Co-counselling was first thought of by the late Harvey Jackins in the 1930s.

Harvey, a staunch Marxist at the time, saw a lot of merit in the work being done by L Ron Hubbard in the pseudo psychology of Dianetics - in particular the idea of working with another person on the thoughts and emotions that held one back from fulfilling one's potential.

He named his method re-evaluation counselling; with the tools at your disposal and working with another who understands them you can re-evaluate your own life, breaking patterned behaviour which is keeping you from your goal.

Harvey set up re-evaluation counselling in the US, particularly in the Eastern states and California, with himself as international contact person¹. It was unashamedly left-wing with workers, racial minorities and women being given a head start in the organisation, but it was also very hierarchical with the Jackins family at the top of the tree.

CCI

One person to react against this was John Heron, at the time, the early '70s, the UK contact person. He felt that the hierarchy conflicted with the anarchic aims of co-counselling itself and so broke away from Harvey. He formed CCI² which is almost anti-cult, having no hierarchy whatsoever. Decisions are taken on an ad hoc basis and although ground rules are in place there is no mechanism for enforcing them. The local contacts are no more than publicity people and the teachers just teach the basics - the learners themselves then take over.

Despite the lack of an organisation. CCI is still going in Britain, Ireland, Hungary, The Netherlands and New Zealand, with a small community in the Eastern United States³.

John Heron is still around but contributes little to CCI which keeps going on the goodwill of its teachers and contact people across the globe. The organisation is in crisis with Harvey recently deceased and his son newly installed as international reference person. More and more people are looking for new ways forward for both organisations.