... SPACES THAT EMERGED
Experiences that unfolded, talks we held, and connections we felt are shared here. New videos will be released in the middle of every month.
Yana Gololob, Master of Psychology
What does it mean to "choose life" in times of war?
Therapy in the face of atrocity isn't about rushing to put the pieces back together. It’s about holding space for fragmentation - not aiming at integrating it, but simply allowing it to exist and understand it together.
Yana invites us to explore maintaining vitality and staying fiercely human despite dehumanizing circumstances. As practitioners and individuals, we can never forget the context both the therapist and the client live in.
"Life is always bigger."
Prof. Dr. Sylvester
Ntomchukwu Madu
Sylvester enriches our world by sharing how expectations and cultural values shape mental health, wellbeing, therapy, and social relationships.
Haven’t heard of the "Japa syndrome" before? To better connect with diverse global experiences, get to know Sylvester. Through his life and work, he embodies what he calls his "actualizing tendency." As he puts it: “I have to make a meaningful contribution to the culture I grew up in. I need to ensure that—regardless of the conditions of worth people place on me—I stay in touch with my ambitions, ideas, and feelings. I still want to be myself.”
We encourage you to reach out to Sylvester to brainstorm and collaborate. He warmly welcomes all ideas and donations to his dream - a rehabilitation clinic.
Mag. Astrid Pfneisl
Follow our conversation about how ‘the personal is the most political’ and how this shows in Astrid’s work, life, and research. How do clients change, feel more alive and how does this affect us as therapists?
How does talking about sexuality and alternative relationship models influence the life of a therapist?
From feeling different to being oneself and enriching the therapeutic and any other relationship with the capacity to know oneself.
She encourages us and is a role model for making visible how differentiated narratives about being human can enrich our society.
Dr. Gillian Proctor
About interconnectedness, decolonization, humility and groups as breeding ground for our ethics.
Lore Korbei, MSc
About the balance between looking away and strengthening your back through resonance and vulnerabilty.
Lore will be participating in this year's ÖGWG-week, themed 'inwards – onwards – outwards', taking place from October 1 to 4, 2026. Visit www.gendlin2026.at for more info!
Martín Alejandro Lange
Martin impresses us with his trust in being human, being counter und his ways to maintain dialogue and conflict, to foster understanding and connectedness. Openness and vulnerability, love as an expression of a person-centered approach, and the importance of the body and self-care carry him and us through this inspiring, engaging conversation. Martin sums it up with this quote from Rogers in "A Way of Being":
"I feel enriched when I can truly prize or care for or love another person and when I can let that feeling flow out to that person. Like many others, I use to fear being trapped by letting my feelings show. 'If I care for him, he can control me', 'If I love her, I am trying to control her.' I think that I have moved a long way toward being less fearful in this respect. Like my clients, I too have slowly learned that tender, positive feelings are not dangerous either to give or to receive."
Prof. emerit. Arthur C. Bohart
LISTEN TO CONNECT and CONNECT TO LISTEN.
There were some thoughts we exchanged through e-mail after our conversation that we want to share with you. Art wrote: "It makes me think of Gendlin's work in expanding the approach with his Changes organization in Chicago many years ago, a drop-in clinic where people met in groups and also worked in pairs with one another to help and support one another. Even when there were therapists there, no one acted in the privileged role of therapist. Everyone was trained in empathic listening skills and took turns listening to one another, no matter what their diagnosis or status. Anyone could drop in and become part of the group. That always seemed to me revolutionary and a great idea. Gendlin said in an article way back then that in the future everyone would have a group to belong to, and a one-to-one relationship with another person who knew how to listen (not necessarily a therapist). Wish I had remembered that. That would have given me a basis for better answering your initial questions. Oh well. Gendlin's ideas are ideas for expanding the approach, and that could lead to expansion into politics as well."
Mag. Walter Kabelka
On the real test of the person-centered approach in society and appreciating being different as a special challenge.
Dr. Gerhard Stumm
After recognizing the core skills of PCE, a stance of 'acting anyway' arises between inner conviction and external limitation. Gerhard quotes Rogers and encourages us to 'write our own book'.
Dr. Mick Cooper
Accompany us while travelling from fear to openness and from division to dialogical connectedness. As a synergy of empowerment and a true win-win solution, encountering allows us to find the inner courage within our community to utilize PCE for peacebuilding.