John Rowan (psychologist)

John Rowan (31 March 1925 – 26 May 2018) was an English author, counsellor, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor, known for being one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology and integrative psychotherapy.^[1] He worked in exploring transpersonal psychology, and wrote about the concept of subpersonality.^[2][3][4]

Rowan was a qualified individual and group psychotherapist (UKAHPP and UKCP), a Chartered counseling psychologist (BPS) and was an accredited counsellor (BACP). He worked in private practice in London.^[5]

He described his therapeutic approach as Humanistic, Existential, Authentic, Relational and Transpersonal.^[6] He was an exponent of the idea of the dialogical self, a later development of subpersonalities theory. ^[6]

Early life

Rowan was born in Wiltshire at a hospital near Ford.^[7] He started his life at the Old Sarum Airfield, Salisbury ^[1] where his father was a squadron leader in the British Royal Air Force. ^[8] Consequently, his childhood was spent in a number of different air force stations. Whilst the family was in Cairo, his brother was born in a taxi. ^[1]

Career

When he reached the age of eighteen in 1943 Rowan was called up to serve in the British Army.^[8] Part of his service during the Second World War was in India, where he gained formative experiences.^[1][9]

Rowan spent several years working in different roles including encyclopedia sales, teaching, telecommunications, accountancy, research, and other office-based roles.^[8]

In 1950 he became involved in the work of the Walsby Association on systematic ideology. He lived and worked with Harold Walsby in 1950, and in 1951 and joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain in order to learn the rudiments of Marxism. He became the editor of the SPGB's internal journal, Forum^[10] but left the Party over the Turner Controversy.^[11]

Following gaining a degree Rowan built a career in market research. He held the position of Managing Director at the Bureau of Commercial Research. ^[8]

In 1969 he began his group work by co-leading workshops in a pioneering group called B Now^[8][12] which ran from his home in Finchley, north London.^[13] In the same year Rowan joined the Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP), which he would eventually chair.^[14] During 1971 he co-led groups at Centre 42^[15] in Kensington, and then later in 1972 at the Kaleidoscope Centre in Swiss Cottage.^[12]

In 1975 he studied co-counselling, and practiced this method for five years. He later became a teacher of the Barefoot Psychoanalyst^[16] model.^[12]

In 1976 he published Ordinary Ecstasy.^[17] This work is a summary and guide to all the branches of Humanistic psychology. He also helped to produce the radical men's magazine Achilles Heel.^[18]

In 1978 he helped to found, with Giora Doron, the Hampstead-based Institute of Psychotherapy and Social Studies.^[19]

During 1978 Rowan became interested in Primal Integration, training with this movement's founder Bill Swartley.^[12] Rowan then offered this therapy as part of his practice.

In 1980 Rowan helped to found the Association for Humanistic Psychology Practitioners, later to be known as the UK Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners.^[20]

In 1989 Rowan co-founded the Serpent Institute with Jocelyn Chaplin.^[13][21][12] Both taught humanistic and psychodynamic theories and practices.

On the closure of this institute four years later, he joined the Minster Centre,^[22] where he worked for ten years. Whilst there he trained psychotherapists, lead seminars, experiential training groups and supervision groups. He left the Centre in 2004, and worked in private practice, as well as provided master classes and workshops.^[12]

Education

During childhood, Rowan went to a number of different schools as a consequence of his father's career in the British Royal Air Force. ^[6] One such was King's School, Chester, where he was in the class of 1939. ^[23]

In the 1950s Rowan gained a London University diploma in sociology, and was awarded a joint honours degree in Philosophy and Psychology from Birkbeck College. ^[8]

From 1970-79 Rowan studied with a variety of practitioners including John Adams, James Elliott, Bernard Gunther, Paul Lowe, Elizabeth Mintz, Al and Diane Pesso, John Pierrakos, Will Schutz, Julian Silverman, Jay Stattman, and Denny Yuson. ^[12]

In 2006 he was awarded a Ph.D in Transpersonal Psychology from Middlesex University. ^[24]

Honours

John Rowan was a Fellow of the British Psychological Society ^[25] (member of the Psychotherapy Section, the Counselling Psychology Division, the Transpersonal Psychology Section, and the Consciousness and Experience Section). He was also a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. ^[25] As a founding member of the UK Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners, ^[25] he was made an Honorary Life Member. ^[26] He was an Honorary Fellow of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy ^[25] and was a past member of its governing board, representing the Humanistic and Integrative Section.

Personal life

Rowan and his wife Sue lived in North Chingford, London. He had four children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage that ended in divorce in 1978. ^{[1] [12]}

Publications

References and notes

• The George Walford International Essay Prize website has a brief biography.
• DAP (June 2004). "Getting Splinters". Socialist Standard. Socialist Party of Great Britain. 100 (1198): 38–41. ISSN 0037-8259.