"A lot of people care, but they don't understand.
When I come here, they understand."
Pre-Therapy: a person-centred way of offering reconnection in moments of contact loss
A masterclass by Dion Van Werde
During this in-person masterclass, Dion Van Werde presents Pre-Therapy as developed by Garry Prouty (1936-2009).
He will first briefly situate Prouty in the world of Person-Centered Psychotherapy, and summarize Pre-Therapy. He will then demonstrate this way of working with people who are out-of-contact - due to reasons of psychosis, mental illness, onset of dementia or moments of contact loss - in everyday life or in ongoing psychotherapy or counselling.
He will then work interactively, using situations and cases the masterclass participants bring, offering role-play, demonstration and supervision to further explore the philosophy, values and practice of Pre-Therapy.
COURSE INFO
Friday 12 September 2025
10.30am – 5.30pm
Minsteracres Retreat Centre, Northumberland, DH8 9RU
£75 (includes lunch)
Transfers available from local train station. Accommodation available on site.
​
To book your place please complete this online booking form.
If you have any issues with the form please email us at admin@heartwoodcharity.org
​
PLUS: PRE-THERAPY INTERNATIONAL NETWORK MEETING
Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 September 2025​
Heart Wood Cottage, Minsteracres
New members welcome - please see booking form or email admin@heartwoodcharity.org for more info.
​
More About Pre-Therapy
In Pre-Therapy, “contact” and “pre-expressive functioning” are key concepts. They help to define a framework in which all unusual, out-of-contact, so called “symptomatic behavior” (as in psychosis for example) is seen as meaningful and is taken as a starting point for empowering interaction.The phenomenological method of giving “reflections” means to empathically name and describe the present reality, in a very concrete and non-directive way. The way this kind of contact is offered invites the person who is imprisoned in his/her idiosyncratic world and suffering from it, to reconnect again with the surrounding world, to get in touch with his/her feelings and relate to others in a socially understandable way. Coming out of the isolated private reality by increased awareness, means more contact-functioning and vice versa. This results in the step from pre-expressive to expressive functioning. Contact is re-established. Contact proves hereby to be reconnection, being an antidote to existential alienation.
Dion Van Werde
Dion Van Werde is a Belgian clinical Psychologist M.A. and Person Centered / Experiential (PC/E) Psychotherapist now living in Germany. He is the Supervisor of the Flemish Association for PC/E Psychotherapy and Counselling and Member of the editorial board of the World Organization for PC/E Psychotherapy. He is a Certified Trainer and Coordinator of the Pre-Therapy International Network, having been trained by Prouty in Chicago, USA. Van Werde worked for over 30 years in residential psychiatry in Belgium with people suffering psychotic functioning, where he and his team translated Prouty’s Pre-Therapy into a multidisciplinary therapeutic contact-ward milieu. (“Pre-Therapy” a PCCS-book by Prouty, Van Werde & Pörtner). Afterwards, he worked for five years in Germany in the field of occupational rehabilitation for clients with multiple problems. He publishes on Pre-Therapy (www.pre-therapy.com/references), trains and supervises practitioners and teams, and gives lectures and workshops in four languages.