The Organisation was established and continues to design its activities in order to provide opportunities for personal development.

The Living Options team identified five areas that were crucial to the integration of disabled people into society. The need for opportunities for personal development was seen as of prime importance but identified as the area which is most frequently neglected in service provision aimed at disabled people. This is not to say that disabled people are marked out as different from others - these needs are present in all of us but frequently disabled people need more time to explore options and to define their role within society.

A focus on personal development dictates a person-centred approach, one which stresses individual learning styles and the inappropriateness of standardised de-personalised teaching or coaching. In addition the prerequisite for learning is the recognition of skills and aptitudes already developed by the individual, perhaps in other fields, which can be recognised and appropriated to facilitate further achievement. Fundamentally, the individual maintains control over their own progress and learning.

In extensive work at the Tavistock Institute the need for counselling for many disabled people, and work on psychological adjustment to impairment has been elaborated.

The Kingsley Centre was established with personal development as a prime aim in mind, and eschewing the pressures to recruit teaching or social work qualified staff a decision was made to recruit trained counsellors to the work with the group of disabled participants.

The methodologies used stem from the fields of counselling and psychotherapy, from advanced management techniques and practical interpersonal skills training as developed by practitioners in the field of human motivation.

We aspire to follow best practice in personnel administration which by definition stresses the value of the individual and the therapeutic nature of healthy relationships.

Through working on our relationships with people we are helped toward a greater understanding of ourselves, our potential and our limitations.

Such a methodology is especially suited to the field of disability as the person-centred approach can offer an individual-based service with the needs of the person as paramount. Together with choice comes the issue of responsibility and participants will frequently be asked to investigate the consequences of their decisions. This in turn leads to a greatly increased sense of belonging to the community and affords opportunities for successful integration with those around us.  

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