Pandas in a zoo: facilitating encounter in institutional settings

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines a personal experience of facilitating encounter groups within person-centered training in some UK’s universities and colleges. It centered around the following questions: Does the person-centered approach (PCA) become sterilized within institutions increasingly run like businesses, where trainees are seen as customers and tutors as functionaries? What are the challenges and rewards of facilitating encounter within these settings? What are the contradictions, if any, within the philosophy of encounter within the PCA?

Des pandas dans un zoo: Faciliter la rencontre en contexte institutionnel.

Cet article présente une expérience personnelle de facilitation de groupes de rencontre au sein de formations centrées sur la personne dans quelques universités et collèges du RoyaumeUni. Il se concentre sur quelques questions. L’Approche centrée sur la personne (ACP) devient-elle stérile dans des institutions de plus en plus gérées comme des entreprises lorsque les étudiants sont considérés comme des consommateurs, et les enseignants tuteurs comme des fonctionnaires ? Quels sont les défis et les avantages propres à la facilitation de la rencontre au sein de ces dispositifs ? Quelles sont les contradictions, pour autant qu’il y en ait, au sein de la philosophie de la rencontre propre à l’ACP ?

Pandas im Zoo: Encounter in institutionellen Settings

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Artikel skizziert eine persönliche Erfahrung zur Facilitation von Encountergruppen in personzentrierten Ausbildungen an einigen britischen Universitäten und Colleges. Er kreist um die folgenden Fragen: Wird der Personzentrierte Ansatz (PCA) in solchen Institutionen steril, Institutionen, die mehr und mehr wie Unternehmen geführt werden, wo man Auszubildende als Kunden und Unterrichtende als Funktionäre sieht? Wo sind die Herausforderungen und der Lohn, innerhalb solcher Settings Encounter durchzuführen? Wo sind die Widersprüche, wenn vorhanden, innerhalb der Philosophie des Encounters im PCA?

Pandas en un zoológico: facilitando el encuentro en entornos institucionales

Resumen: Este documento describe una experiencia personal de facilitar grupos de encuentro dentro de capacitaciones centradas en la persona en algunas universidades y colegios del Reino Unido. Se centró en las siguientes preguntas: ¿El enfoque centrado en la persona (PCA) se esteriliza dentro de las instituciones que funcionan cada vez más como empresas, donde los alumnos son vistos como clientes y tutores como funcionarios? ¿Cuáles son los desafíos y las recompensas de facilitar el encuentro dentro de estos entornos? ¿Cuáles son las contradicciones, si las hay, dentro de la filosofía del encuentro dentro de la PCA?

Pandas no Jardim Zoológico: a facilitação do Encontro em contexto institucional

Este artigo destaca uma experiência pessoal de facilitação de grupos de encontro no âmbito dos centros de formação centrados na pessoa de algumas faculdades e institutos superiores no Reino Unido. Ele gira em torno das seguintes questões: a ACP torna-se estéril em instituições que são cada vez mais geridas como se fossem negócios, onde os alunos são vistos como clientes e os tutores como funcionários? Quais os desafios e as recompensas da facilitação de encontro nestes contextos? Que contradições, se as houver, surgem no seio da filosofia do encontro segundo a ACP?

KEYWORDS:

• Encounter
• person-centered
• universities
• contemporary theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manu Bazzano

Manu Bazzano is a psychotherapist, supervisor, visiting lecturer at Roehampton University. He is an internationally recognized lecturer, author and facilitator. He has a background in philosophy and rock music and is the author and editor of several books, including: Haiku for Lovers (Ed); The Speed of Angels; Zen Poems (Ed); Re-visioning Person-centered Therapy (Ed); Zen and Therapy: Heretical Perspectives; Therapy and the Counter-tradition (co-editor); Nietzsche and Psychotherapy and the forthcoming Re-visioning Existential Therapy. He has been editor of Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, and is associate editor for Self & Society. He studied Eastern contemplative practices since 1980 and in 2004 was ordained in the Soto and Rinzai traditions of Zen Buddhism. www.manubazzano.com.