Academies of hope

Making radical hope a reality

Abstract

This article, based on a talk given to The First International Online Seminar on the Person-Centred Approach, October 10–11, 2021, has three main aims. Firstly, to remind us of Rogers’ indefatigable commitment to cultural transformation, humanisation, and peace. I suggest that these are defining aspects of the origin story of the person-centred approach (PCA), which in recent decades has retreated from this focus in favour of increased attention to person-centred and experiential psychotherapies as methods of psychotherapy and counselling. Secondly, I describe how this cultural transformation project is still at work in the 21^st century, showing up in a wide range of transformative initiatives which extend the basic ideas embedded in a person-centred philosophy into what some identify as an emerging counterculture. Thirdly, I urge the PCA community to revisit and re-engage the social transformation agenda at the heart of the approach, to collaborate and organise ‘academies of hope’, and to become advocates and activists for the creation of life-centred cultures before it is too late.