What is Co-Counseling?
Co-counseling is a grassroots method of personal change based on reciprocal peer counselling. Time is shared equally and the essential requirement of the person taking their turn in the role of counsellor is to do their best to listen and give their full attention to the other person. Unlike conventional therapy, co-counseling operates on the principle of mutual aid: participants alternate roles, with each person serving both as counselor and client in structured sessions. The practice rests on the belief that emotional distress can be released through processes such as crying, laughing, trembling, and talking, allowing individuals to gain clarity and move beyond conditioned patterns of behavior.
Co-counseling differs fundamentally from professional psychotherapy. Many co-counsellors take the view, often quite strongly, that co-counselling is not psychotherapy. It is non-hierarchical, egalitarian, and accessible to anyone willing to learn the core techniques—typically taught in a 40-hour foundational course. The essential framework is simple: one person talks while the other listens without interruption, interpretation, or advice. Sessions are confidential, typically lasting one to two hours, with time divided equally between the two participants.
Origins & Lineage
In 1950, Harvey Jackins (who at times in his life was a shipyard worker, building maintenance worker, and labor organizer) agreed to help prevent an acquaintance (M.) from being committed to a mental hospital. During the next few months, Jackins spent time listening to M., mostly without interruption other than to urge him to continue talking. He found that M. would cry, laugh, and shake for hours at a time as he reviewed difficult incidents in his life. M. steadily progressed from a non-functioning, emotionally debilitated state to recovery beyond his former functioning.
In the early 1950s, Jackins became acquainted with L. Ron Hubbard’s theory of Dianetics. In 1952 Jackins formed Personal Counselors Inc. to “engage in, conduct and teach the art and science of Dianetics.” While practicing Dianetics, he developed the concepts of “re-evaluation” and “discharge” and came to believe that they could be encouraged by the “exchange of aware attention” in the “co-counseling process”. In these very early years, Harvey associated with L. Ron Hubbard and others interested in “human growth.” But because of differences in their thinking, collaboration became unworkable, and Harvey Jackins ended their association in the early 1950s.
The process began to be called Co-Counseling because it worked well for two people to exchange time listening to each other. Eventually Harvey named the process of Co-Counseling “Re-evaluation Counseling” (RC), because using this listening process enabled people to have new thoughts after discharge. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jackins systematized his views and in the 1960s and 1970s took RC from Seattle, where he first practised it, to the rest of the US and to Europe. It was led by Harvey Jackins until his death in 1999. It is currently led by his son Tim Jackins.
Jackins called the method Re-evaluation Counselling, and subsumed the peer process of reciprocal counselling - in which two people take turns as client and counsellor - within an authoritarian cult. In 1974, John Heron and Dency Sargent founded the distinct Co-counselling International (CCI) to affirm the peer principle in mental health liberated from authoritarian constraints. Today, co-counseling exists in multiple independent streams: the centralized Re-evaluation Counseling Communities and the decentralized Co-Counseling International network.
How It’s Practiced
In a typical co-counseling session, two trained participants meet for a set period—often 60 to 120 minutes—and divide the time equally. The client and counsellor roles are exchanged in alternate sessions, with the person who for the moment is ‘client’ in charge. The ‘counsellor’ learns to give undivided attention and to refrain from interpretations, advice-giving or sharing personal experiences.
The client may begin by identifying a current issue, recalling a difficult memory, or simply allowing whatever arises to emerge. The essentials: reciprocal turn-taking, the celebration of strengths - or self-affirmation - and the contacting and releasing of stored up feelings - known as discharge in co-counselling vocabulary. Emotional discharge can take many forms: tears, laughter, trembling, sweating, yawning, or non-repetitive storytelling. The counselor’s role is to remain present, attentive, and non-reactive—offering neither solutions nor sympathy, but a safe container for the client’s process.
Sessions are peer-to-peer and non-professional. Both participants have typically completed a fundamentals training course, which introduces the theory of distress patterns, the process of discharge, and guidelines for effective listening. There are no fees exchanged between co-counselors; the relationship is reciprocal and egalitarian.
Co-Counseling Today
Co-counseling is practiced worldwide through two primary streams. The Re-evaluation Counseling Communities, headquartered in Shoreline, Washington, maintain a structured organizational system with appointed leaders and published guidelines. CCI now embraces independent peer organizations in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA. Local networks of co-counsellors within CCI are independent, self-governing peer organizations, exploring ways of being effective social structures while avoiding all forms of authoritarian control.
Co-counseling has influenced broader discourse in peer support and mutual aid. The concepts of emotional discharge and internalized oppression have permeated progressive activist communities, trauma-informed peer support networks, and grassroots mental health movements. Many people encounter co-counseling through social justice organizations, intentional communities, or word-of-mouth within activist circles. Workshops and fundamentals classes are offered periodically in many cities, typically as weekend intensives or weekly sessions over several months.
Common Misconceptions
Co-counseling is not therapy. It does not involve licensed mental health professionals, diagnostic frameworks, or clinical oversight. While it can be therapeutic in effect, it operates outside the norms and regulations of psychotherapy and should not be considered a substitute for professional mental health treatment, especially for individuals experiencing severe psychiatric distress or crisis.
Co-counseling is not advice-giving or problem-solving. The counselor does not suggest solutions, interpret the client’s experience, or share their own stories. The method assumes that the client possesses innate intelligence and that emotional discharge itself, not external intervention, leads to insight and change.
Co-counseling is not a one-size-fits-all practice. The original Re-evaluation Counseling organization has been critiqued for centralized authority and rigid adherence to doctrine. Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) has faced allegations of exhibiting cult-like characteristics, primarily due to its centralized authority structure and mechanisms for controlling member behavior and thought. Critics, including former members and researchers, point to founder Harvey Jackins’ role as the unchallenged “International Reference Person,” who held absolute power to appoint or remove leaders, dissolve communities, and accredit teachers, fostering dependency and idealization of his leadership. Other co-counseling networks emphasize decentralization, autonomy, and diversity of practice.
How to Begin
The entry point to co-counseling is typically a fundamentals class, a 40-hour course that introduces the core theory and practice. A 40-hour training in the theory and practice of co-counselling puts participants on the road to becoming skilled clients. These courses are offered by both Re-evaluation Counseling Communities and Co-Counseling International chapters, as well as by independent teachers.
Prospective co-counselors should research the lineage and organizational affiliation of any training they consider. Those seeking a peer-based, non-hierarchical approach may gravitate toward CCI or independent networks; those comfortable with structure and established guidelines may find Re-evaluation Counseling a better fit. Reading foundational texts—such as Harvey Jackins’ The Human Side of Human Beings (1965) or John Heron’s writings on co-counseling—can provide clarity before committing to training.
After completing a fundamentals course, participants typically connect with local co-counseling communities, arrange regular sessions with co-counseling partners, and continue to refine their skills through practice, peer feedback, and occasional advanced workshops.