John Heron

Who is John Heron?

John Heron is a pioneer in the creation of a participatory research method in the social sciences, called co-operative inquiry, which was based on his work in 1968-69 on the phenomenology of social encounter, and which has been applied by practitioners in many fields of professional and personal development. He is committed to the process of co-operative inquiry, in whatever field it is applied, as a basic form of relational and participative spiritual practice.

Heron was the founder and director of the Human Potential Research Project, University of Surrey from 1970 to 1977, the first university-based centre for humanistic and transpersonal psychology and education in Europe. He was Assistant Director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation at the University of London from 1977 to 1985, in charge of an innovative programme of personal and professional development for hospital doctors and GPs, including a co-operative inquiry into whole-person medicine, out of which the British Holistic Medical Association was formed.