Obituary: Dr John Rowan

Dr. John Rowan

It was with sadness that I heard of the death of Dr. John Rowan on 26th May 2018, at the age of 93.

John was a great friend of many of us in IAHIP, being known as one of the pioneers of Humanistic Psychology and Integrative Psychotherapy to whom we owe a great deal. He was a counsellor, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor and held a private practice in London. He worked exploring Transpersonal Psychology and, amongst his many areas of research, he studied the concept of Subpersonality.

Much of his work was based on his personal experience and at the age of 81 he was successful in acquiring his PhD in order to continue lecturing in America.

Having written about 20 books which have been referenced on training courses worldwide, countless students have studied his work. He was always ahead of the field in his ideas, beliefs and concepts.

I first met John in 1984 at an Association for Humanistic Psychology Conference in Guildford. We became friends and for the past 34 years he has been a Patron of Amethyst with genuine interest in all that we were doing.

In April 2013, when he was 88, I had the great privilege of interviewing John for Inside Out (https://iahip.org/inside-out/issue-70-summer-2013/dr-john-rowan-in-conversation-with-shirley-ward). He had already written articles for our publication. In this conversation his involvement with IAHIP is outlined. He loved receiving his copy of Inside Out – and if he didn’t receive it he was soon on to me by email to get it sent! He liked to keep up with what was going on in Ireland.

He will be sadly missed. Our condolences are sent to his wife Sue.

May he rest in peace.

Shirley Ward
30 May 2018