Session 62: Person-centred communities of practice: challenging hegemonic notions of education and learning

Abstract

Communities and groups based on person-centred theoretical principles are often a core part of counselling and psychotherapy training within this modality, yet these groups have not been considered through the communities of practice concept. A community of practice (CoP) can be defined as a group of people who share a common goal or area of interest that they would like to learn how to do better through regular interaction as a group. There has been no exploration undertaken that investigates the impact of these groups when they are run alongside, rather than as part of, the curriculum. This presentation shares staff and students’ experiences of facilitating multiple communities of practice for trainee person-centred/experiential therapists that focused specifically on critical thinking skills. These communities were established with support from the Curriculum Enhancement Student Internship Grant and was attended by students from across three-year groups on an MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice. This presentation will be delivered by students who were interns on the project and the presentation will outline how the community was established on each occasion; share facilitators’ experiences, as well as feedback from group attendees; it will reflect on learning from the community and offer some tentative suggestions for anyone thinking about setting up their own community of practice. This project centres the idea of student-centred learning as a way of challenging hegemonic notions of education and learning within Higher Educational settings. These ideas could be useful for other facilitators or students wishing to set up and facilitate other communities of practice, in counselling and psychotherapy training, or other disciplines.

Person-centred communities of practice: challenging hegemonic notions of education and learning PowerPoint. Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.