A Morning with John Weir: A Contemporary Colleague of Carl Rogers

Date: Saturday, January 11, 2025   Time: 8AM to 12PM PST - California Time (11AM to 2PM EST - East Coast)

Who is John Weir? And why are we spending a morning together offering a segment of a video and discussing his work?

John Weir was both a friend and colleague of Carl Rogers. John and his wife Joyce created a workshop called “Self-Differentiation” which was attended by over 10,000 participants during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was just one of many who took Carl Rogers’ work and expanded and built other paths of personal growth and development. During the 1970’s and 80’s after attending the La Jolla Program at CSP, I attended five 10-11 day workshops held by the Weirs. Each was a unique experience in which we participated in activities designed to help us become more aware of ourselves. During these extended sessions of training and experience, John would provide short lecturettes describing theories in personal growth and Joyce would provide unique opportunities to explore our body, our heart, and soul.

Through the course of my career, the Weir’s work has had an increasing and deepening impact on my personal growth, my therapeutic work with clients, as well as my own “Encounter with self” group work on encountering self and others. During our time on this Saturday morning in January, I will share my experiences with John & Joyce, show portions of video of John’s presentations, and extrapolate from my extensive personal trove of notes and audios of my experiences with the Weirs. Some of the participants who attend my “Encounter with self” group will join the session and have an intimate dialogue where we talk in “percept language”—a language that John and Joyce established to help access our inner selves and facilitate personal growth and development. Participants will be invited to both experience and test out parts of the language. Our meeting will be quite informal, giving opportunity for dialogue and questions. If wanted or needed, the morning session can continue the following Saturday.

Pat Howley, Board Member of Center for Studies of the Person, [email protected]