Co-Counselling International - History

History

Co-Counselling International (CCI) was started in 1974 as breakaway from Re-evaluation Counseling by John Heron who was at the time director of the Human Potential Research Project, University of Surrey UK, and a group of co-counsellors from Hartford (Conn., USA). (Heron, John 1998) (First published by Human Potential Research Project, University of Surrey, Guildford in 1974) The CCI break was ideological and CCI developed in significantly different ways in practice, theory and organisation.

The first gatherings of CCI co-counsellors took place in 1974 in the USA and in Europe and annual international gatherings have taken place in both locations since then. The European gatherings currently rotate between Germany, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands and UK.

John Heron's status within the network has always been as an equal member, although inevitably as a founder member, activist for some 15 years and the person who developed much of the thinking behind CCI there was a certain amount of transference on to him. He now lives in New Zealand and has an involvement with the CCI network there.

There is no imperative in CCI to evangelise and so the network has spread somewhat slowly and haphazardly. In the USA the network existed for many years mainly in and around Connecticut but it is now spreading to other parts of the country. Outside of Europe and the USA the main development has been in New Zealand where there is now an active network and they hold their own series of international gatherings.