2026 Professional Counsellors Network

The European Professional Counsellors Network is for professional counsellors and professional counsellors in training. This Network is a unique gathering of people with a Kingdom calling to soul care—specifically the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of others. Our theoretical training may include cognitive, behavioral, attachment, relational, or family systems. It may be within Christian, non-Christian, or even anti-Christian contexts, whether in academic, clinical, residential, or social systems settings.

The programme will feature lectures, small group discussions, and case studies. Each lecture will be followed by a time of questions and answers. Case studies will also offer break-out groups to provide a more participatory style of learning. Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.

2025 Network Theme - Knowing God, Self, and Others Better: A Christian Approach to Assessment

The Gospel calls us to love God and our neighbor as our ourself, based on Christ’s redemption. But we can’t love what we don’t know. So, Christians have historically paired knowing with loving. Contemporary psychology has advanced the quest to know ourselves with its attempts to assess features of the human soul like personality, intelligence, and psychological disorders through measurement. However, the most important features of human life are beyond measure, like integrity, spiritual growth, glory, and love. Consequently, a Christian approach to assessment supports the use of sound psychological tests but recognizes that the fullest knowing and loving of God, self, and others involves the Spirit and the heart.

What Network Participants Are Saying

• "I have learned so much from the Professional Counselling Network that I have started a mental health Network at the Albanian Leadership Forum, which I have led for the past six years. I keep attending ELF to learn more and to share back in my country."
  - Kristi Kola, Psychiatrist, Albania
• "I have felt so deeply and fully loved through the teachings the Forum's Professional Counsellors Network has provided. I have felt heard, listened to, and challenged. The Forum has not only better equipped me for my work by making me ask deeper questions about God and sharing it with others in my workplace. It has also enabled me to know and experience and grow a desire to know God’s love in an even deeper way. I am excited and eager to see where the desire and ideas that stirred in my heart lead to in the work done to advance His kingdom in Slovenia and beyond."
  - Anja Zevart, Psychiatry Resident Doctor, Slovenia
• “Being at the European Leadership Forum is so helpful for me. The Professional Counsellors Network is equipping and enabling me to better approach the struggles that accompany being a counsellor. I’m fed and provided with lots of resources, shared knowledge, and updated and validated approaches in our field. These new resources and knowledge help me to deliver better Christ-centered therapy in order to help my clients in need.”
  - Lidia Leahu, Professional Counsellor, Romania