Brian Thorne is Emeritus Professor of Counselling at the University of East Anglia, Norwich and Co-founder of the Norwich Centre for Personal, Professional and Spiritual Development. He was one of the first practitioners in Britain to be elected a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and is recognised as a leading international representative of the person-centred approach to therapy originated by Dr Carl Rogers and his associates.

Brian first met Carl Rogers in 1978 and remained in close contact with him until the latter′s death in 1987. On a number of occasions he worked with Rogers in various workshops and seminars in different parts of Europe and his book on the approach, co-authored with Dave Mearns, appeared the year after Rogers′ death. This book, ′Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Sage) has now reached its fourth edition and has proved to be the best-selling book not only in the area of coun-selling and psychotherapy but in any discipline published by Sage. Brian has also written or edited numerous other books and his influence has been considerable not only in Britain but wider afield. His fluency in French and German has assured that he has made major contributions to the development of the person-centred approach in continental Europe.

Throughout his long career Brian has remained committed to the practice of Christianity and to his membership of the Anglican Church. It is therefore not surprising that he has been particularly concerned to explore and develop the spiritual dimension of Rogers′ work and its relevance to spiritual evolution in the twenty-first century. In recent years he has turned his attention to the development of the theory and practice of spiritual accompaniment and his recent work at the Norwich Centre has focused on this activity. He was made a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral in 2005.

Pete Sanders worked as a volunteer counsellor for ′Off The Record′ in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the early 1970s whilst a psychology undergraduate. This, after further qualification, set him on his subse-quent career as a counsellor, trainer, supervisor and author. During this time he was the course leader on three BACP recognised courses, was centrally involved in establishing the BACP Trainer Accreditation Scheme, wrote, co-wrote or edited 15 books, and founded PCCS Training and PCCS Books with his wife Maggie. Apart from his continuing interest in the development of theory and practice in person-centred and experiential therapies, he is dedicated to the demedi-calisation of distress. Pete is increasingly of the opinion that mental health services are in urgent need of reformation and is more likely to be found at a Hearing Voices Network conference than a BACP event. He is a Trustee of the Soteria Network, UK.