Drawing the Ideal Self (Personal Construct Psychology - PCP)

Heather Moran
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  • Mental Health
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Learn about Personal Construct Psychology (PCP)and how to use it in your work with Heather Moran, educational and clinical psychologist. Heather has worked with young people and professionals in a variety of roles over the past 40 years and has developed techniques for use in therapy, counselling and coaching sessions. She is trying to bring PCP to people who might not have come across it before, as well as to support the development of those who want to hone their skills with children, young people and adults. You can find out more about her work at drawingtheidealself.co.uk.

  1. May 30

    Siblings' influence on construing of self - a prompt from Dalton Ep.64

    This episode is a look at some useful reminders in parts of a conference paper by Peggy Dalton. Unfortunately, Peggy died in 2012 but I was lucky enough to attend some of her PCP workshops. I always left them thinking hard about my work and about PCP theory.  In case you would like to know more about Peggy, and her role in the world of PCP, there is a link to a thoughtful obituary by Mary Frances here: https://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp12/frances-dalton12.pdf.Peggy reminds us of the importance of exploring the construing of siblings, and the construing of self though the eyes of siblings. This applies to all of us with siblings, so you can listen with thoughts about how your siblings construing has influenced you, as well as thinking about the people you work with. The PEG is probably the best technique to explore this and you can find the instructions on my website here https://drawingtheidealself.co.uk/resources.I would also recommend Peggy’s book A Psychology for Living, Personal Construct Theory for Professionals and Clients (2005) as a great introduction to PCP.This paper was presented in 1992 so the names she gives to the children mentioned seem quite old fashioned and are not representative of today's population.  Reference:Dalton, P. (1994). My sister, my brother, myself - sibling factors in the child’s construing of self. in European Perspectives in Personal Construct Psychology. Selected Papers from the Inaugural Conference of the EPCA 1992

    25 min

  2. Apr 29

    Rowe’s construction of depression as a prison. Ep.63

    Dorothy Rowe is probably somewhere at the top of a list of popular psychology writers. This chapter was written a long time ago but it provides an introduction to her later work. Although she does not explicitly reference Kelly in this work, Rowe was a PCP therapist who wrote in a style that enabled people to understand her work easily. Reference: Rowe, D. (1985). Depression is a Prison. In Epting, F. & Landfield, A.W. Anticipating Personal Construct Psychology. Uni. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.

    18 min

  3. Mar 30

    Children behave in particular ways because it makes sense to them - Butler & Green's reminder. Ep.62

    This episode is a great reminder of why we should always explore young people's own views of when we try to understand their problems. Butler and Green explain the value of taking a PCP approach to working with young people but their reasoning and the application of theory applies equally well to adults. Note that they use the term PCT here i.e. Personal Construct Therapy. Reference: Butler, R.J. & Green, D. 2007). The Child Within. Taking the Young Person's Perspective by Applying Personal Construct Psychology. 2nd Ed.

    15 min

  4. Feb 28

    PCP Corollaries: a lovely summary by Button Ep.61

    Eric Button wrote a summary of Kelly's corollaries in a very accessible way. This was taken from a paper in Personal Construct Theory and Mental Health, (1985). Don't think that because it was a long time ago that it won't be just as useful now! This should be particularly useful for anyone studying PCP theory. Reference: Button, E. (1985) Personal Construct Theory: The Concepts. In Button, E. (Ed.) Personal Construct Theory and Mental Health. Croom Helm. (Now out of print but you might find it second hand.)

    6 min

  5. Jan 30

    The Lying Game: A PCP technique to explore the wish to change Ep.60

    The Lying Game is a PCP technique developed by J.C. Bright. It is a way of exploring a person's desire for change through inviting them to tell lies about themselves. It could be particularly useful for work with young people. This episode talks through the instructions for the technique. The instructions are not published anywhere other than in The PCP Pocketbook of PCP Techniques. This low cost reference book could also be useful for anyone thinking of carrying out research and wants to know what they could use to explore a person’s construing. References Cummins and Moran (2023). The PCP Pocketbook of PCP Techniques. Amazon https://amzn.eu/d/40nfBf3 The Traitors UK https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0db9b2t https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/psychology-behind-traitors https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/traitors-cultural-and-psychological-phenomenon

    20 min

  6. 12/29/2025

    How to develop hope using a PCP approach. Ep.59

    Hope has been found to be the key to wellbeing and with impacts physical and psychological health. Research has found that it is measurable through questionnaires (links below) and that people can learn to be hopeful. This episode references the research findings of Prof. Rick Snyder, who specialised in Positive Psychology, and Prof. Chan Hellman, Founding Director of the Hope Research Center. These are useful videos to learn more about hope: Podcast: Why we need hope, with Chan Hellman, PhD, and Jacqueline Mattis, PhD | Speaking of Psychology https://youtu.be/g5v8e3ZK2Xw?si=FrsPae6EeVKADE6X TED talk: Chan Hellman: The Science and Power of Hope https://www.ted.com/talks/chan_hellman_the_science_and_power_of_hope?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare And a straightforward explanation as a summary Hope Theory - Make Your Life Better: https://youtu.be/ZuHZhi1B4T4?si=fX5nWpTEsM0rJe8p Adult Hope Scale https://backend.fetzer.org/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdf/selfmeasures/PURPOSE_MEANING-AdultHopeScale.pdf Child Hope Scale https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-11/hopescale_hys.pdf

    29 min

  7. 11/30/2025

    The meaning of acceptance in PCP. Ep.58

    This month, we are going to look at what Kelly meant by ‘accepting' our client. He was focussed on accepting our client’s constructions, and we need to able to do that at the same time as holding our own professional constructions of the client's construing. During this episode I refer to Dr. Ross Green, author of The Explosive Child. He shares his approach and resources on his website for parents/carers and professionals: https://livesinthebalance.org/ . His resources for the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions are free: https://livesinthebalance.org/cps-materials-paperwork/

    19 min

  8. 10/31/2025

    What are Kelly’s Corollaries?

    This episode is a summary of the corollaries. Knowing about them is essential if you are trying to understand the theory of Personal Construct Psychology. A corollary is an implication of a theory, so if the Fundamental Postulate is accepted this means that people DO anticipate events, these 11 corollaries follow on from this. They are the detail of the theory. You might find that this episode is rather dry but in terms of completeness, any person can get the basics of PCP by listening to all the episodes of this podcast. References Kelly (1963) A Theory of Personality. The Psychology of Personal Constructs. Cummins & Moran (2022). A Foundation Course in Personal Construct Psychology: The Coventry Course handbook (Coventry Constructivist Centre Publications on Personal Construct Psychology). Kelly, G.A. (1955 and 1991) The Psychology of Personal Constructs.

    36 min
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About

Learn about Personal Construct Psychology (PCP)and how to use it in your work with Heather Moran, educational and clinical psychologist. Heather has worked with young people and professionals in a variety of roles over the past 40 years and has developed techniques for use in therapy, counselling and coaching sessions. She is trying to bring PCP to people who might not have come across it before, as well as to support the development of those who want to hone their skills with children, young people and adults. You can find out more about her work at drawingtheidealself.co.uk.

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