Nineteen-eighty was a significant year in my life. I had just broken up with my partner. I was on the dole. My supervisor had withdrawn from training. In the early summer however, I met Freda Sharpe at a social work training where we were putting on a week's training. She invited me to come for an interview at the Open Centre of which she was a member. In the next two months, three important formative events took place:
I signed on with Alice Stevenson as my supervisor, which was the start of a most fruitful professional relationship. I was invited to join the staff team involved with counselling courses at Roehampton Institute. And I joined the Open Centre.
This was a big opening for me - to be involved with a group of highly skilled and experienced humanistic practitioners from such a wide range of disciplines. Peter Payne and Kate Wylie, the founders, who left shortly after to go back to the States; Freda Sharpe (Gestalt), Richard Mowbray (Primal Integration & Bodywork), Eva Coombe (Encounter), Carole Shaw (Dance Therapy) and Petra Griffiths (Massage & Bodywork). At the same time Alistair Reid (Tai-Do) and Simona Panetta (Bio-energy & Psychosynthesis) were joining with me. A rich combination to say the least. The meetings were dynamic and nourishing. After the first two terms, I had made a loss and was tempted to give up, but I decided to stick at it for another year. By then, I was beginning to do well with a programme of three on-going groups, one and two day monthly workshops and a few individual clients. This pattern of work continued for ten years. In addition, I was running a certificate course in counselling at Whitelands College. Strange looking back, to remember that with all the work I was involved in, I was only just breaking even financially. By the early nineties, my work at college was increasing. By then, I was running three courses and planning an MA in humanistic counselling. And so, reluctantly, I began to cut back on my therapy work at the Open Centre and by 1995 I had stopped running two-day weekend workshops and transferred a lot of my work to my home to cut down the travelling time. For the past five years I have not been working in the Open Centre's premises, but nevertheless I have maintained my membership and involvement with all that the enterprise of the Open Centre embodies.
There is no doubt that the Open Centre was the making of me as a therapist. It has been a place of challenge and support. More than anything, I have valued the variety of approaches which has kept me from thinking I had all the answers. The building that the Open Centre has been housed in was for years under constant change of management and this took up a lot of our time negotiating our lease with the landlords. It was, however, a time of consolidation. For a long period of time, we had regular changes of membership. Nearly 20 members had come and gone since I joined. Now for once, we had a group who had been around for a long time.
There are a number of features of my time at the Open Centre which stand out. The ability to experiment, the fights we had about all sorts of things and yet remained friends and some of the hilarious goings on with room-bookers. For 15 years I was in charge of outside room bookings and there were odd times when we had a double booking. One I shall never forget was seeing two groups changing rooms half naked! Couldn't happen now! I have been involved with many professional groups in my life from a parish team ministry, a youth club, a training group, and an education team but never one that has involved so much energy and growth.
I am leaving the Open Centre for no good reason. Just because after 22 years, I think it's time to change. As I get older, I know I do not have the same amount of energy and space and want to reduce the number of commitments in my life so that as I move through the latter stage of my life I can have the time to do more of the things I enjoy outside my work - playing tennis, the piano, learning Italian and having more time with my friends. I will still be working with clients individually and in groups. In the Spring of next year, my new book "Humanistic Approaches to Psychotherapy" will be published which draws on much that I have learned at the Open Centre.
I reflect on the pride I had when I first appeared in the Autumn Brochure 1980 in which the following introduction was written: "What we offer is a chance to look deeply and realistically at all aspects of yourself - your body, feelings and mind; your relationships; your assumptions about life". I remember thinking that's for me. And I feel that is what the Open Centre has given me the opportunity to do. Thank you all - members and clients - for all you have given me. I hope you have gained something as precious for yourself from me.
Eric Whitton (2003)
[Eric joined the Open Centre in 1980 and was one of the longest serving members of the Open Centre until leaving in 2003. He then carried on his practice in Transactional Analysis independently until his death in 2007. An excerpt from his book: "What is Transactional Analysis?" can be read here. Eric's books on Transactional Analysis and Humanistic Psychology are available from booksellers.]
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