🎙️Workshop 1: Motivational Interviewing in a Changing World: An Experiential Workshop.

Introductory experiential workshop for practitioners on the person-centered clinical method of motivational interviewing for evoking and strengthening clients’ own motivations for change and growth.🌱

William R. (Bill) Miller first described motivational interviewing in a 1983 journal article, and with Dr. Steve Rollnick has subsequently co-authored four editions of the primary textbook. He is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico where he served as Director of Clinical Training. Fundamentally interested in the psychology of change, he founded a private practice group, directed a large public treatment program, co-founded an addiction research center, and served as principal investigator for numerous clinical research grants. His books have been translated into 28 languages, and the Institute for Scientific Information has listed him among the world’s most-cited scientists.

🙌🏻❗️We are delighted and at the same time sorry that the Pre-Conference is already sold out.
And/But: you can meet Bill at the Main conference as well!🤗

18/01/2026

The third Dialogue Keynote „AI“ at the third day of the Main Conference will be hold by Jeffrey Cornelius-White and Charlotte Blease.

🤖👾🔮🩺📱
AI is transforming therapy, reshaping how mental health care is delivered and experienced. This keynote examines its benefits, risks, and the opportunities it creates for practitioners and patients. From chatbots offering immediate support to AI-driven tools assisting clinicians, these technologies are altering the therapeutic landscape.
The focus is on access, quality of care, safety, and social justice. AI has the potential to bridge critical gaps in mental health services, but it also carries the risk of deepening inequalities. Beyond the clinic, AI is influencing our relationships, and the very nature of seeking help.
This talk provides a clear, comprehensive introduction to AI in therapy—what is known, what remains uncertain, and what must be addressed. As AI advances, its role in mental health care must be critically examined to ensure it strengthens, rather than undermines, human connection.


Jef Cornelius-White is a Distinguished Professor and Program Director of Counseling at Missouri State University, USA. He is a former Chair of the Board of PCE-World, co-editor of Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, and had held several other editorial roles at related journals, including currently serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Counseling. Jef has over 100 publications in person-centered counseling, therapy education, and interdisciplinary studies.

Dr Charlotte Blease is a health informaticist, Associate Professor at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University, Sweden and Research Affiliate at Digital Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. She has held academic posts in the US including Harvard Medical School for five years, Europe and the UK.
Blease has a diverse publication portfolio of 160 journal articles across AI, ethics, health psychology, placebo studies.

Please learn more about Jef Cornelius-White and Charlotte Blease here: www.pce2026.com/ keynote-speakers

We’re so much looking forward to you, Jef and Charlotte!

16/01/2026

The second dialogue keynote at the Main conference of PCE2026 with Dr Lou Cooper and Dr Dwight Turner will be about „Social Justice“.

👥🫆🪪♾️
„An experience with our clients is an encounter with the other, and an encounter with ourselves.
The world is an unsafe space for so many in the present era. From the attacks on trans persons, to the marginalisation of racialised groups, the fight to be acknowledged as human in a time of rising populism speaks to the fear and powerlessness of so many.
Given the undoubted power dynamics in our profession, it would be naïve to assume that simply because of who we are that our clients feel free to bring the fullness of their identities to the therapeutic space. Masking, code-switching, performance, are just some of the ways clients may hide aspects of their identity out of a fear of being at best rejected, or at worst, annihilated.
This keynote dialogue between two experienced practitioners considers how difficult it is to see the range of intersectional identities in our clients when we meet them, and challenges practitioners to consider the fullness of their own varying identities and how owning these may assist our clients to feel safer and increasingly met by all of us.“

Dr Lou Cooper is a Counselling Psychologist and Lead trainer and presenter at the Australian Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy (AIEFT). For over a decade Lou has facilitated training in LGBTQ-inclusive practice, trauma-informed practice, and mental health in the workplace. All their teaching is now informed by Emotion Theory and Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) and Lou has a particular interest in using an emotion focused approach to work with marginalised communities. Lou is the host of the Emotion Focused Podcast and appears regularly on radio in Australia talking about emotions.

Dr Dwight Turner is Course Leader on the Humanistic Psychotherapy Course at the University of Brighton, and a psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice. Dr Turner is the author of Decolonising Counselling and Psychotherapy: „Depoliticised pathways towards intersectional practice“ Or „The Psychology of Supremacy“.

12/01/2026

At the PCE2026 conference we are happy to announce the innovative format of „dialogue keynotes“ on the three main focus topics:
dialogue keynotes between renowned external experts and scholars of our community to elucidate current and future challenges: the climate crisis, social justice and humanitarian crises, artificial intelligence and social media.

🫠🌞💨🌊🥀 🥶

The first Dialogue Keynote is about „Climate Crisis“ with Dr Gillian Proctor and Prof. Dr. Ulf Hahnel.

„In this presentation, we will take a conversational approach.
We will explore why climate change matters and is relevant for psychotherapists, both as people who are citizens of the universe, and as experts in psychological change.“

Get to know about the speakers:

🌿Dr Gillian Proctor is a lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Leeds, UK. She is passionate about ethics power and politics in therapy. She has written text books on the dynamics of power in therapy (PCCS Books) and values and ethics in therapy (Sage) and edited books on politics and feminism and the PCA (PCCS Books). She is currently writing a book on the illusion of separateness and the implications of intraconnection for therapy practice. She has also worked on anti-racist education and is researching the emotional impact of working in equity diversity and inclusion in higher education.

🌿Dr Ulf Hahnel is Full Professor for Psychology of Collective Action and Sustainability at the School of Sustainability of the Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles on individual and collective human behavior and the underlying psychological mechanisms in the context of global climate change and other pressing sustainability-related issues. By combing research from psychology, sustainability science, and economics, his research moreover aims to develop evidence-based interventions to promote more sustainable behavior worldwide.

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