15 March 2010
Posted in CCI history

the roots

One of the major political and cultural trends of the twentieth century was emancipation - the expansion of basic human rights, the freedom to be self-determining. For example, women gained the vote, former colonies became self-governing, there was a great levelling of class structures, we experienced women's liberation, the men's movement.

One of the major political and cultural trends of the twentieth century was emancipation - the expansion of basic human rights, the freedom to be self-determining. For example, women gained the vote, former colonies became self-governing, there was a great levelling of class structures, we experienced women's liberation, the men's movement. These were all twentieth century phenomena - and the process has not ended yet. CCI co-counselling is also a form of emancipation. Many of the goals and guiding principles are the same: equality, self responsibility, respect for individual differences, the fulfilment of human potential, and so forth. There are also some precursors to the CCI co-counselling method in the growth of psychology over the twentieth century.
For example there was a Hungarian psychologist and friend of Freud, Sandor Ferenczi (1873-1933)1 who, in 1932 reported a way of working with his clients in equality. Each would take turns to relate their 'life story' - the psychologist and the client sharing and changing roles. Then, in the middle of the century, the Second World War intervened, and in 1945 the world was left in great chaos and confusion.

the restoration

The world wide need for a listening ear and caring attention must have been enormous after 1945. Given the scale of devastation and destruction in Europe and the Pacific, there must have been an unbelievable communal need for emotional healing, to disgorge the pain, to be heard - even if there were few words able to express the horror. So it is all the more astonishing to appreciate the big silence that almost everybody adopted at that time! Did they cope by shutting it all out, somehow choosing to ignore what was going on inside? Perhaps it was just all too big to deal with?
In the 1950s the emphasis was on rebuilding - homes, roads, jobs, nations. The restoration of personal lives was largely seen in these outward terms. The interest in emotional health seemed to have to wait until the next generation, those born after the war, who came of age in the 1960s. The 60s was a time of social ferment with all kinds of new ideas rising to the fore - in politics, in education (particularly among university students), in labour unions. It was a time of rebellion against political arrogance and rigid social structures. There arose an emphasis on individual self-expression, the 'me generation' - this was the time of the sexual revolution. It was the beginning of recognising and valuing emotional discharge.
This era saw the advent of humanistic psychology with its more optimistic view of the human condition and its emphasis on what makes humans unique. Abraham Maslow, one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology, asked: 'Where are the researches on unselfishness? Lack of envy? Will power? Strength of character? Optimism? Friendliness? Realism? Self-transcendence? Boldness, courage? Lack of jealousy? Sincerity? Patience? Loyalty? Reliability? Responsibility?'²
Maslow's questions were in reaction to the earlier prevailing behavioural psychology which deplored 'unobservable' inner mental processes and advocated instead the study of outward behaviour. Thus humanistic psychology broadened the whole subject matter of interest to psychologists: 'Why is there so much neglect of the fact that leadership in democracies is very often sought for the opportunity of service rather then to have power over other people?' ³
The historical and cultural climate in which CCI co-counselling has its roots continues to evolve. The 'Truth & Reconciliation' phenomenon, such as seen after the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, is in marked contrast to the lack of opportunity for emotional discharge after WWII. Nowadays, de-briefings and offers of counselling support are expected official responses after larger civic emergencies or traumatic events. Yet even so, it is still 'not done' to openly discharge traumatic experiences and emotions in public! It seems our society still has some way to go toward total freedom and acceptance of emotional expression.

the forerunner

The immediate forerunner of CCI co-counselling was an American self-help growth movement known as Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), which spread to Europe in the early seventies. In contrast to CCI Co-counselling, RC is a highly hierarchical organisation. It favours a directive approach in sessions, rather than self-responsibility - the counsellor is in charge and responsible for the session of the client. There is no room for a more intuitive or personal approach. The inventor and director of Re-evaluation Counselling was Harvey Jackins (1916-1999), whose ideas were inspired by Ron Hubbard's 'Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health'.⁴
CCI co-counselling grew out of Re-evaluation Counselling, but with a much keener emphasis on autonomy and self-direction. In 1974 John Heron left RC and began to teach CCI co-counselling. John had been RC's European representative. He was a psychologist and lecturer at the University of Surrey, UK, and was the founder and director of the Human Potential Research Project at that university, 'the first publicly funded 'growth centre' working on humanistic lines in Europe'.⁵
At the same time, two North Americans, Dency and Tom Sargent (1926 - 2007) also left RC, and these three people - John Heron, Dency Sargent and Tom Sargent - were the pioneers of what came to be called Co-Counselling International, or CCI.

¹ Jeffrey Mason, Against Therapy, HarperCollins 1993, ISBN 0 00 637387 9
² A.H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality, Harper and Row 1079, Library of Congress 76-113490; page 292
³ ibid, page 290.
⁴ Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, publ. by The Church of Scientology of California, (1950). ISBN 0-441-14735-6.
⁵ James Nichol, Close Encounters with Radical Humanism, A Co-operative Enquiry into Co-counselling as a Personal Development Method, (August 1993). University of London, dissertation for MSc (Health Education).

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