A portrait of an older woman with short, curly brown hair and glasses, smiling, wearing a black and brown striped top and a gold necklace with a pendant, standing in front of a colorful abstract painting.

As I reflect about my life, I see the encounters that changed it, the people who came, literally adding connection, awareness, growth, love, meaning and expansion of my world. With gratitude for the richness of my life, I bring those qualities to share with my clients.

It was always the people I was fascinated by from the time I was a nurse’s aide in high school. And I saw the power of caring in healing. I still see that. I also experienced the connection in the relationship with them.

I am touched by and respectful of the drive for growth in my clients, the effort they engage in to heal from very difficult childhood trauma, their passion for their own dreams and relationships.

I am touched by their openness to me, to let me be with them in their pain and struggle. And I celebrate with them their accomplishments.

I have been unrelenting in my own drive for growth, to experience more in a wider and deeper way, to make a difference in people’s lives.

My first career came from my dream to be a nurse. It took me to my passion as a community health nurse, working in diverse cultures, becoming a university professor of nursing with a passion for students’ learning and growth. I became dean of two schools of nursing, experienced in the complexities of vision, university life and organizational dynamics.

My discovery of Carl Rogers’ writing on the Person-Centered Approach informed my teaching and my practice as a psychotherapist.

"It is the client that knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried."

-Carl Rogers On Becoming a Person 1961

I met Armin Klein at the First International Forum on the Person-Centered Approach in Mexico in 1982. We left, knowing we wanted to be together. He was a gifted therapist, the poetic one, I the one who made things happen. We made a wonderful life together, both of us healing old wounds and growing in a deep and intimate relationship with many challenges. We loved to travel and discovered Provence and Tuscany together. We remained a part of the person-centered community, attending meetings in various countries over the years. Knowing Armin and being known by him is the greatest gift of my life.

The dream I shared with Armin for our Center for Human Encouragement led me to my second career as a psychotherapist. Our workshops on Empowering Nursing and on personal growth, the place of healing and community we made in our home, the place of our practice, all became a part of our vision for the Center as a place of connection and healing.

Writing poetry and painting emerged for me at a very difficult time in my life and became new avenues for finding and expressing my voice, leading me from loss to healing and new life. I found my voice – and continue to find it -- in a long and continuous process of growth.

Healing the world, one person at a time

About the Center

The Center for Human Encouragement is a place of healing and growth, the dream of Grace and Armin Klein. They worked together to create the Center until Armin's death in 2011. Grace continues the work as psychotherapist, having added the experience of facilitating the end-of-life process for Armin and in being his care-giver. Their relationship is a source of inspiration for others.

"We found our dreams in each other." Grace and Armin met at the First International Forum on the Person-Centered Approach in Mexico. They were married in 1983 and between them have six children and ten grandchildren.

Grace's professional background includes an academic career in nursing as practitioner, professor and university administrator. She and Armin, and colleague, Virginia Whitmire, developed and taught an empowerment workshop for nurses for twelve years. Grace and Armin discovered the work of Carl Rogers in their education in human development and psychology and met in the First International Forum on the Person-centered Approach in 1982 in Qaxtepec, Mexico. They remained active in the international and national person-centered communities. Armin remained a person-centered therapist for over sixty years until his death. He and Grace were co-therapists in an ongoing therapy group.

Both Armin and Grace have written about their life experiences in their poetry, available online here. In addition, Grace, in her art and photography, and later in her gardening, expresses her notion that beauty is human encouragement for all of us in our lives and that art in all its forms can be a medium for emotional self-expression and healing.

The Person-Centered Approach is the work of Carl R. Rogers, noted psychologist and philosopher of the twentieth century. Carl Rogers developed his theory of psychotherapy when he saw that imposing the mind, or thinking, of the therapist actually slowed the psychotherapeutic process. He proposed that facilitating the inner growth drive of persons, without directing them, was by far more powerful, went deeper into their inner life, and was met with longer lasting changes, as persons discovered how to facilitate themselves in their own unique processes of growth. This higher priority of inner process over content is empowerment and human encouragement.

Our Logo

The glass heart art was a gift of our friends, Lois Evans and Bill Middleton. For many years we traveled together and created adventures of friendship. We chose it for the logo for our Center to represent the open and caring heart we extend to you here, a place of healing, connection, growth and friendship.

Grace Harlow Klein Ph.D., RN, FANN

Grace Harlow Klein Ph.D., RN (University of Kansas, University of Maryland)

Grace graduated from the University of Kansas in nursing, the University of Maryland with a specialty in community health nursing. She received her Ph.D. in human development from the University of Maryland with Richard Matteson as her adviser.

My education in nursing and in human development, my work and life experiences and my successful and happy marriage provide a foundation for the things I find most satisfying in my practice – that I have something valuable to offer individuals:

• Seeking their own life pathway
• Experiencing the loss of important people and work life
• Grieving
• Being in end of life process and issues, including being a care-giver
• Navigating institutional environments to create successful and satisfying work lives.
• And for individuals and couples seeking to make satisfying relationships.

My artistic endeavors as a writer, painter & photographer give me an appreciation for musicians, artists and people using their own creativity in their lives.

I find it very challenging and satisfying to work with individuals who have suffered great loss and trauma in their lives, especially as children.

Listening deeply and empathically and being a respectful companion to people in their growth and healing is a privilege for me.

Helping people process their life experiences gives them tools and power to navigate what life brings.

I especially enjoy when the members of a group share, find connections and offer support to each other.