We are a group of people who have attended previous ADPCA (Association for the Development of the Person-Centred Approach) conferences/encounter spaces in the UK and the United States.

We value the way of organising represented by ADPCA. The new organisation ADPCA UK exists solely to organise such events and the organisers for each event rotate among interested individuals to avoid any notion of leadership or control.

ADPCA was founded in the 1980s and has organised a conference each year. The organisation's main annual conference including the AGM took place in Nottingham UK in 2014. The vast majority of ADPCA conferences are held in the US.

After the Nottingham 2014 conference, a group of attendees organised an ADPCA-style conference again in Nottingham in 2016 which was supported by ADPCA as a satellite event. The aim was to provide an encounter space and two of the organisers continued under the auspices of their own organisation, Encounter Events.

ADPCA UK was founded in 2017 with our first conference held in Leeds in July 2018. Our second conference in 2019 was held just outside Gloucester. Our third conference was in February 2023 and the next is scheduled for June 2025

ADPCA UK is an organisation set up to organise conference events. We prioritise the philosophy of a community self-organising conference, where we the organisers aim to put all practicalities in place (meal times, rooms booked etc) to enable the participants to use the time and space however they choose.

The aim is to rotate members of the organising group for each conference but to keep the same business account, website and email address that we have set up for that purpose.

We also set a theme and pre-conference workshop with the aim of these being inspiring and attractive for participants to attend (and to make it easier for participants to apply for study leave for CPD) but we do not intend the theme to restrict participants’ choices at the event. This requires time as a whole conference community to discuss and decide how we use the time.

It can be an unpredictable process, perhaps exciting and scary, but a unique opportunity to take part in what we hope will be a truly democratic process, where all voices and opinions are heard and valued in accord with the philosophy of the PCA.

adpcauk@gmail.com